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Hemipepsis Dahlbom

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

Hemipepsis Dahlbom 1844.Type species: Hemipepsis capensis  Dahlbom, 1844

Tetraondontonyx Ashmead, 1900. Type species: Tetraondontonyx rufipes Ashmead, 1900.

Xenopepsis Arnold, 1932. Type species: Xenopepsis commixta Arnold, 1932.
 

Hemipepsis aethiops Kohl, 1913 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Zambia)
 

Hemipepsis ascensoi (Zavattari, 1907) (Uganda, Zimbabwe)
 

Hemipepsis braunsi Arnold, 1932 (South Africa, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis brunniceps Taschenberg, 1869 (Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis buchardi Wahis, 2000 (Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan,Yemen)

Hemipepsis caelebs Arnold, 1932 (Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis capensis Fabricius, 1781 (South Africa)
 

Hemipepsis combusta combusta Smith, 1855 (Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis combusta tanganyikae Arnold,  (Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis corallipes Wahis, 2000 (

Hemipepsis dedjas Guérin, 1848 (Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe)
 

Hemipepsis erythropyga Arnold, 1932 (Nigeria)

Hemipepsis exul Kohl  (Madagascar)

Hemipepsis fallax Saussure, 1892 (Ethiopia)

Hemipepsis ferox Arnold, 1948 (Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis gestroi Gribodo, 1884 (South Africa, Uganda, West Africa, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis glabrata glabrata Klug, 1834  (Zimbabwe)
 

Hemipepsis glabrata anchietae Radoszkovsky, 1881  (Ethiopia)

Hemipepsis glabrata spectrum Smith, 1855  (South Africa, Zimbabwe)
 

Hemipepsis heros (Guérin, 1848) (Equatorial Africa: Ethiopia, Tanzania westwards to Senegal)
Hemipepsis cf. heros (Tanzania)
 

Hemipepsis heteroneura Turner, 1918 (Uganda)

Hemipepsis hottentota (Taschenberg, 1869) (Yemen)

Hemipepsis hova Saussure,   (Madagascar)

Hemipepsis hilaris Smith, 1879 (Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis inermis Arnold, 1932 (Cameroon)

Hemipepsis insignis Smith, 1855 (West Africa)

Hemipepsis iodoptera Stal, 1857  (South Africa, Uganda)

Hemipepsis iodoptera meridionalis Arnold,  (West Africa)

Hemipepsis kiogae Arnold, 1932 (Yemen)

Hemipepsis latirostris Arnold, 1932 (Uganda, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis lucernaris Wahis, 2000 (Yemen)

Hemipepsis luctuosa Arnold, 1948 (Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis mashonae Arnold, 1932 (Kenya, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis mlanjiensis Turner, 1918 (Ethiopia, Malawi)

Hemipepsis nenitra Saussure,   (Madagascar)

Hemipepsis obscurus Lucas, 1898 (Tanzania)

Hemipepsis ochropus Stal, 1857 (Cameroon, Gold Coast, Nigeria)

Hemipepsis perhirsuta Banks, 1940 (Madagascar)

Hemipepsis pilosipes Arnold, 1948 (Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis refulgens Turner, 1918 (Uganda)

Hemipepsis rufofemoratus Lucas, 1898 (Zanzibar)

Hemipepsis sabulosa Smith, 1855 (Egypt, Yemen)

Hemipepsis semenovi (Gussakowskij, 1932) (Eritrea, Iran, Yemen)

Hemipepsis sericeipennis Bingham, 1902 (South Africa, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis simpsoni Arnold, 1932 (Gold Coast)

Hemipepsis sinuosa Kohl, 1913 (Nigeria)

Hemipepsis sublivida Arnold, 1948 (Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis sulfureicornis Arnold, 1960 (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Hemipepsis tamisieri Guérin, 1848 (Angola, Ethiopia, Gold Coast, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe)
 

Hemipepsis turneri Arnold, 1936 (South Africa)

Hemipepsis unguicularis Kohl, 1913 (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Hemipepsis unifasciata Radley, 1881 (Angola, Ethiopia)

Hemipepsis variabilis Arnold, 1932 (Uganda)

Hemipepsis vespertilio Gerstaecker, 1857 (South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis vestitipennis Turner, 1918 (Somalia, Uganda, Yemen)

Hemipepsis vindex Smith, 1855 (Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Yemen, Zimbabwe)

Hemipepsis viridipennis Lucas, 1898 (Tanzania)

Hemipepsis yemenita Wahis, 2000 (Somalia, Yemen)

Hemipepsis species

Hemipepsis species

Hemipepsis species

Hemipepsis species

Hemipepsis species

Distribution

 Worldwide.

Biology

 Females hunt mainly Baboon spiders (Theraphosidae) and Rain spiders (Palystes), which they paralyse and drag to a pre-excavated burrow, where they lay an egg on the spider. On hatching the larva feeds on the preserved prey item. Species of Hemipepsis are important specialist pollinators of a diverse assemblage of African plants from Satyrium and Disa orchids (Orchidaceae) to Milkweeds (Apocynaceae) and Eucomis species (Asparagaceae subfamily Scilloideae), as well as plants with generalist pollination systems (Apiaceae, Vitaceae).

References

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

Johnson SD. 2005. Specialized pollination by spider-hunting wasps in the African orchid Disa sankeyi. Plant Systematics and Evolution 251: 153–160.

Johnson SD, Ellis A, Dötterl S. 2007. Specialization for pollination by beetles and wasps: the role of lollipop hairs and fragrance in Satyrium microrrhynchum (Orchidaceae). American Journal of Botany 94: 47–55.

Ollerton J, Johnson SD, Cranmer L, Kellie S. 2003. The pollination ecology of an assemblage of grassland asclepiads in South Africa. Annals of Botany 92: 807–834.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2006. Specialized pollination by large spider-hunting wasps and self-incompatibility in the African milkweed Pachycarpus asperifolius. International Journal of Plant Sciences 167: 1177–1186.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2008. Bimodal pollination by wasps and beetles in the African milkweed Xysmalobium undulatum. Biotropica 40: 568–574.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2009a. A key role for floral scent in a wasp-pollination system in Eucomis (Hyacinthaceae). Annals of Botany 103: 715–725.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2009b. The importance of scent and nectar filters in a specialized wasp-pollination system. Functional Ecology 23: 931–940.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2009c. Specialized pollination in the African milkweed Xysmalobium orbiculare: a key role for floral scent in the attraction of spider-hunting wasps. Plant Systematics and Evolution 280: 37–44.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2009d. New records of insect pollinators for South African asclepiads (Apocynaceae: Asclepiadoideae). South African Journal of Botany 75: 689–698.

Shuttleworth A, Johnson SD. 2009e. Palp-faction: an African milkweed dismembers its wasp pollinators. Environmental Entomology 38: 741–747.

Shuttleworth, A. & Johnson, S.D. 2012. The Hemipepsis wasp-pollination system in South Africa: a comparative analysis of trait convergence in a highly specialized plant guild. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 168: 278–299. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2012.01216.x

Steiner KE, Whitehead VB, Johnson SD. 1994. Floral and pollinator divergence in two sexually deceptive South African orchids. American Journal of Botany 81: 185–194.

Credits

Photographs © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa) or © Francois Retief or © Duncan Butchart or © Frédéric Durand (SHNAO).

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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