Pamphilioidea

Pamphilioidea
Acantholyda nemoralis (Pamphiliidae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Symphyta
Superfamily: Pamphilioidea
Cameron, 1890
Families

Megalodontesidae
Pamphiliidae

Synonyms

Megalodontoidea Konow, 1897

The Pamphilioidea (formerly Megalodontoidea) are a small superfamily within the Symphyta, containing some 250 living species restricted to the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America. These hymenopterans share the distinctive feature of a very large, almost prognathous head, which is widest ventrally. The superfamily consists of two extant families and one extinct family, the Xyelydidae.[1]

A prehistoric family, Xyelydidae, is known from the Jurassic of inner Asia. These animals were even odder-looking than their living relatives. The genus Ferganolyda had bizarre males, with a head half was large and twice as wide as the body and wiry elongated antennae. These features apparently were unsuitable for attack or defense and might have rendered the males effectively flightless.[2]

References

  1. Aguiar et al 2013.
  2. Rasnitsyn et al. (2006)

Bibliography

  • Aguiar, Alexandre P.; Deans, Andrew R.; Engel, Michael S.; Forshage, Mattias; Huber, John T.; Jennings, John T.; Johnson, Norman F.; Lelej, Arkady S.; Longino, John T.; Lohrmann, Volker; Mikó, István; Ohl, Michael; Rasmussen, Claus; Taeger, Andreas; Yu, Dicky Sick Ki (30 August 2013). "Order Hymenoptera". Zootaxa. 3703 (1): 51–62. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3703.1.12. , in Zhang, Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness (Addenda 2013)
  • Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P.; Zhang, Haichun & Wang, Bo (2006): Bizarre fossil insects: web-spinning sawflies of the genus Ferganolyda (Vespida, Pamphilioidea) from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China. Palaeontology 49(4): 907-916. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00574.x PDF fulltext
  • Wang, Mei; Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P.; Li, Hu; Shih, Chungkun; Sharkey, Michael J.; Ren, Dong (June 2016). "Phylogenetic analyses elucidate the inter-relationships of Pamphilioidea (Hymenoptera, Symphyta)". Cladistics. 32 (3): 239–260. doi:10.1111/cla.12129. 


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