Prionyx funebris - WaspWeb

Prionyx funebris (Berland)

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Apoidea; Family: Sphecidae; Subfamily: Sphecinae; Tribe: Sphecini; Genus: Prionyx)

Sphex funebris Berland, 1926.

Mapungubwe National Park, south of Mapungubwe Hill, S 22°12’48’’ E 29°23’13’’, 528 m asl., May 2013. Photograph © Jonathan Ball (Cape Town).

Specimens in Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town (SAMC)

Distribution	Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa.
Biology	Excavate nests in soil and are mostly gregarious. Colonies may exist for many years. They prey on grasshoppers (Orthoptera) in the family Tettigoniidae, and less often crickets in the families Gryllacrididae and Gryllidae (Bohart & Menke, 1976).
References	Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A. S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: a Generic Revision. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Brothers D.J. 1999. Phylogeny and evolution of wasps, ants and bees (Hymenoptera, Chrysidoidea, Vespoidea and Apoidea) Zoologica Scripta 28: 233–250. Finnamore, A.T. & Michener, C.D. 1993. Superfamily Apoidea (pp. 279-357). In GOULET, H. & HUBER, J. (eds). Hymenoptera of the World: an identification guide to families. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 668 pp.
Links	CATALOG OF WORLD SPHECIDAE sensu lato (= Apoidea excluding bees) compiled by Wojciech J. Pulawski (California Academy of Sciences).
Credits	Photographs © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa), or © Jonathan Ball (Cape Town).

Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

Citation: van Noort, S. 2024. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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