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Delta caffrum (Linné)

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Vespoidea; Family: Vespidae; Subfamily: Eumeninae; Genus: Delta)

Vespa caffra (Linné, 1767). Type in ?



Blue Hill Nature Reserve. Photograph © Alan Lee (Blue Hill) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63808731


Distribution

Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, Sudan.

Biology

Mud nest usually built on surfaces of rocks, walls or branches and trunks of trees, either as a single pot or as a group of cells covered by an outer envelope; prey are usually geometrid moth caterpillars (Gess & Gess, 2014).

References

Bequaert J. 1918. A revision of the Vespidae of the Belgian Congo based on the collection of the American museum Congo expedition, with a list of Ethiopian diplopterous wasps. Bulletin of the American Musuem of Natural History 39: 2-384.

Carpenter J. M. 1986. A synonymic generic checklist of the Eumeninae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Psyche 93: 61-90.

Carpenter, J. M. & M. Madl. 2009. A catalogue of the Vespidae of the Malagasy Subregion (Insecta, Hymenoptera). Linzer Biologische Beiträge 41 (2): 1871-1935.

Carpenter, J.M., J. Gusenleitner & M. Madl. 2009. A catalogue of the Eumeninae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) of the Ethiopian Region excluding Malagasy Subregion. Part I: Introduction, Key to Genera, Genera Aethiopicodynerus Gusenleitner 1997 to Cyrtolabulus van der VECHT 1969. Linzer Biologische Beiträge 41 (1): 513-638.

Carpenter, J.M., J. Gusenleitner & M. Madl. 2010. A catalogue of the Eumeninae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) of the Ethiopian Region excluding Malagasy Subregion. Part II: Genera Delta de Saussure 1885 to Zethus FABRICIUS 1804 and Species Incertae Sedis. Linzer Biologische Beiträge 42 (1): 95-315.

Carpenter, J.M., J. Gusenleitner & M. Madl. 2010. A Catalogue of the Eumeninae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) of the Ethiopian Region excluding Malagasy Subregion. Part III: Classification, Additions, Corrections and Index. Linzer Biologische Beiträge 42 (1): 919-1004.

Gess, S.K. & Gess, F.W. 2014. Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. 320 pp.

Credits

Photographs © Peter Webb (Irene, Pretoria), or © Alan Lee (Blue Hill)


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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