this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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Bees are technically a kind of wasp.
If I am understanding the chart here correctly, bees are not a type of wasp. Bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies are all Hymenopterans, but distinct from each other.
That graph does contain bees among wasps.
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To be specific, bees are a "Cladistically included but traditionally excluded taxa" of wasps, since they are within Apocrita.
The common-language definition of wasp is literally "A member of Apocrita ... except bees (and ants)".
It's the same situation as saying a chicken is a dinosaur, and why the field often uses "non-avian dinosaurs" instead for clarity.
This wikipedia diagram from the Aculeata article is a bit more concise:
collapsed inline media
Take now for example Stephanoidea, "a superfamily of parasitic wasps within the Apocrita". Clearly wasps, yet equally closely related to yellow-jackets and honey-bees.
Edit: mixed up Aculeata and Aulacidae. Edit2:
If you go further into Apoidae, even there you still find plenty more "clearly wasp" type species:
collapsed inline media
Take Sphecidae:
collapsed inline media
Or Philanthidae:
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All on the same level as actual bees (Anthophila).
I think also in terms of vibes it feels right to call bees a subset of wasps.