The Crabronidae are a large

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 ...

group (nominally a family) of

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s, including nearly all of the species formerly comprising the now-defunct superfamily Sphecoidea. It collectively includes well over 200 genera, containing well over 9000 species. Crabronids were originally a part of

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 was formerly given to a much larger grouping of wasps. This was found to be p ...

, but the latter name is now restricted to a separate family based on what was once the subfamily Sphecinae. Several of the subfamilies of Crabronidae are often treated as families in their own right, as is true of the most recent phylogenies (example below).

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

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." Only three of these lineages were not included within Crabronidae in the past: Ampulicidae,

, and

Subgroups

* Subfamily

Astatinae Astatinae are a cosmopolitan group of solitary wasps, peculiar for their males having very large compound eye A compound eye is a visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidia, whi ...

(now ranked as a family) ** ''

Astata ''Astata'' is a cosmopolitan genus of solitary predatory wasps in the subfamily Astatinae. They are known to prey on adults and nymphs of Pentatomidae. ''Astata'' is the largest genus in this subfamily, and is identified by features of its wing v ...

'', etc. * Subfamily

Bembicinae The Bembicinae comprise a large subfamily of crabronid wasps that includes over 80 genera and over 1800 species which have a worldwide distribution. They excavate nests in the soil, frequently in sandy soils, and store insects of several orders ...

(now ranked as a family) ** Tribe Alyssontini ** Tribe

Bembicini The Bembicini, or sand wasps, are a large tribe of crabronid wasps, comprising 20 genera. Bembicines are predators on various groups of insects. The type of prey captured tends to be rather consistent within each genus, with flies (Diptera) bei ...

*** ''

Bembix ''Bembix'' is a large cosmopolitan genus of large, often brightly colored predatory sand wasps, consisting of about 380 species. List of species (Europe) * '' Bembix bicolor'' Radoszkowski 1877 * '' Bembix bidentata'' Vander Linden 1829 * ...

'' Fabricius 1775 *** '' Zyzzyx'' Pate 1937, etc. ** Tribe Gorytini *** ''

Gorytes ''Gorytes'' is a genus of sand wasps in the family Crabronidae. There are at least 70 described species in ''Gorytes''. Species These 75 species belong to the genus ''Gorytes'': * '' Gorytes abdominalis'' Cresson, 1865 * '' Gorytes aequalis'' ...

'' Latreille, 1804 *** ''

Sphecius Cicada killer wasps (genus ''Sphecius'') are large, solitary, ground-dwelling, predatory wasps. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them, after stinging and paralyzing them. Twenty-one species worldwide are ...

'', etc. ** Tribe Heliocausini ** Tribe

Nyssonini The Nyssonini are a group of cleptoparasitic bembicine wasps generally distinguished by the petiolate second submarginal cell of the forewing and rather strongly sculptured head and mesosoma (a common trait in cleptoparasitic wasps). Most specie ...

** Tribe Stizini * Subfamily

Crabroninae The subfamily Crabroninae ''(digger wasps)'' is the most diverse group in the wasp family Crabronidae, containing over 110 genera and 4,800 described species. The subfamily consists of solitary, predatory wasps. The adult females of many groups ...

(incl. Eremiaspheciinae and Dinetinae) ** '' Aha'' ** '' Crabro'' ** '' Dalara'' ** ''

Liris The Liri (Latin Liris or Lyris, previously, Clanis; Greek: ) is one of the principal rivers of central Italy, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea a little below Minturno under the name Garigliano. Source and route The Liri's source is in the Mon ...

'' ** '' Pison'', etc. * Subfamily

Mellininae Mellininae is a very small subfamily of wasps, comprising only 17 described species in two genera. Occasionally this group has been treated as a separate family (Mellinidae), but has been more typically considered a subfamily within the all-inclu ...

(now ranked as a family) ** ''

Mellinus ''Mellinus'' is a genus of wasps in the family Crabronidae. The species are found in the Palearctic, Nearctic, the Neotropics and the Orient. 16 species are known Species (Europe) *''Mellinus arvensis'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *'' Mellinus crabr ...

'' ** '' Xenosphex'' * Subfamily

Pemphredoninae The subfamily Pemphredoninae also known as the aphid wasps, is a large group in the wasp family Crabronidae, with over 1000 species. Historically, this subfamily has frequently been accorded family status. In some recent phylogenetic analyses, on ...

(recently split into three families) ** '' Microstigmus'' ** ''

Lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...

'' ** '' Pemphredon'', etc. * Subfamily

Philanthinae The subfamily Philanthinae is one of the largest groups in the wasp family Crabronidae, with about 1100 species in 9 genera, most of them in ''Cerceris''; Alexander treats it as having only 8 genera. Historically, this subfamily has frequently bee ...

(now ranked as a family) ** '' Cerceris'' ** '' Philanthus'', etc.

Life cycle

File:Trypoxylon collinum larva.jpg, '' Trypoxylon collinum'' larva File:Trypoxylon collinum pupa side.jpg, ''Trypoxylon collinum'' pupa File:Trypoxylon collinum adult.jpg, ''Trypoxylon collinum'' adult

References

Sources

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

External links