{{Short description|Lineage of wasps}} {{Distinguish|Sphecidae}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Ampulex compressa.jpg | image_alt = "Ampulex compressa" | image_caption = ''Ampulex compressa'' | taxon = Spheciformes | authority = | subdivision_ranks = Families | subdivision_ref = <ref>{{cite web|author1=<!-- not stated -->|title=Spheciformes|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Tree&id=2153468&lvl=3&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock|website=NCBI taxonomy|publisher=National Center for Biotechnology Information|accessdate=22 January 2019|location=Bethesda, MD|language=English |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123020530/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Tree&id=2153468&lvl=3&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock |archive-date=23 January 2019 }}</ref> | subdivision = *Ampulicidae *Crabronidae *Heterogynaidae *Sphecidae | synonyms = | synonyms_ref = }}
'''Spheciformes''' is an obsolete paraphyletic assemblage of insect families which collectively comprise the "'''sphecoid wasps'''", and includes about 10,000 species and several hundred genera. The largest genus is ''Cerceris'' (Philanthidae), with almost 900 species.<ref name=Bohart1976>{{cite book|last1=Bohart|first1=Richard Mitchell|last2=Menke|first2=Arnold S.|title=Sphecid Wasps of the World: A Generic Revision|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC|year=1976|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02318-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/n553 555]}}</ref> Larvae are carnivorous, consuming prey captured by adult females and typically paralyzed with venom, provisioned in underground nests.<ref name=Bohart1976 />
Spheciformes includes all the members of the superfamily Apoidea which are not bees and which in older classifications were called the "'''Sphecoidea'''". The group includes familiar types of wasps such as mud daubers, digger wasps, sand wasps, cicada killers, and cockroach wasps.
The group is paraphyletic because bees are believed to have arisen from a subgroup within the family Ammoplanidae, thus Spheciformes does not include all of the descendants of its common ancestor.<ref name="Sannetal">Manuela Sann, Oliver Niehuis, Ralph S. Peters, Christoph Mayer, Alexey Kozlov, Lars Podsiadlowski, Sarah Bank, Karen Meusemann, Bernhard Misof, Christoph Bleidorn and Michael Ohl (2018) Phylogenomic analysis of Apoidea sheds new light on the sister group of bees. ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 18:71. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1155-8</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Apoidea Category:Paraphyletic groups
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