Aculeata
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The name Aculeata is used to refer to a monophyletic lineage of the order Hymenoptera, though it has no formal rank in modern classifications, and is now only used informally. The word "Aculeata" is a reference to the defining feature of the group, which is the modification of the ovipositor into a stinger (thus, the group could be called stinging wasps). In other words, the structure that was originally used to lay eggs is modified instead to deliver venom. Not all members of the group can sting; in fact, a great many cannot, either because the ovipositor is modified in a different manner (such as for laying eggs in crevices), or because it is lost altogether. This group includes the bees and ants and all of the eusocial Hymenopterans; it is, in fact, commonly believed that the possession of a venomous sting was one of the important features promoting the evolution of social behavior, as it confers a level of anti-predator defense rarely approached by other invertebrates.
[edit] Classification
The use of the name "Aculeata" has a long history at the rank of infraorder or division, and it is only with the advent of modern phylogenetics that the higher classifications of insects (and other organisms) have come to reject artificial (paraphyletic) grouping categories. While the "Aculeata" is a good natural group, containing all the descendants of a single common ancestor, the problem is that removing this group from within the Hymenoptera leaves a group - the "Parasitica" - which is not natural, just as the suborder Apocrita leaves an artificial group, the Symphyta. Eventually, names such as "Aculeata" and "Apocrita" may persist, but only in rankless, cladistic classifications (e.g., the Tree of Life Project).
