Bees, like other herbivorous insects, exhibit a broad range of dietary preferences, ranging from generalist species, that collect pollen from many plant families to specialists that have a narrow pollen diet, visiting few species in a plant genus or family. Among specialist bees, the tribe Emphorini (Hymenoptera: Apidae) stands out as one of the most remarkable groups.
Emphorines are solitary, ground-nesting bees restricted to the Western Hemisphere with an antitropical distribution. This tribe comprises 107 described species in 9 genera, being more diverse in arid regions of South America. One of their most distinctive features is their specialization in visiting flowers from the families Cactaceae, Malvaceae, Convolvulaceae, Asteraceae, Zygophyllaceae, Portulacaceae, and Onagraceae.
Changes in floral preferences are common within Emphorini, even within the same genus. Studying these changes within a phylogenetic framework provides valuable insights into the evolution of host choices and the underlying factors driving these shifts. We aim to understand the evolutionary patterns of floral choices in Emphorini by reconstructing the phylogeny of the group based on ultra conserved elements and recording their preferred host plants. Here we present preliminary results based on a sample that comprises all the genera and half of the described species.
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