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Prionyx subfuscatus (Dahlbom)

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

Sphex subfuscatus Dahlbom, 1845

Enodia chrysoptera Ruthe & Stein, 1857
Gastrosphaeria anthracina A.Costa, 1858
Sphex desertorum Eversmann, 1849
Sphex namkumiensis Laidlaw, 1929
Sphex nigritus Lucas, 1849
Sphex soror Dahlbom, 1845
 

Classification


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

 


Distribution

Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.

Also Palaearctic region: Albania, Algeria, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malta, Mongolia, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

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).


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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