Euparagia

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Euparagia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Apocrita Superfamily: Vespoidea Family: Vespidae Subfamily: Euparagiinae Genus: Euparagia
Species
Euparagia boregoensis Euparagia desertorum Euparagia maculiceps Euparagia platiniceps Euparagia richardsi Euparagia scutellaris Euparagia siccata Euparagia timberlakei Euparagia unidentata Euparagia yuma

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.

This subfamily —with this same rank— have been previously grouped with the pollen wasps and treated together as the family "Masaridae". At the present time, Euparagiinae is considered an independent subfamily and the sister group of the remainder of the Vespidae. The 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.

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

[edit] References

• Carpenter, J. M. 1982. The Phylogenetic relationships and natural classification of the Vespoidea (Hymenoptera). Systematic Entomology 7: 11- 38.
• Bohart, R.M. 1989. A review of the genus Euparagia (Hymenoptera, Masaridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 62 (4): 462-467.