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Order Hymenoptera

(Aquatic wasps, others)

Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax (SWCSMH)

Janauary 22, 2006

Linnean system of hierarchical classification (Williams & Feltmate, 1992):

Insects of Inland Waters: Orders Having Aquatic Adults
Superphylum Arthropoda

(jointed-legged metazoan animals [Gr, arthron = joint; pous = foot])

Phylum Entoma
Subphylum Uniramia

(L, unus = one; ramus = branch, referring to the unbranched nature of the appendages)

Superclass Hexapoda

(Gr, hex = six, pous = foot)

Class Insecta

(L, insectum meaning cut into sections)

Subclass Ptilota
Infraclass Neopterygota

Introduction

The Hymenoptera is a large order of insects containing the bees, wasps, ants, sawflies and their similar forms, the vast majority of which are terrestrial. The order is divided into two suborders, the Symphyta (sawflies and horntails), and the Apocrita (bees, wasps and ants). There appear to be no aquatic symphytans, but several families within the Apocrita contain species that are, in some way, associated with water. The latter are all wasps and they are all parasitic on a variety of aquatic hosts (cf. Table below).

With few exceptions, aquatic wasps are small but, otherwise, they show little in the way of morphological adaptations to water. In Caraphractus cinctus, a tiny mymarid wasp whose life cycle is perhaps the best known, the adults spend quite some time under water, swimming with their wings and respiring cutaneously. In the autumn, larvae enter a diapause in the final instar which carries them over to the next spring when they pupate and emerge.

Major families of aquatic wasp, together with the hosts that they typically parasitize (Williams & Feltmate, 1992)

Family	Hosts
Apocrita
Section Parasitica
Braconidae	Diptera (Ephydridae), Lepidoptera (Noctuidae)
Ichneumonidae	Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Trichoptera, Diptera
Mymaridae	Hemiptera (esp. Gerridae), Odonata, Coleoptera
Trichogrammatidae	Odonata, Diptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Megaloptera
Eulophidae	Odonata (esp. Lestidae), Coleoptera
Pteromalidae	Diptera (Ephydridae), Coleoptera, Neuroptera
Diapriidae	Diptera (Ephydridae, Sciomyzidae), Coleoptera
Scelionidae	Hemiptera (esp. Gerridae), Lepidoptera, Diptera
Agriotypidae	Trichoptera (ectoparasites)
Eucoilidae	Diptera (Ephydridae)
Section Aculeata
Pompilidae	Araneae (pisaurid spiders)

References and web URLs:

Narf, R. 1997. Midges, bugs, whirligigs and others: The distribution of insects in Lake "U-Name-It". Lakeline. N. Am. Lake Manage. Soc. 16-17, 57-62.
Williams, D.D., and Feltmate, B.W. 1992. Aquatic Insects. CAB International. ISBN: 0-85198-782-6. xiii, 358p.

Mandaville, S.M. 1999. Bioassessment of Freshwaters Using Benthic Macroinvertebrates-A Primer. First Ed. Project E-1, Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax. viii, Chapters I-XXVII, Appendices A-D. 244p.
- For the entire Report, download all the files in the subdirectory, Primer1 in Word 6.0 format.
- Chapter XX: Order Hymenoptera (aquatic wasps, etc.) in Word 6.0
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