胡蜂科（Vespidae）是膜翅目胡蜂总科下的一个大科，其下有将近五千种生物，既有群居的蜂；也有独居的蜂。其下的多种生物都是花粉的传播者。

胡蜂科下的马蜂亚科（Polistinae）和胡蜂亚科（Vespinae）全部是群居性生物，而蜾蠃亚科、Euparagiinae和Masarinae与之完全相反，全部是独居生物。只有狭腹胡蜂亚科的生物二者兼具。

马蜂亚科和胡蜂亚科的生物并不直接取用食物，而是在将其喂给幼虫后食用幼虫排出的含有高氨基酸的液体。

The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as Polistes fuscatus, Polistes annularis, and Vespula germanica) and many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually only last one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, while others are notable predators of pest insect species.