Apoid wasps and bees (Apoidea) are an ecologically and morphologically diverse group of aculeate Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps). During the last decades, significant progress has been made in illuminating the phylogenetic relationships of the major Apoidea lineages. However, some uncertainties have remained. In this study, we present results from re‐investigating the phylogeny of Apoidea by including genome skimming data of key taxa that were missing in previous investigations: a representative of Entomosericini (tribe of the former Pemphredoninae) and a representative of Eremiaspheciinae (subfamily of the former ‘Crabronidae’). We additionally skimmed the genomes of two Heterogyna species (Heterogynaidae). Our results from applying concatenation and coalescence‐based phylogenetic approaches confirm the previously suggested sister group relationship of Ammoplanidae and bees. They also corroborate most taxonomic changes published in 2018 granting eight lineages of the former family ‘Crabronidae’ family status. However, some of our analyses indicate that the families Pemphredonidae and Psenidae could be para‐ or polyphyletic. After carefully assessing topological discordance and data quality, the exact placements of Heterogyna and of the genera Eremiasphecium and Entomosericus in the apoid wasp phylogeny remain ambiguous. However, our analyses indicate that inclusion of Entomosericus and Eremiasphecium in any of the currently accepted apoid wasp families cannot be well justified, and we consequently suggest raising Entomosericinae and Eremiaspheciini to family rank, respectively, to acknowledge this situation in the apoid classification: Entomosericidae Dalla Torre, 1897 (stat. n.) and Eremiaspheciidae Menke, 1967 (stat. n.).
An annotated list of ten species of digger wasps from ten genera is given. The lectotype of Plenoculus murgabensis (Gussakovskij, 1928) is designated; this species is newly recorded from Kalmykia (Russia) and Uzbekistan.
New additions to the knowledge of the subfamily Eumeninae in Russia are provided. Leptochilus (Lionotulus) leleji Fateryga, sp. nov. is described from Altai Republic. Males of Ancistrocerus hangaicus Kurzenko, 1977 and Jucancistrocerus (Eremodynerus) minutepunctatus Giordani Soika, 1970 are described for the first time; the latter species is transferred from the nominotypical subgenus to the subgenus Eremodynerus Blüthgen, 1939. The genus Tachyancistrocerus Giordani Soika, 1952 and six species of eumenine wasps are reported from Russia for the first time: Discoelius pictus Kostylev, 1940a, Euodynerus (Euodynerus) curictensis Blüthgen, 1940, E. (E.) hellenicus Blüthgen, 1942, E. (E.) rufinus Blüthgen, 1942, Eustenancistrocerus (Eustenancistrocerus) jerichoensis (von Schulthess, 1928), and Tachyancistrocerus schmidti (Kokujev, 1913); E. hellenicus is also reported from Georgia and Azerbaijan. New regional records for nine species are reported. Three species are excluded from the fauna of Russia: Eustenancistrocerus (Eustenancistrocerus) tegularis (Morawitz, 1885), Odynerus (Odynerus) tristis (Blüthgen, 1939), and Stenodynerus aequisculptus (Kostylev, 1940b). The known fauna of Russia now numbers 34 genera and 162 species of eumenine wasps.
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