A cladistic analysis of the nomadine bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)

This study compares the results of Rozen\u27s cladistic analysis of the larvae of fifteen genera of cleptoparasitic bees in the subfamily Nomadinae with an independent data set of adult characters for the same genera. Adult characters exhibited considerably higher levels of homoplasy and poorer resolution of cladistic relationships, with multiple equally parsimonious cladograms. However, comparison of a Nelson consensus tree based on adult characters with the cladogram based on larval characters reveals three components consistently supported in both analyses (the tribes Epeolini and Ammobatini, and Neopasites + Neolarra), one component supported only by adult characters (lsepeolus + Protepeolus), and one terminal component supported only by larval characters (Nomada + Ammobatini), as well as several more inclusive groupings based on larval characters that are difficult to compare with the adult consensus tree because it shows so much less resolution. When adult and larval characters are combined in a single data matrix, the resulting cladogram closely resembles the cladogram based on larval characters alone, although levels of homoplasy are considerably higher than in the larval analysis