Hymenoptera

Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Arthropoda, Subphylum Hexapoda, Class Insecta

In this order there are the most know social insects and honey bees are among the very few domestic species. Many of them pollinators, vital for the reproduction of food plants.
The females ovipositor in the "workers" is often modified into a stinger.

Suborder Apocrita
Super families Chalcidoidea, Chrysidoidea, Ichneumonoidea

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Apoidea
Families Andrenidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae

Andrenidae

Mining bees are solitary, ground-nesting bees and the only genus Andrena includes over 1300 species. In the family there are also some crepuscular species.

Halictidae

It is the second-largest family of bees, with various sizes and colours. They are commonly referred to as "sweat bees" (especially the smaller species), as they are often attracted to perspiration.

Megachilidae

Carder bees, resin bees are solitary bees, that are characteristic for carrying in the ventral surface of the abdomen. A few species are called "cuckoo bees"), as they feed on pollen collected by other megachilid bees.

Order Hymenoptera

Ancient Greek hymen = membrane + pteron = wing

complete metamorphosis

91 families, 150,000 described species

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Apoidea
Families Sphecidae, Crabronidae

Sphecidae

With therir a very distinctive thread-waisted body, they are commonly called "wasps", but from a scientific point of view they are part of the same super family of bees.

With at least 5700 species, the family includes honey bees, bumblebees carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees Many are valuable pollinators in natural habitats and for agricultural crops.

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Apoidea
Families Apidae

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Apoidea
Family Apidae

Chalcidoidea

From Greek khalkos = copper', for their metallic colour, most of them are parasitoids of other insects, attacking the egg or larval stage of their host,

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Super families Chalcidoidea, Chrysidoidea, Ichneumonoidea

Chrysidoidea

Most of them are parasitoids or cleptoparasites of other insects and the adults have often small size and flashy metallic colors.

Ichneumonoidea

From Greek ikhneúmōn = tracker +, from íkhnos = footstep, they are big parasitoid wasps (but not true wasps). Species show a great deal of morphological diversity and some females have extremely long ovipositors for laying eggs.

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Vespoidea
Familiy Formicidae

They are easily identified by their distinctive node-like structure and their slender waists. Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth and their societies have division of labour, communication between individuals and an ability to solve complex problems, with fascinating parallels to human societies.

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Vespoidea
Families Mutillidae, Pompilidae, Scoliidae

Scoliidae

Scoliid wasps are solitary parasitoids of scarab beetle larvae. Som of tthem arevery large, upr 5 cm, called for this mammoth wasp..

Pompilidae

Spider wasps are solitary, efficient flight, and are best distinguished from other vespoid wasps in having long antennae and (in most species) a transverse groove bisecting the thorax above the point where the legs join.

Mutillidae

Their common name velvet ants refers to their pile of hair, often bright scarlet or orange, but also black, white, silver, or gold, as "aposematic" signals.The stings of some species are extremely painful. Unlike true ants, they are solitary insects.

Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Suborder Apocrita
Superfamily Vespoidea
Familiy Vespidae

The family includes social wasps and solitary wasps.They make their nest out of mud, or of a sort of paper, chewing plant fibers. In the Polistinae and Vespinae, rather than consuming them directly, prey are premasticated and fed to the larvae, which in return, produce a nutritious liquid for the adults to consume.

The common name Sawflies comes from the saw-like ovipositor, which the females use into the plants where they lay their eggs. The adults do not sting and lack a "wasp waist". Larvae look like caterpillars, sometimes with almost fluorescent colors, which we can distinguish from Lepidoptera from the number of prolegs, that in butteflies and moth are never more than 5.

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Crabronidae

They like wasps, but are part of the superfamily Apoidea (formerly they were included with Sphecidae in the now-defunct superfamily Sphecoidea).