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[–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bees are technically a kind of wasp.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    If I am understanding the chart here correctly, bees are not a type of wasp. Bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies are all Hymenopterans, but distinct from each other.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    That graph does contain bees among wasps.

    To be specific, bees are a "Cladistically included but traditionally excluded taxa" of wasps, since they are within Apocrita.

    The common-language definition of wasp is literally "A member of Apocrita ... except bees (and ants)".
    It's the same situation as saying a chicken is a dinosaur, and why the field often uses "non-avian dinosaurs" instead for clarity.

    This wikipedia diagram from the Aculeata article is a bit more concise:

    Take now for example Stephanoidea, "a superfamily of parasitic wasps within the Apocrita". Clearly wasps, yet equally closely related to yellow-jackets and honey-bees.

    Edit: mixed up Aculeata and Aulacidae. Edit2:

    If you go further into Apoidae, even there you still find plenty more "clearly wasp" type species:

    Take Sphecidae:

    Or Philanthidae:

    All on the same level as actual bees (Anthophila).

    I think also in terms of vibes it feels right to call bees a subset of wasps.

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