The taxonomy of a wasp is arranged in a hierarchical manner. It is composed of kingdom, Phylum, class, order, family and genus levels. A wasping has a scientific name which consists of two Latin word segments: the first segment provides information on its kingdom while the second segment indicates its species. The scientific name of the wasp is vespula maculata. Every species of wasps belongs to a family or a genus, and is given a two-part official scientific name in italics with an initial capital letter. The first part of the wasp scientific name, vespula, tells that it belongs to the superfamily vespoidea. The order of the wasps to which vespula maculata belongs is apoidea. The second part of the name is maculata which reveals the specific epithet for this particular species. There are more than 5000 species of wasps worldwide and in the past it was believed that there are 20,000 species of wasps, but now after recent studies we have learned so far that there are approximately 50,000 species, most of them still unclassified by scientists. Even though they may all look different from one another they share certain characteristics as they are all social insects and they live in colonies typically underground or in trees and feed their larvae with chewed up meat, fish and other foods similar to ants. A taxonomy of a wasp is the comprehensive description of an animal in terms of its name, characteristics and family. The scientific classification of a wasp describes the various traits that are shared among all animals with the same name. Taxonomy is an important tool for wasp classification as it allows researchers to distinguish between closely related wasps and more distant varieties.

Taxonomy Of A Wasp

Kingdom- Animalia

The Kingdom- Animalia

The Phylum- Arthropoda

The Class- Insecta

The Order- Hymenoptera

The Suborder- Apocrita

The Infraorder- Aculeata

Superfamily Vespoidea

The Family Vespidae

Phylum- Arthropoda

You’re in the Arthropoda phylum. You have segmented bodies, jointed limbs and exoskeletons. The vast majority of animals on Earth are arthropods. You’re related to insects, spiders and crustaceans.

Class- Insecta

Insects are a class within the animal kingdom, characterized by having six legs and three body segments. Insects are the largest and most diverse group of arthropods, comprising more than half of all known living organisms. The number of species is estimated at between 10 million and 200 million although there has been no consensus on an exact figure. Currently, about 10% of all described species are extinct; however this percentage rises when considering that only 1 in 10 insects have been described scientifically.

Order- Hymenoptera

The Order Hymenoptera is part of the Class Insecta. It includes bees, ants and wasps. This order has a single pair of wings and three body parts: head, thorax and abdomen. The mouthparts are adapted for chewing not piercing or sucking like those in other insect orders (e.g., Homoptera). The metamorphosis is complete with egg, larva, pupa and adult stages distinctively different from each other although they may resemble one another at some points during their development (except in parasitic species).

Suborder- Apocrita

The Apocrita are a suborder of the Hymenoptera, which includes all the wasps, bees and ants. They have a number of important characteristics that distinguish them from other groups, such as their modified ovipositors (stingers) as well as their mouthparts. These are all characteristics that are shared by parasitic forms, who also have reduced wings and often only one pair of legs on each segment.

Infraorder- Aculeata

The order Hymenoptera is divided into two suborders: Parasitica and Aculeata. Wasps are in the former, bees are in the latter. A wasp’s sting is located on its abdomen as opposed to a bee’s sting being located on its tail end. The name “Apocrita” comes from Greek, meaning “to eat,” which refers to their tendency for hunting other insects for food.

• There can be up to 2,000 species of this suborder depending on where you live and what kind of wasp you’re referring to; most experts agree that there are somewhere around 200-300 different kinds worldwide
• All wasps have four wings (they don’t have antennae like bees do)

Superfamily Vespoidea

Vespoidea is a superfamily of wasps in the order Hymenoptera. The name Vespoidea comes from the Latin vespa, meaning “wasp”. There are at least 2,700 described species in Vespoidea. This number does not include several thousand parasite and hyperparasite wasp species that have not been formally described or published yet[citation needed].

The Vespoidea superfamily contains the following families:

Apoidea (bees)

Vespidae (paper wasps)

Sphecidae (digger wasps)

Family- Vespidae

The family Vespidae includes over 22,000 species of wasps. They have a slender, segmented body with a distinct head, thorax and narrow waist. The antennae are typically clubbed or elbowed at the end. They have 6 legs and 2 pairs of wings which are clear or iridescent in color. Their bodies can vary in color from metallic blue to red to brown or black depending on the species.

Subfamily- Polistinae

The subfamily Polistinae is a group of wasps that have a wide range of body sizes and shapes. Some wasps are very large, while others are tiny and slender. They all tend to have long antennae and large ovipositors (the tube-like organ through which female wasps insert their eggs). As such, they can be quite dangerous if you get stung by one!

The Polistinae subfamily contains many different types of wasp species including paper and mud daubers; potter or potter wasps; sand or sandhill crawler wasps; cuckoo bees; gall makers; hornets; yellow jackets; mason bees (Osmia); bumblebees (Bombus); stingless bees (Trigona); parasitic bees (Apis),

A wasp is an insect that resides in the suborder Apocrita within the order Hymenoptera.

A wasp is an insect that resides in the suborder Apocrita within the order Hymenoptera.

The order Hymenoptera includes ants, bees, and wasps. The suborder Apocrita contains only ants and wasps.