Horntails

Much like the Cephalopoda miniseries, this Hymenoptera miniseries will be a two-parter.

In part one, we'll explore the evolution of the clade and look at many of the smaller, older offshoots, like the Xyloidea and the various clades of wood wasps.

This will take us up to about two hundred million years ago when the suborder Apocrita emerged.

This group, Apocrita, contains some of the most charismatic and ecologically important insects: the ants, the bees, and the true wasps.

They've figured out a way to exploit this strange, unappreciated niche.

As a quick aside, this isn't necessarily unique to this particular group.

Many of these wood wasps are thermophiles.

They love high temperatures.