Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera; Temporal range: Triassic–present
	Hymenopterans from different families; Clockwise from top-left: Red imported fire ant (Formicidae), Vespula vulgaris (Vespidae), Tenthredopsis sordida (Tenthredinidae), and Western honey bee (Apidae)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
(unranked):	Holometabola
Superorder:	Hymenopterida
Order:	Hymenoptera; Linnaeus, 1758
Suborders
	Symphyta (sawflies) (paraphyletic); Apocrita (wasps, bees and ants);

Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described,^[2]^[3] in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones.^[4] Many of the species are parasitic. Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. This ovipositor is often modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism (complete metamorphosis) — that is, they have a wormlike larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they reach adulthood.

^ Ronquist, Fredrik; Klopfstein, Seraina; Vilhelmsen, Lars; Schulmeister, Susanne; Murray, Debra L.; Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P. (December 2012). "A Total-Evidence Approach to Dating with Fossils, Applied to the Early Radiation of the Hymenoptera". Systematic Biology. 61 (6): 973–999. doi:10.1093/sysbio/sys058. PMC 3478566. PMID 22723471.
^ Mayhew, Peter J. (2007). "Why are there so many insect species? Perspectives from fossils and phylogenies". Biological Reviews. 82 (3): 425–454. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2007.00018.x. PMID 17624962. S2CID 9356614.
^ Janke, Axel; Klopfstein, Seraina; Vilhelmsen, Lars; Heraty, John M.; Sharkey, Michael; Ronquist, Fredrik (2013). "The Hymenopteran Tree of Life: Evidence from Protein-Coding Genes and Objectively Aligned Ribosomal Data". PLOS ONE. 8 (8): e69344. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...869344K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069344. PMC 3732274. PMID 23936325.
^ Aguiar, A.P.; Deans, A.R.; Engel, M.S.; Forshage, M.; Huber, J.T.; Jennings, J.T.; Johnson, N.F.; Lelej, A.S.; Longino, J.T.; Lohrmann, V.; Mikó, I.; Ohl, M.; Rasmussen, C.; Taeger, A.; Yu, D.S.K. (2013). "Order Hymenoptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness (Addenda 2013)". Zootaxa. 3703: 1–82. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3703.1.12. PMID 26146682.

[Ronquist2012-1] Ronquist, Fredrik; Klopfstein, Seraina; Vilhelmsen, Lars; Schulmeister, Susanne; Murray, Debra L.; Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P. (December 2012). "A Total-Evidence Approach to Dating with Fossils, Applied to the Early Radiation of the Hymenoptera". Systematic Biology. 61 (6): 973–999. doi:10.1093/sysbio/sys058. PMC 3478566. PMID 22723471.

[Mayhew2007-2] Mayhew, Peter J. (2007). "Why are there so many insect species? Perspectives from fossils and phylogenies". Biological Reviews. 82 (3): 425–454. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2007.00018.x. PMID 17624962. S2CID 9356614.

[JankeKlopfstein2013-3] Janke, Axel; Klopfstein, Seraina; Vilhelmsen, Lars; Heraty, John M.; Sharkey, Michael; Ronquist, Fredrik (2013). "The Hymenopteran Tree of Life: Evidence from Protein-Coding Genes and Objectively Aligned Ribosomal Data". PLOS ONE. 8 (8): e69344. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...869344K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069344. PMC 3732274. PMID 23936325.

[Aguiar2013-4] Aguiar, A.P.; Deans, A.R.; Engel, M.S.; Forshage, M.; Huber, J.T.; Jennings, J.T.; Johnson, N.F.; Lelej, A.S.; Longino, J.T.; Lohrmann, V.; Mikó, I.; Ohl, M.; Rasmussen, C.; Taeger, A.; Yu, D.S.K. (2013). "Order Hymenoptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness (Addenda 2013)". Zootaxa. 3703: 1–82. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3703.1.12. PMID 26146682.

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