The Osirini are a tribe of cuckoo bees in the family Apidae, all but one genus exclusively from the Neotropics, and laying their eggs in the nests of bees in the apid tribe Tapinotaspidini; the one exceptional genus is Epeoloides, which has one North American species and one European species, both of which attack the melittid genus Macropis.
| Osirini | |
|---|---|
| |
| Epeoloides coecutiens ♀ | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Subfamily: | Apinae |
| Tribe: | Osirini Handslirsch, 1925 |
| Genera | |
All species in this tribe are unique among the bees in the possession of a tiny sclerite embedded in the membrane beneath the head, possibly to help guard against being stung in the neck by an angry host bee when invading a nest.
References
edit- C. D. Michener (2000) The Bees of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press.