The Myrmosidae are a small family of wasps very similar to the Mutillidae, and in the same superfamily, but sister taxon to Sapygidae.[1] As in mutillids, females are flightless, and are kleptoparasites in the nests of fossorial bees and wasps.

Taxonomy

Recent classifications of Vespoidea sensu lato (beginning in 2008) concluded that the family Mutillidae contained one subfamily that was unrelated to the remainder, and this subfamily was removed to form a separate family Myrmosidae.[2][3] Myrmosids can be readily distinguished from mutillids by the lack of abdominal "felt lines" in both sexes, and the retention of a distinct pronotum in females (pronotum fused to mesonotum in mutillids).

Genera

References

  1. ^ Debevec, Andrew H.; Cardinal, Sophie; Danforth, Bryan N. (2012). "Identifying the sister group to the bees: a molecular phylogeny of Aculeata with an emphasis on the superfamily Apoidea". Zoologica Scripta. 41 (5): 527–535. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2012.00549.x. S2CID 33533180.
  2. ^ Pilgrim, E.; von Dohlen, C.; Pitts, J. (2008). "Molecular phylogenetics of Vespoidea indicate paraphyly of the superfamily and novel relationships of its component families and subfamilies". Zoologica Scripta. 37 (5): 539–560. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00340.x. S2CID 85905070.
  3. ^ Johnson, B.R.; et al. (2013). "Phylogenomics resolves evolutionary relationships among ants, bees, and wasps". Current Biology. 23 (20): 2058–2062. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.08.050. PMID 24094856.


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