The Sphecidae are a

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps,

mud dauber Mud dauber (or "mud wasp" or "dirt dauber") is a name commonly applied to a number of wasps from either the family Sphecidae or Crabronidae which build their nests from mud; this excludes members of the family Vespidae (especially the subfamily Eu ...

s, and other thread-waisted wasps. The name Sphecidae was formerly given to a much larger grouping of wasps. This was found to be

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

, so most of the old subfamilies have been moved to the Crabronidae.

Biology

The biology of the Sphecidae, even under the restricted definition, is still fairly diverse; some sceliphrines even display rudimentary forms of

sociality Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

, and some sphecines rear multiple larvae in a single large brood cell. Many nest in pre-existing cavities, or dig simple burrows in the soil, but some species construct free-standing nests of mud and even (in one genus) resin. All are predatory and

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

al, but the type of prey ranges from spiders to various

dictyoptera Dictyoptera (from Greek δίκτυον ''diktyon'' "net" and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing") is an insect superorder that includes two extant orders of polyneopterous insects: the order Blattodea (termites and cockroaches together) and the ord ...

ns,

orthopteroid Orthopteroids are insects which historically would have been included in the order Orthoptera and now may be placed in the Polyneoptera. When Carl Linnaeus started applying binomial names to animals in the 10th edition of his '' Systema Naturae'' ...

s and larvae of either

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

or other

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

; the vast majority practice mass provisioning, providing all the prey items prior to laying the egg.

Phylogeny

This

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

is based on Sann ''et al.'', 2018, which used

phylogenomics Phylogenomics is the intersection of the fields of evolution and genomics. The term has been used in multiple ways to refer to analysis that involves genome data and evolutionary reconstructions. It is a group of techniques within the larger field ...

to demonstrate that both the bees (

Anthophila Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfami ...

) and the Sphecidae arose from within the former Crabronidae, which is therefore

, and which they suggested should be split into several families; the former family Heterogynaidae nests within the Bembicidae, as here defined. These findings differ in several details from studies published by two other sets of authors in 2017, though all three studies demonstrate a paraphyletic "Crabronidae."

Family Sphecidae (''sensu stricto'')

Blue mud dauber (Chalybion californicum)

The old digger wasp family Sphecidae ('' sensu lato'') was

and has been broken up. Only the following subfamilies remain in the new family Sphecidae (''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'') which is a monophyletic

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

. Subfamily Ammophilinae * '' Ammophila'' W. Kirby, 1798 * ''

Eremnophila ''Eremnophila'' is a genus of thread-waisted wasps in the family Sphecidae The Sphecidae are a cosmopolitan family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps, mud daubers, and other thread-waisted wasps. The name Sphecidae ...

'' Menke, 1964 * ''

Eremochares ''Eremochares ''is a genus of wasp in the family Crabronidae The Crabronidae are a large paraphyletic group (nominally a family) of wasps, including nearly all of the species formerly comprising the now-defunct superfamily Sphecoidea. It ...

'' Gribodo, 1883 * '' Hoplammophila'' de Beaumont, 1960 * '' Parapsammophila'' Taschenberg, 1869 * '' Podalonia'' Fernald, 1927 Subfamily

Chloriontinae ''Chlorion'' is a genus of Hymenoptera of the Sphecidae family of wasps. Species Listed alphabetically.

* '' Chlorion'' Latreille, 1802 Subfamily Sceliphrinae *''

Chalybion ''Chalybion'' is a genus of blue mud dauber wasps in the family Sphecidae. ''Chalybion'' species nest in a wide range of natural and artificial cavities such as holes in wood, walls, plant stems, etc., where they typically provision their brood ...

'' Dahlbom, 1843 *'' Dynatus'' Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1845 *†'' Hoplisidia'' Cockerell, 1906 *'' Penepodium'' Menke, 1976 *'' Podium'' Fabricius, 1804 *†'' Protosceliphron'' Antropov, 2014 * ''

Sceliphron ''Sceliphron'', also known as black mud daubers or black mud-dauber wasps, is a genus of Hymenoptera of the Sphecidae family of wasps. They are solitary mud daubers and build nests made of mud. Nests are frequently constructed in shaded niches, o ...

'' Klug, 1801 *'' Trigonopsis'' Perty, 1833 Subfamily

Sphecinae The Sphecinae is a subfamily of the digger wasp family Sphecidae. It contains the following genera: * '' Chilosphex'' Menke ''in'' R. Bohart and Menke, 1976 * '' Isodontia'' Patton, 1880 * '' Palmodes'' Kohl, 1890 * ''Prionyx ''Prionyx'' ...

* '' Chilosphex'' Menke, 1976 * ''

Isodontia ''Isodontia'' is a genus belonging to the family Sphecidae. Adults emerge from their cocoons in early summer, and usually make nests lined with grass or hay in hollow plant cavities. This has led to their common name being grass-carrying wasps ...

'' Patton, 1880 * ''

Palmodes ''Palmodes'' is a genus of thread-waisted wasps in the family Sphecidae The Sphecidae are a cosmopolitan family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps, mud daubers, and other thread-waisted wasps. The name Sphecidae wa ...

'' Kohl, 1890 * ''

Prionyx ''Prionyx'' is a genus of wasps in the family Sphecidae. They are known to hunt and feed on grasshoppers. Behavior Prior to laying their eggs the female ''Prionyx'' stings a grasshopper causing paralysis. She will then bury the grasshopper in ...

'' Vander Linden, 1827 * ''

Sphex Wasps of the genus ''Sphex'' (commonly known as digger wasps) are cosmopolitan predators that sting and paralyze prey insects. ''Sphex'' is one of many genera in the old digger wasp family Sphecidae ('' sensu lato''), though most apart from the ...

'' Linnaeus, 1758 * '' Stangeella'' Menke, 1962 Both of the historical definitions of the Sphecidae (a conservative one, where all the sphecoid wasps other than ampulicids and heterogynaids were in a single large family, and a more refined one, where the seven large sphecid subfamilies were each elevated to family rank) have recently been shown to be

, and the most recent classification is closer to the refined scheme; there are now seven families in addition to the Sphecidae and Crabronidae, all of which were formerly placed within Sphecidae.

Family Crabronidae

All the other digger wasp taxa that were formerly included in Sphecidae (''sensu lato'') were placed in the family Crabronidae, which was itself paraphyletic, and recent classifications have split Crabronidae into a number of smaller families, mostly formerly treated as subfamilies.

References

Sources

* Goulet, H., Huber, J.T. (1993) Hymenoptera of the World. Agriculture Canada Research Branch, publication 1894/E. 668pp.

External links

Catalog of Sphecidae ''sensu lato'' at Cal Academy

Online Identification Guide to Eastern North American Sphecidae

{{Taxonbar, from=Q132833 Apocrita families Cosmopolitan arthropods