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Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of Insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. The name comes from the membranous wings (Greek hymen, a membrane), of which most forms have two pairs, the front wings larger than the back.
Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting into hosts or otherwise inaccessible places, often modified into a stinger. The young develop through complete metamorphosis - that is, they have a worm-like larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they mature.
Among the hymenopterans gender is determined by the number of chromosomes2) Centromere. The point where the two chromatids touch, and where the microtubules attach. 3) Short arm. 4) Long arm. A chromosome is, minimally, a very long, continuous piece of DNA, which contains many genes, regulatory elements and other intervening n the individual receives. Fertilized eggs get two sets of chromosomes, and so develop into diploidDiploid cells have two copies of each somatic chromosome (non-sex chromosomes), usually one from the mother and one from the father. Most somatic cells (body cells) of higher organisms are diploid or polyploid (three or more copies of each chromosome, oft females; unfertilized eggs only receive one set, and so develop into haploidHaploid cells have only one copy of each chromosome. Most fungi, and a few algae exist as haploid organisms. Plants and other algae switch between a haploid and a diploid or polyploid state, with one of the stages emphasized over the other. This is called males. This phenomenon is called haplodiploidyA haplodiploid species is one in which one of the sexes has haploid cells (cells containing one copy of each chromosome) and the other has diploid cells (cells containing two copies of each chromosome). Most commonly, the male is haploid and the female is. The consequence is that females on average actually have more genes in common with their siblings than they do with their own offspring. Because of this, cooperation among kindred is unusually advantageous, and varying degrees of sociality have appeared several times among the different subgroups. The most extreme form is eusocialityEusociality is the phenomenon of reproductive specialisation found in some species of animal, whereby a specialised caste carries out reproduction in a colony of non-reproductive animals. The most familiar examples are insects such as ants, bees, and wasp.
The wasps, bees, and ants together make up a suborder of the Hymenoptera called the Apocrita, characterized by a constriction between the first and second abdominal segments called a wasp-waist. The remaining forms (sawflies) were once classified as a second suborder, the Symphyta, but this appears to be paraphyletic. A classification of the Apocrita is as follows:
