Distribution

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Crimea, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Israel,  Italy, Kazakhstan, Libya, [?Madagascar], Morocco, Mongolia, Portugal, Romania,  Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,  Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia.

Biology

Cleptoparasites. Females lay their eggs on Orthoptera prey in nests of other crabronid wasp species (Ohl, 1999).

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.

Ohl, M. 1999. Stizoides Guérin-Méneville, 1844, and the evolution of cleptoparasitism in Hymenoptera (Apoidea: "Sphecidae"). Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Zoologische Reihe 75: 63-169.

Links

CATALOG OF WORLD SPHECIDAE sensu lato (= Apoidea excluding bees) compiled by
Wojciech J. Pulawski (California Academy of Sciences).

Credits

Photographs © Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Map illustration © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa).