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Q&A ViewAttendees 5

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

10-Minute Paper

SysEB: Phylogenetics

Rapid diversification of andrenid bees and their brood parasites (Nomada) in the Neogene

Sunday, October 31, 2021
3:06 PM – 3:18 PM MT
Location: Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room 505-507
In-Person
The mining bees (Andrenidae) are a major bee family of over 3,000 described species with a nearly global distribution. They are a significant component of northern temperate ecosystems and are critical pollinators in natural and agricultural settings. Despite their ecological and evolutionary significance, our knowledge on the evolutionary history of Andrenidae is sparse and insufficient to characterize their spatiotemporal origin and phylogenetic relationships. This limits our ability to understand the diversification dynamics that lead to the second most speciose genus of all bees, Andrena. Here we present a comprehensive genomic dataset of 195 species of Andrenidae, including all major lineages, to illuminate the evolutionary history of the family. Using fossil-informed divergence time estimates, we characterize macroevolutionary dynamics, incorporate paleoclimatic information, and embed our findings in the context of diversification rate estimates for all other bee tribes. We find that diversification rates of Andrenidae steeply increased over the past 15 million years, particularly in the genera Andrena and Perdita. Our results suggest that these two groups and the brood parasites of the genus Nomada (Apidae), which are the primary parasitic counterparts of Andrena, are all similar in age and represent the fastest-diversifying lineages of all bees. Using our newly developed timeframe of andrenid evolution, we estimate a late Cretaceous origin in South America for the family and reconstruct the past dispersal patterns that led to their present-day distribution.