Bees Are Closer Genetic Relatives To Ants Than They Are Wasps

Bees are more genetically related to ants than they are to social wasps such as yellow jackets and paper wasps, according to a new paper.  Ants, bees and stinging wasps all belong to the aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera clade, the insect group in which social behavior is most extensively developed, said senior author and ant specialist Phil Ward, professor of entomology at UC Davis.  The use of genome sequencing and bioinformatics answers a piece of a long-standing, unanswered evolutionary puzzle. Previously it was thought that ants and bees were distantly related, with ants being closer to certain parasitoid wasps. read more

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