the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > the wasps > super family Sphecoidea or family Sphecidae > member of Nyssonidae (policeman fly) (1)
any of various small, solitary, usually black wasps, which hunt flies as food for their larvae; esp. one of the sphecid subfamily Nyssoninae.