Spheciformes | |
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Ampulex compressa | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Superfamily: | Apoidea |
(unranked): | Spheciformes |
Families[1] | |
The Spheciformes is a paraphyletic assemblage of insect families which collectively comprise the "sphecoid wasps", and includes about 10 000 species. Larvae are carnivorous.
Spheciformes includes all the members of the superfamily Apoidea which are not bees and which in older classifications were called the "Sphecoidea". Some are also described as mud daubers.
The group is paraphyletic because bees are believed to have arisen from a subgroup within the family Ammoplanidae, thus Spheciformes does not include all of the descendants of its common ancestor.[2]