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Family Tiphiidae - Tiphiid Wasps

Bee? - Tiphia - female wasp Tiphiid Wasp - Tiphia Black wasp on buckwheat Wasp under a rock 2 - Brachycistis - male Fleabane, Erigeron annuus, with bee - Paratiphia 5001294 Tiphia? Tiphia sp. - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
Superfamily Tiphioidea
Family Tiphiidae (Tiphiid Wasps)
Other Common Names
(Tiphiid) Flower Wasps
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Currently treated to include Brachycistidinae and Tiphiinae only. Five other subfamilies had to be transferred to Thynnidae, a family that was resurrected from synonymy and is in a different superfamily than Tiphiidae.(1)(2)
Explanation of Names
Tiphiidae Leach, 1815
Numbers
2 subfamilies, with ~207 spp. in 15 genera of in our area;(3)(4)(5)(6) ~24 genera total
Size
our spp. 6-26 mm, worldwide 3-35 mm or more
Identification
males (always winged) have an upcurved hook at the tip of the abdomen; female wings non-striate distally (unlike in the Scoliidae)
Food
parasitoids of subterranean beetle larvae (especially of Scarabaeoidea, Tenebrionidae, and Cicindelinae) and various bees/wasps occurring in soil or rotten wood (one Australian sp. parasitise mole crickets); adults feed on nectar
Print References
Pate, V. (1947). A Conspectus of the Tiphiidæ, with Particular Reference to the Nearctic Forms (Hymenoptera, Aculeata). Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 55(2), 115-145. (Full Text)
Works Cited
1.Molecular phylogenetics of Vespoidea indicate paraphyly of the superfamily...
Pilgrim E.M., von Dohlen C.D., Pitts J.P. 2008. Zoologica Scripta 37: 539–560.
2.Identifying the sister group to the bees: a molecular phylogeny of Aculeata with an emphasis on the superfamily Apoidea
Debevec A.H., Cardinal S., Danforth B.N. 2012. Zoologica Scripta 41: 527-535.
3.Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.
4.Nomina Insecta Nearctica
Poole, Robert W. Nearctica.com, Inc.
5.Phylogeny and checklist of the nocturnal tiphiids of the Western Hemisphere (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae: Brachycistidinae)
Kimsey L.S., Wasbauer M.S. 2006. J. Hymenopt. Res. 15: 9-25.
6.Revision of the brachycistidine genus Colocistis Krombein, 1942 (Hymenoptera, Tiphiidae)
Kimsey L.S., Wasbauer M.S. 2013. J. Hymenopt. Res. 33: 1-24.