biology

Melittosphex

Melittosphex is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Melittosphex rather than just read about it. In short: Melittosphex is an aculeate wasp genus, the only genus in the family Melittosphecidae, that contains only one species, Melittosphex burmensis, which was formerly considered one of the two oldest-known species of bees. The species was described from an inclusion in Burmese amber in the year 2006 by George Poinar Jr., a zoologist at Oregon State University.

Key takeaways

Melittosphex belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Melittosphex to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Melittosphex from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Melittosphex is an aculeate wasp genus, the only genus in the family Melittosphecidae, that contains only one species, Melittosphex burmensis, which was formerly considered one of the two oldest-known species of bees. The species was described from an inclusion in Burmese amber in the year 2006 by George Poinar Jr., a zoologist at Oregon State University. The fossil was found in a mine in the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar and is believed to date from the Cretaceous Period, 100 million years ago.

Etymology Melitta is a form of the Greek word μέλισσα (melissa), "honey bee", while Sphex is a transliteration of the Greek word σφήξ, wasp.

Description Melittosphex is approximately one-fifth the size of the extant honeybee, at about 3 millimetres long. Mellitosphex has some anatomical features similar to those of flesh-eating wasps, including the shape of its hind legs, but also some features of pollen-collecting bees, such as branched hairs on the body. The sample discovered is thought to be 100 million years old, 40 million years older than the oldest known bee species. Subsequent research has rejected the claim that Melittosphex is a bee, or even a member of the superfamily Apoidea to which bees belong, instead treating the lineage as incertae sedis within the Aculeata.

References

OSU media release on discovery http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Ancient-Bee.html (New York Times registration required) AAAS News release. Images included

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Melittosphex

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Melittosphex claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Melittosphex before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Melittosphex ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Melittosphex

In research: Melittosphex appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Melittosphex in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Melittosphex is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Apocrita, Apocrita stubs, Burmese amber, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Melittosphex outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Melittosphex in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Melittosphex means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Melittosphex out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Melittosphex in simple terms?

Why does Melittosphex matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Melittosphex?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Melittosphex.