Hymenoptera
A Look Into a Diverse Order
Definition and Defining Characteristics
Hymenoptera is an animal order within the class Insecta, phylum Arthopoda, and kingdom Animalia. It includes species such as wasps, ants, and bees. Hymenoptera comes from the greek words for "winged membrane", and this refers to their defining characteristic, two pairs of membranous wings with cross angled, cell-like patterns(Richman). These wings can be seen in the picture below, which shows a German wasp, aka Vespula germanica.
Fig. 1. Bartz, Richard. "Vespula germanica Richard Bartz." Wikimedia Commons, October 8, 2007, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VespulagermanicaRichard_Bartz.jpg. Accessed October 9, 2020. No edits to the image were made.
Abundance and Location
With over 130,000 species within Hymenoptera, it is the third most abundant order within insects(Richman). Members of Hymenoptera are found in many different places all over the world. Ants, family Formicidae, in particular can be found in varying environments such as scrublands, deserts, and rainforests; and they make up around a quarter of all animal biomass on earth(Thompson). The picture below shows a colony of Dolichoderus thoracicus. The Dolichoderus genus can be found in places all over the world(The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Fig. 2. Shih, LiCheng. "Dolichoderus bituberculatus (41752466904)." Wikimedia Commons, May 27, 2018, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dolichoderusbituberculatus(41752466904).jpg. Accessed October 10, 2020. No edits to the image were made.
Ecological and Commercial Importance
All members of Hymenoptera play some important role in their ecosystem. Ants are important for enriching soil, wasps control other insect populations through predation and parasitism, and bees provide pollination to plants(Thompson; Freedman; Richman). Bee's pollination also makes them important to human agriculture. Pollinators like bees are needed in part to produce around 75% of all crops eaten by humans(F.D.A). Seen below is Apis mellifera, otherwise known as the European Honey Bee. This species is responsible for the most of the pollination of agriculture in the U.S.(F.D.A).
Fig. 3. Fir0002/Flagstaffotos. "Honeybee landing on milkthistle02." Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Honeybeelandingon_milkthistle02.jpg. Accessed October 10, 2020.
Works Cited
Richman, Vita. "Bees." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV2644030256/AONE?u=txshracd2518&sid=AONE&xid=7b7cb13d. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.
Thompson, Marie L. "Ants." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and
Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV2644030141/AONE?u=txshracd2518&sid=AONE&xid=920ccda5. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.
Freedman, Bill. "Wasps." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV2644032376/AONE?u=txshracd2518&sid=AONE&xid=4caa276e. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Ant." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., April 06, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/animal/ant. Accessed October 10, 2020.
"Helping Agriculture's Helpful Honey Bees." U.S. Food and Drug Administration, September 30, 2018. https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/helping-agricultures-helpful-honey-bees. Accessed October 10, 2020.