Hymenoptera

 Hymenoptera is a large of s, comprising the, s, s, and s. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones.

Females typically have a special for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. The ovipositor is often modified into a. The young develop through (complete )—that is, they have a worm-like larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they mature.

The Apocrita contains a large number of families. Some traditional taxa such as the (containing many families of s) have been found on molecular analysis to be. ism evolved once, and it is found today across most Apocritan families, though it has been secondarily lost several times. The gives a condensed overview of the phylogeny, illustrated with major groups. The tree is not fully resolved.