The aculeate wasps are one of the most diverse and speciose insect taxa; they are omnipresent across ecosystems and exhibit diverse co-evolutionary and exploitative associations with other organisms. There is widespread conjecture that aculeate wasps are likely to perform essential ecological and economic services of importance to the health, well-being and nutritional needs of our planet. However, the scope and nature of the ecosystem services they provide are not well understood relative to other insect groups (e.g. bees, butterflies, beetles); an appreciation of their value is further tarnished by their public reputation as pointless pests. Here, we conduct the first comprehensive review of how aculeate wasps contribute to the four main areas of ecosystem services: regulatory, provisioning, supporting and cultural services. Uniting data from a large but previously disconnected literature on solitary and social aculeate wasps, we provide a synthesis on how these insects perform important ecosystem services as parasites, predators, biological indicators, pollinators, decomposers and seed dispersers; and their additional services as a sustainable alternative to meat for human consumption, and medicinal potential as sources of research leads for anti-microbials and cancer treatments. We highlight how aculeate wasps offer substantial, but largely overlooked, economic benefits through their roles in natural pest management and biological control programs. Accordingly, we provide data-driven arguments for reasons to consider the ecosystem service value of aculeate wasps on a par with other ‘useful’ insects (e.g. bees). Finally, we provide a research roadmap identifying the key areas of research required to capitalise better on the services provided by these important insects.

中文翻译：

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刺蜂提供的生态系统服务

有刺黄蜂是最多样化和最特殊的昆虫类群之一。它们在整个生态系统中无处不在，并与其他生物表现出不同的共同进化和剥削关联。人们普遍猜测，有刺黄蜂可能会提供对我们星球的健康、福祉和营养需求具有重要意义的基本生态和经济服务。然而，相对于其他昆虫类群（如蜜蜂、蝴蝶、甲虫），它们提供的生态系统服务的范围和性质尚不清楚；它们作为毫无意义的害虫的公众声誉进一步损害了对其价值的欣赏。在这里，我们首次全面审查了有刺黄蜂如何为生态系统服务的四个主要领域做出贡献：监管、供应、支持和文化服务。结合大量但以前不相关的关于独居和群居有刺黄蜂的文献数据，我们综合分析了这些昆虫如何作为寄生虫、捕食者、生物指标、传粉者、分解者和种子传播者执行重要的生态系统服务；以及它们作为人类消费肉类的可持续替代品的附加服务，以及作为抗微生物和癌症治疗研究线索的药用潜力。我们强调了有刺黄蜂如何通过它们在自然害虫管理和生物控制计划中的作用提供大量但在很大程度上被忽视的经济效益。因此，我们提供了数据驱动的论据，以考虑将有刺黄蜂的生态系统服务价值与其他“有用”昆虫（例如蜜蜂）相提并论。最后，