Hunting wasp

Hunting wasps are members of various taxa of the insect order Hymenoptera. Their habits and affinities vary in many ways, but all practise parental care of their larvae in that they capture prey, usually insects, to feed their larvae. Whether solitary or social, most species construct some form of protection or nest in which they hide the prey and in which the larvae can feed and pupate in reasonable security. Hunting wasps are members of various taxa of the insect order Hymenoptera. Their habits and affinities vary in many ways, but all practise parental care of their larvae in that they capture prey, usually insects, to feed their larvae. Whether solitary or social, most species construct some form of protection or nest in which they hide the prey and in which the larvae can feed and pupate in reasonable security. Most solitary hunting wasps sting their prey in such a manner as to paralyse it without killing it. As a result it remains fresh for the young to eat. In contrast carnivorous social wasps generally feed prey piecemeal to the larvae as soon as they bring it back to the colony, so there is no need for preservation of the material. A minority of solitary hunting wasps, such as certain Bembicinae, also butcher their prey before feeding it to the larvae. Hunting wasp is not a biological taxon, but rather describes certain ecological strategies that occur within the Hymenoptera. All hunting wasps are members of the Aculeata, within the Apocrita, but not all Aculeata are hunting wasps. Nor are the hunting wasps a single clade within the Aculeata; they almost certainly have evolved independently several times, sometimes probably several times within the same family. Some superfamilies of the Hymenoptera (e.g. Chrysidoidea) include a few taxa that might fairly be called hunting wasps, but no superfamily includes only hunting wasps. In searching literature for 'hunting wasps' it is prudent to include 'solitary wasps' in the index terms. The two expressions have been used largely indiscriminately, especially in the very early days of modern entomology. Very few references to 'hunting wasps' occur before about 1850, whereas references to 'solitary wasps', though not plentiful, are not unusual. Critically viewed, the terms are not strictly interchangeable. Not all solitary wasps are hunting wasps, nor are all hunting wasps solitary. The term 'solitary wasps' simply describes those Hymenoptera (especially aculeate Hymenoptera) that are not social, particularly not eusocial. However, it never has been common practice to refer to parasitic Hymenoptera as 'solitary', even though they definitely are nothing like eusocial, and secondly, some obligately social, even eusocial, Hymenoptera are hunting wasps in the sense of being predominantly predatory (e.g. Vespa and Polistes species). Thirdly, some solitary wasps, such as the Masarinae, are in no sense 'hunting wasps'. (But to avert confusion, consult the article on Euparagia.) The taxa considered here are no more than a subset of those detailed in the article on the Apocrita. Nor are they listed here in the same sequence as in that article, but have been rearranged for convenience in discussing hunting wasp biology. In comparing the various hunting wasp taxa listed here, it is of fundamental importance to bear the following point in mind: supposing that members of one taxon exhibit adaptations to a given life history or biological strategy, and that another taxon has similar adaptations apparently more sophisticated, that need not in itself imply that either is descended from, or relevantly related to, the other. The reason for mentioning such taxa in close context is purely for suggestive illustration. Where the ancestral record of the more sophisticated strategy is unavailable, it often may be reasonable to observe that intermediate stages resembling the mechanisms of extant forms could be perfectly viable. For example, it seems plausible that a digger wasp such as a member of the Sphecidae might have had an ancestor that simply hid prey in available tunnels in much the same way that some Bethylidae still do, but it does not follow that the extant digger Sphecidae are descendants of the Bethylidae.