The Spheciformes is a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

assemblage of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

which collectively comprise the "sphecoid wasps", and includes about 10,000 species and several hundred genera. The largest genus is '' Cerceris'' (

Philanthidae Philanthidae is one of the largest families of wasp in the superfamily Apoidea, with 1167 species in 8 genera. Most of the species (more than 870) are in the genus '' Cerceris''. Taxonomy and phylogeny Historically, this group has frequently ...

), with almost 900 species. Larvae are carnivorous, consuming prey captured by adult females and typically paralyzed with venom, provisioned in underground nests. Spheciformes includes all the members of the superfamily

Apoidea The superfamily Apoidea is a major group (of over 30 000 species) within the Hymenoptera, which includes two traditionally recognized lineages, the "sphecoid" wasps, and the bees. Molecular phylogeny demonstrates that the bees arose from ...

which are not

bee 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 superfamil ...

s and which in older classifications were called the "Sphecoidea". The group includes familiar types of wasps such as

mud dauber Mud dauber (or "mud wasp") 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 Eumeninae), which a ...

s, digger wasps, sand wasps,

cicada killer 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 ...

s, and cockroach wasps. The group is paraphyletic because bees are believed to have arisen from a subgroup within the family

Ammoplanidae Ammoplanidae is a family of aphid wasps formerly treated as the Crabronidae subtribe Ammoplanina. There are about 10 genera and at least 130 described species in Ammoplanina. Phylogenetic analyses in 2018 and 2021 have confirmed this group as the ...

, thus Spheciformes does not include all of the descendants of its common ancestor.Manuela Sann, Oliver Niehuis, Ralph S. Peters, Christoph Mayer, Alexey Kozlov, Lars Podsiadlowski, Sarah Bank, Karen Meusemann, Bernhard Misof, Christoph Bleidorn and Michael Ohl (2018) Phylogenomic analysis of Apoidea sheds new light on the sister group of bees. ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 18:71. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1155-8

References

Apoidea Paraphyletic groups {{Apoidea-stub