Sphecoidea
| Sphecoid wasps | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Ampulex wasp, belonging to Ampulicidae | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Suborder: | Apocrita |
| Superfamily: | Apoidea |
| (unranked): | Spheciformes |
| Families | |
Ampulicidae
Crabronidae
Heterogynaidae
Sphecidae
The Spheciformes is a paraphyletic assemblage of insect families which collectively comprise the "sphecoid wasps".
These are all the members of the superfamily Apoidea, which are not bees and which in older classifications were called the "Sphecoidea".
The group is paraphyletic because the bees are believed to have arisen from a subgroup within the family Crabronidae, thus Spheciformes does not include all of the descendants of its common ancestor.
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Wikipedia