Philanthus gibbosus
species of insect
Philanthus gibbosus, the hump-backed beewolf, is a species of bee-hunting wasp and is the most common and widespread beewolf in North America. P. gibbosus is of the order Hymenoptera and the genus Philanthus. It is native to the Midwestern United States and the western Appalachians. P. gibbosus are often observed to visit flowers and other plants in search of insect prey to feed their young. The prey that P. gibbosus catches is then coated in a layer of pollen and fed to the young wasps.
Taxonomy and phylogeny
Philanthus gibbosus is a member of the family Philanthidae of wasps within the order Hymenoptera.
Molecular phylogeny revealed that bees, clade Anthophila, came from within the family Crabronidae sensu lato, meaning the family was paraphyletic. As a result, this species's subfamily, Philanthinae, was elevated to family status as Philanthidae.
The genus Philanthus contains about 135 other species in addition to P. gibbosus.
Description and identification
Philanthus gibbosus is a small and robust wasp that is about 10–12 mm in length.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Philanthus gibbosus” as species of insect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of insect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7182937. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Philanthus gibbosus primary sources, Philanthus gibbosus archive and Philanthus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Philanthus gibbosus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.