Megalodontoidea

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Megalodontoidea
Acantholyda nemoralis (Pamphiliidae)
Acantholyda nemoralis (Pamphiliidae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Infraclass: Neoptera
Superorder: Endopterygota
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Symphyta
Superfamily: Megalodontoidea
Families

Megalodontesidae
Pamphiliidae
and see text

Synonyms

Pamphilioidea

The Megalodontoidea are a small superfamily within the Symphyta, containing some 250 living species restricted to the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America. These hymenopterans share the distinctive feature of a very large, almost prognathous head, which is widest ventrally.

A prehistoric family, Xyelydidae, is known from the Jurassic of inner Asia. These animals were even odder-looking than their living relatives. The genus Ferganolyda had bizarre males, with a head half was large and twice as wide as the body and wiry elongated antennae. These features apparently were unsuitable for attack or defense and might have rendered the males effectively flightless.[1]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Rasnitsyn et al. (2006)

[edit] References

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