Honey wasps are species in the genus Brachygastra of the family Vespidae. Brachygastra comprises 17 species of social paper wasps. The ancestral species are thought to have diverged about 32 million years ago within diverse Amazonian rainforest. Subsequent speciation within the genus is thought to have mostly occurred between 23 Ma and 10 Ma, during the time of the Andean uplift when the landscape was significantly altered due to tectonic activity. The current cladistic organisation of the genus has been heavily reliant on morphological characteristics. Brachygastra species live in colonies and construct arboreal paper nests in humid forest environments, although several species occur in open vegetation. They are widely distributed in Central and South America, and also occur in southwest areas of North America. They have a broad diet consisting of floral nectar and insect protein. Several species are known to collect and store nectar in large amounts as honey, a characteristic in the insect world only shared with various bee species, a few wasp species (Polybia spp.), and a few ant species (Myrmecocystus spp. and other genera). There are few historical reports of humans using honey produced by honey wasps, probably due to its small quantities and the wasp's fierce sting. The species can provide important ecosystem services such as pollination, herbivore deterrence and predation of disease vectors. Taxonomy Upon its introduction by Perty in 1833, the name Brachygastra was confused with the genus Brachygaster within the family Evaniidae. It was later changed to Nectarina, only to be confused with the genus of birds Nectarinia. Misspellings in publications further compounded the confusion. Phylogeny In 1991 Carpenter placed Brachygastra in a sister group of Chartergus based on morphological data. In 1993 Wenzel revised this and placed Brachygastra in a sister genus of Protonectarina + Polybia based on nest architecture. Then, in 1994 Carpenter and Wenzel worked together, taking into account a combination of characteristics including adult morphology, nest architecture and larval morphology, and Brachygastra, again, was sister of Chartergus. In 2004 whilst investigating the phylogeny of Epiponini, Noll et al. used discretised morphometric measurements of caste differentiation to reinforced the relationship between Brachygastra and Chartergus. Since then both Arevalo et al. (2004) and Pickett and Carpenter (2010) have placed Barchygastra as a sister genus of Protonectarina after analysing molecular, morphological and behavioural data, however, both groups did not include Chartergus. Groups within Brachygastra Brachygastra azteca is considered to be the