The family Meganomiidae is a very small bee family, with 10 species in 4 genera, found primarily in Africa, primarily in xeric habitats, with the distributional limits in Yemen and Madagascar. Historically, they have been considered a subfamily within the family Melittidae, but recent molecular studies indicate that Meganomiids are their sister taxon.[1].
They are rather different in appearance from the other groups of past/present Melittids, being large bees (10-22 mm), mostly black with strong yellow markings, resembling anthidiinemegachilids.
References
^ Danforth, B.N., Sipes, S., Fang, J., Brady, S.G. (2006) The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 15118-15123.
C. D. Michener (2000) The Bees of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press.
