Myrmosidae
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The Myrmosidae are a small family of wasps very similar to the
Mutillidae Velvet ants (Mutillidae) are a family of more than 7,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their resemblance to an ant, and their dense pile of hair, which most often is br ...
, and in the same superfamily, but
sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...
to Sapygidae. As in mutillids, females are flightless, and are
kleptoparasite Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is Evolutionarily stable strategy, evolutionarily stable when stealin ...
s in the nests of fossorial bees and wasps.


Taxonomy

Recent classifications of
Vespoidea Vespoidea is a superfamily of wasps in the order Hymenoptera. Vespoidea includes wasps with a large variety of lifestyles including eusocial, social, and solitary habits, predators, scavengers, parasitoids, and some herbivores. Descriptio ...
''sensu lato'' (beginning in 2008) concluded that the family
Mutillidae Velvet ants (Mutillidae) are a family of more than 7,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their resemblance to an ant, and their dense pile of hair, which most often is br ...
contained one subfamily that was unrelated to the remainder, and this subfamily was removed to form a separate family Myrmosidae. 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

* '' Carinomyrmosa'' * '' Erimyrmosa'' * '' Krombeinella'' * '' Kudakrumia'' * '' Leiomyrmosa'' * '' Myrmosa'' * '' Myrmosina'' * '' Myrmosula'' * '' Nothomyrmosa'' * '' Paramyrmosa'' * '' Protomutilla'' * '' Pseudomyrmosa''


References


External links

Apocrita families {{apocrita-stub