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Higher taxa:  Life   Insecta   Global map IDnature guides: Apoidea_genera, Bee_genera, Coelichneumon, Cratichneumon, Fruit_Pests, Groups_Insecta, Ichneumoninae, Ichneumonoidea, Insect_orders, North_American_Invasives, Symphyta, USGAClarke We parsed the following live from the Web into this page. Such content is managed by its original site and not cached on Discover Life. Please send feedback and corrections directly to the source. See original regarding copyrights and terms of use. Insect Collection, University of Guelph Lucid via Discover Life

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© John Pickering, 2006-2010 Neodiprion lecontei, Redheaded pine sawfly, larvae	© Copyright John Ascher, 2006-2010 Megachile mendica, leaf-cutter bee
© John Pickering, 2006-2010 Polybia occidentalis	© Alex Wild, myrmecos.net, 2004 Pseudomyrmex apache, worker

Kinds

Apoidea -- Bees, Sphecid wasps Ceraphronoidea -- Ceraphronoid wasps Chalcidoidea -- Chalcidoid wasps Chrysidoidea -- Chrysidoid wasps, Cuckoo wasps Cynipoidea -- Cynipoid wasps Evanioidea -- Evanioid wasps Formicidae -- Ants Ichneumonoidea -- Ichneumonoid wasps, Parasitic wasps Megalyroidea -- Megalyroid wasps Proctotrupoidea -- Proctotrupoid wasps Siricoidea -- Siricoid wasps Stephanoidea -- Stephanoid wasps Symphyta -- Sawflies Trigonalyoidea -- Trigonalyoid sawflies Unknown Vespoidea -- Vespoid wasps, Velvet ants, Spider wasps, Social wasps, Mud wasps

Overview

The insect order Hymenoptera includes the ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies. Based on Stork's (1988) sampling of canopy trees in Borneo, tropical Hymenoptera, excluding ants, rival beetles as the most speciose insect order. In most faunas , they constitute about 20% of insect species. About 80% of Hymenoptera species are parasitoids, developing in or on a single host or single egg mass. The parasitic Hymenoptera are important in terms of species richness, ecological impact, and economic importance (LaSalle & Gauld, 1991; Gauld & Bolton, 1988; Waage & Greathead, 1986). Of an estimated 2.6 to 30 million insect species, LaSalle & Gauld (1991) estimate that there are between 170,000 and 6 million parasitic Hymenoptera, of which only 50,000 are described. They attack a wide range of hosts. Parasitic Hymenoptera are often a dominant factor regulating arthropod populations, and hence, significant components of most ecosystems. Some control economic pests and have been used successfully in biological control programs (Greathead, 1986). Diet breadth ranges from specialists attacking only one species to generalists attacking a broad range of hosts. Relatively little is known about the community structure, geographic range, environmental requirements, host specificity, and behavior of most species, particularly of tropical ones.

Phylogeny

SYMPHYTA - sawflies & horntails APOCRITA - ants, bees, & wasps

Geographic distribution

Worldwide, except for Antarctic. Checklists Great Smoky Mountains National Park Ants Parasitic wasps Sawflies

Links to other sites

Formicidae -- Ants Ants -- global database, American Museum of Natural History Ants, North America Catalog -- University of North Carolina Ant Web, California Academy of Sciences -- photographs of ants Ants of Australia More information & photographs, University of California, Berkeley

References

Gauld, Ian D. and Barry Bolton (Eds.) 1988. The Hymenoptera. British Museum (Natural History). Oxford Univeristy Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-858521-7.

Acknowledgements

John Pickering, University of Georgia Thanks to Cassie Lloyd, Sabina Gupta, and Denise Lim for support in developing this page.