A New Family of Wasps
The classification of the aculeate Hymenoptera is considerably complicated by the existence of a number of small families of doubtful relationships, families such as the Plumariidae, Rhopalosomatidae, Sierolomorphidae, Sclerogibbidae, and Loboscelidiidae. To add still another family to this list is...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
1963-01-01
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| Series: | Psyche: A Journal of Entomology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/1963/92486 |
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| Summary: | The classification of the aculeate Hymenoptera is considerably complicated
by the existence of a number of small families of doubtful
relationships, families such as the Plumariidae, Rhopalosomatidae,
Sierolomorphidae, Sclerogibbidae, and Loboscelidiidae. To add still
another family to this list is a dubious distinction, and to base such a
family on twelve specimens may be considered a dubious procedure.
Nevertheless these twelve specirnens present such an unusual array of
structural features that they can scarcely be ignored. Although some
of these features are clearly specializations, others are so very generalized,
for Aculeata, that there can be little question that this family
is a relict of a very ancient stock of wasps. These wasps have the
habitus of certain Scolioidea, and probably the family should be
placed in that superfamily. However, because of the 13-segmented
antennae in the female and the lack of closed cells in the hind wings,
the family will fall in the Bethyloidea in most classifications. The
name of the type genus, Scolebythus, is meant to imply a sharing of
certain characteristics of both these superfamilies of primitive Aculeata
(scolbeing a prefix derived from Scolia, lebythus an anagram of
Bethylus). Further discussion of the relationships of the family is
deferred until after the descriptive material. In the description of the
family, I have numbered the more significant characters so that these
can be referred to more readily later on. |
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| ISSN: | 0033-2615 1687-7438 |