Everything about Sphecidae totally explained
Sphecidae (
Latreille,
1802) is a cosmopolitan family of
wasps that include
digger wasps,
mud daubers and other familiar types that all fall under the category of
thread-waisted wasps. Both of the traditional definitions of the Sphecidae (the conservative one, where all the sphecoid wasps other than ampulicids and heterogynaids were in a single large family, and the more refined one, where the 7 large sphecid subfamilies were each elevated to family rank) have recently been shown to be
paraphyletic, and the most recent classification is closer to the conservative scheme; the families
Heterogynaidae and
Ampulicidae are the sister taxa to what are now two families (instead of one), the Sphecidae and
Crabronidae. Thus, the bulk of the sphecoid wasps are now placed in Crabronidae, and Sphecidae
per se is a much more restricted concept, equivalent to what used to be the subfamily Sphecinae.
The biology of the Sphecidae, even under the restricted definition, is still fairly diverse; some sceliphrines even display rudimentary forms of sociality, 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 there are also species which construct free-standing nests of mud and even (in one genus) resin. All are predatory, but the type of prey ranges from
spiders to various
dictyopterans or orthopteroids to caterpillars (of either
Lepidoptera or other
Hymenoptera); the vast majority practice
mass provisioning, providing all the prey items prior to laying the egg.
Subgroups
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sphecidae'.
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