Axestotrigona Moure, 1961

Engel, Michael S., Herhold, Hollister W., Davis, Steven R., Wang, Bo & Thomas, Jennifer C., 2021, Stingless bees in Miocene amber of southeastern China (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Journal of Melittology 2021 (105), pp. 1-83 : 68

Genus Axestotrigona Moure

The genus Axestotrigona comprises six species found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and consists of typically small to moderate-sized bees (5–8 mm in length). Although originally established as a genus (Moure, 1961), Michener (1990, 2007) relegated the group to a subgenus of a significantly expanded Meliponula , recasting this group to include all of those African taxa in which the metatibia was broadly spatulate in form. Recent phylogenetic work, however, has demonstrated the Michener’s circumscription of Meliponula renders the group polyphyletic (Rasmussen & Cameron, 2010). Rasmussen et al. (2017) transferred Axestotrigona to an expanded Meliplebeia in order to resolve the polyphyly resulting from inclusion in Meliponula , but such an arrangement renders the broader circumscription of Meliplebeia challenging. Therefore, we follow Moure’s (1961) original circumscription of the genus and as sister to a clade comprising Meliplebeia s.l. (Rasmussen & Cameron, 2010) ( Table 2). Within the genus there are two distinct groups, here treated as subgenera.