What order of insects includes ants, bees, and wasps?

The order of insects that includes ants, bees, and wasps is Hymenoptera. The name comes from Ancient Greek words meaning “membrane” and “wing,” referring to the insects' characteristic wings. Hymenoptera also includes sawflies, horntails, and many parasitoid wasps.

This order is extraordinarily diverse, with more than 150,000 living species formally described. Its members display an enormous range of lifestyles: bees pollinate plants, ants form complex colonies, wasps may hunt prey or lay eggs in other insects, and sawfly larvae commonly feed on plants. Many hymenopterans undergo complete metamorphosis, passing through egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages.

Ants, bees, and familiar stinging wasps belong to the suborder Apocrita, whose members have a narrowed “wasp waist.” In many species, the female's egg-laying ovipositor has evolved into a stinger. The other options are also insect orders: Diptera includes flies, Lepidoptera includes butterflies and moths, and Coleoptera includes beetles.