The Scoliidae, the scoliid wasps, are a family of
wasps comprising about 560 species worldwide. They tend to be black, often marked with yellow or orange, and their wing tips are distinctively corrugated. Males are more slender and elongated than females, with significantly longer antennae, but the
sexual dimorphism is not as apparent as in many of the
Tiphiidae and
Thynnidae.
Biology
Scoliid wasps are solitary
parasitoids of
scarab beetle larvae. Female scoliids burrow into the ground in search of these larvae and then use their sting to paralyze them. They will sometimes excavate a chamber and move the paralyzed beetle larva into it before depositing an egg. Scoliid wasps act as important
biocontrol agents, as many of the beetles they parasitize are pests, including the
Japanese beetle. Male scoliids patrol territories, ready to mate with females emerging from the ground. Adult wasps may be minor
pollinators of some plants and can be found on many
wildflowers in the late summer. [citation needed]
Scoliidae also has at least one species known to engage in
pseudocopulation with an orchid. Flowers of the orchid Bipinnula penicillata in subtropical South America resemble females of Pygodasis bistrimaculata, tricking male wasps into attempting to mate and, in the process, provide pollination.[1] Scoliids include some of the largest wasps in the world, such as Megascolia procer.[2]
Taxonomy
Living scoliidae genera are classified as follows:[4][5][6]
The subfamily Archaeoscoliinae is known exclusively from the fossil record, with the largest diversity having lived during the
Cretaceous (
Barremian) before going extinct by the late
Eocene (
Priabonian).
Three additional undescribed specimens from the
YpresianEocene Okanagan Highlands were referred to the subfamily by S. Bruce Archibald et al. (2018). The two fossils from the
Klondike Mountain Formation of Northeastern Washington state, and one fossil from the
Allenby Formation of South central British Columbia were mentioned briefly but no specific commentary on placement or finer taxonomic detail was presented in the paper.[13]
History
In 1847 and 1849
Eduard Eversmann published his "Fauna Hymenopterologica Volgo-Uralensis—exhibiting the species of Hymenoptera which he observed and described in the provinces situated between the Volga river and the Ural mountains." He placed the Scoliadae LATR. as a subfamily of the Sphegidae LATR. He mentions the genus ScoliaFABR. with 13 species, the genus TiphiaFABR. with 3 species, and the genus MeriaILL, with only the species Meria sexpunctata.[14]
North American species list
There are 36 species of Scoliidae reported to occur in North America. Two additional species, Campsomeriella annulata (Fabricius, 1793) and Micromeriella marginella (Klug, 1810), were introduced to the United States but failed to become established.[15][16]
^Zhang, H.; Rasnitsyn, A.; Zhang, J. (2002). "The oldest known scoliid wasps (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Scoliidae) from the Jehol biota of western Liaoning, China". Cretaceous Research. 23 (1): 77–86.
Bibcode:
2002CrRes..23...77H.
doi:
10.1006/cres.2001.0302.
^Archibald, S. B.; Rasnitsyn, A. P.; Brothers, D. J.; Mathewes, R. W. (2018). "Modernisation of the Hymenoptera: ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies of the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands of western North America". The Canadian Entomologist. 150 (2): 205–257.
doi:
10.4039/tce.2017.59.
ISSN0008-347X.
S2CID90017208.
^Poole, R.W.; Gentili, P. (1996).
"Hymenoptera"(PDF). Nomina Insecta: A Check List of the Insects of North America Nearctica. 2: 309–375.
ISBN1-889002-02-X. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
^
Ramírez-Guillén, Luis Damián; Falcon-Brindis, Armando; Gómez, Benigno (2022). "The Scoliidae wasps (Hymenoptera: Scolioidea) of Mexico: taxonomy and biogeography". Zootaxa. 5214 (1): 47–88.
doi:
10.11646/zootaxa.5214.1.2.