Aculeata

Definition

An infraorder of Hymenoptera comprising ants, bees, and stinging wasps, defined by the ancestral modification of the ovipositor into a stinger (aculeus). Despite the name, many lineages have secondarily lost the stinger—some retaining a functional ovipositor for parasitism, others becoming stingless—and a substantial portion of the clade is parasitic rather than truly 'stinging.'

Etymology

From Latin aculeatus (barbed, stinging), referring to the stinger

Example

Honey bees (Apis mellifera), yellowjackets (Vespula spp.), and army ants (Eciton burchellii) all belong to Aculeata, whereas ichneumon wasps with their long, unmodified ovipositors fall outside this infraorder in the sister group Parasitica.

Related Terms

• Apocrita
• Parasitica
• Hymenoptera
• ovipositor
• stinger
• Aculeus
• Formicidae
• Vespidae
• Apoidea

Usage Notes

The name is morphologically descriptive rather than strictly functional: many Aculeata cannot sting (e.g., male bees, some parasitic wasps with reduced stingers, and entirely stingless ant lineages). The group is often treated as a clade in modern phylogenetics. Contrast with Parasitica, the other major apocritan lineage, where the ovipositor typically remains unmodified for host parasitism.