Brachycistidinae
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| Brachycistidinae | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tiphiid Wasp species of the Brachycistidinae subfamily, from the Great Basin National Park, Baker, Nevada | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Tiphiidae |
| Subfamily: | Brachycistidinae Kimsey 1991[1] |
| Genera | |
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See text | |
Brachycistidinae is a subfamily of the flower wasp family Tiphiidae that contains 10 genera and 85 species,[2] and which is confined to the Nearctic zoogeographic region.[1]
The wasps in the subfamily Brachycistidinae are distinguished from the subfamily Tiphiinae by having simple claws and the lack of an epicnemial suture, while the tegulae do not cover the axillary sclerites of the fore wings.[3] These wasps demonstrate extreme sexual dimorphism; the females resemble ants and are wingless, while the males are winged and nocturnal. These extreme differences between the sexes have led to instances where the males and females are described as separate species, known as "dual taxonomy", and later work shows the two "species" to be synonymous.[2] The identification of both sexes as a single species is often only achieved when they are collected in copula.[4]