Euparagia

The Euparagiinae are a small subfamily of rare wasps in the family Vespidae containing the single genus Euparagia. The group had a cosmopolitan distribution in past geological times, but is now a geographically relict taxon known only from the desert regions of the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.[1]

Euparagia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Vespidae
Subfamily: Euparagiinae
Genus: Euparagia
Cresson, 1879
Species
  • Euparagia boregoensis Bohart
  • Euparagia desertorum Bohart
  • Euparagia maculiceps (Cameron)
  • Euparagia platiniceps Bohart
  • Euparagia richardsi Bohart
  • Euparagia scutellaris Cresson
  • Euparagia siccata Bohart
  • Euparagia timberlakei Bohart
  • Euparagia unidentata Carpenter & Kimsey
  • Euparagia yuma Bohart

This subfamily, with this same rank, has been previously grouped with the pollen wasps and treated together as the family "Masaridae". Now, the Euparagiinae are considered an independent subfamily and the sister group of the remainder of the Vespidae. Their wing venation is unique and differs from all other Vespidae; they also characteristically have a single small pale spot at the posterior edge of the mesonotum, and the femora and trochanters of the male front legs are modified in species-specific shapes.[2]

The biology of only one species (Euparagia scutellaris) is known, and the females provision nests in the soil with weevil larvae.[3]

References
  1. Bohart, R.M. 1989. A review of the genus Euparagia (Hymenoptera, Masaridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 62 (4): 462-467.
  2. Carpenter, J. M. 1982. The Phylogenetic relationships and natural classification of the Vespoidea (Hymenoptera). Systematic Entomology 7: 11- 38.
  3. Carpenter, J. M. & L. S. Kimsey. 2009. The genus Euparagia Cresson (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Euparagiinae). American Museum Novitates 3643: 1-11


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