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Dichragenia Haupt

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Pompiloidea; Family: Pompilidae; Subfamily: Pepsinae)

Dichragenia Haupt, 1950

 
 

Dichragenia neavei (Kohl, 1913)
 

Dichragenia macula (Saussure, 1891)

Dichragenia pulchricoma (Arnold, 1934)

Dichragenia neavei turret. Photograph © Sarah Gess (Albany Museum)

Dichragenia pulchricoma turret. Photograph © Sarah Gess (Albany Museum)

Distribution

 Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, South Africa, Zimbabwe.

Biology

 Females hunt and paralyze ground wandering spiders (Lycosidae; Pisauridae; Salticidae; Sparassidae) removing the spider's legs before transporting the prey to their nest. Two African species Dichragenia pulchricoma (Arnold) and Dichragenia neavei (Kohl) construct well-developed entrance turrets (Evans & Shimizu 1996, 1998; Gess & Gess, 2014).

References

Evans HE & Shimizu A. 1996. The evolution of nest building and communal nesting in Ageniellini (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). Journal of Natural History 30: 1633-1648.

Evans HE & Shimizu A. 1998. Further notes on the nesting behaviour of Ageniellini (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). Journal of Natural History 32: 1411–1412.

Gess FW. 1981. Some aspects of an ethological study of the aculeate wasps and the bees of a karroid area in the vicinity of Grahamstown, South Africa. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museum, Natural History 14: 1–80.

Gess FW, Gess SK. 1974. An ethological study of Dichragenia pulchricoma (Arnold) (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), a southern African spider-hunting wasp which builds a turreted subterranean nest. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums 9: 187–214.

Gess FW, Gess SK. 1976. Ethological notes on Dichragenia neavei (Kohl) (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), an African spider-hunting wasp building a turreted, subterranean nest. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums 11: 129–134.

Gess, F.W. & Gess S.K. 1977. Bricks without straw the nesting of the wasp Dichragenia pulchricoma (Arnold). The Eastern Cape Naturalist 61: 6-8.

Gess SK, Gess FW 2014. Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. 320 pp.

Picker, M., Griffiths, C & Weaving, A. 2002. Field Guide to Insects of South Africa. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.

Credits

Photographs © Frédéric Durand (SHNAO) or Sarah Gess (Albany Museum)

Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

 

Citation: van Noort, S. 2025. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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