File: <megalodo.htm> [For educational purposes only] Glossary <Principal Natural Enemy Groups > <Citations> <Home>

HYMENOPTERA, Megalodontoidea

This is a small superfamily of Symphyta, with about 253 living species confined to the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America. These insects share the distinctive feature of a very large, almost prognathous head, which is widest ventrally.

A prehistoric family, Xyelydidae, is known from the Jurassic of Asia. These animals were even more bizarre than their living relatives. The genus Ferganolyda had distinctive males, with a head half as large and twice as wide as the body and wiry elongated antennae. These characteristics were most likely unsuitable for attack or defense and might have caused the males to be flightless.

References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL Library ]

Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P.; Zhang, Haichun & Wang, Bo (2006): Bizarre fossil insects: web-spinning sawflies of the genus Ferganolyda (Vespida, Pamphilioidea) from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China. Palaeontology 49(4): 907-916