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Order
- HYMENOPTERA
(Greek,
hymen = membrane; pteron = wing)
Common Names:
sawflies, wasps, bees, ants
Distribution:
Cosmopolitan
Suborders:
Symphyta and Apocrita
Description
Most Hymenoptera are easily
recognised as belonging to the order because of their "wasp waists".
The constricted waist (actually a constriction in the front part of the
abdomen) characterizes ants, wasps, parasitic and bees in the suborder
Apocrita. They vary from minute parasitoids of other insect eggs up to
huge wasps and bees, but all have the wasp waist. There is one other suborder
of Hymenoptera, the Symphyta, in which the wasp waist is absent. Symphyta,
including the sawflies and wood wasps shown here are generally shining,
hard bodied insects with transparent wings.
