Study settles debate over origins of ants and bees

Ants and bees – which by all appearances seem so different – are creepy-crawly cousins, according to new research published in a recent issue of Current Biology.

The new findings show unequivocally that ants’ closest living relatives are a superfamily called Apoidea, which includes bees and some solitary hunting wasps.

Within the superfamily Apoidea, two subfamilies of hunting wasps that include just over 2,000 species in total are the “sister group” (or closest living relatives) to bees, which includes over 20,000 described species, according to the study.