Wasps of the genus Sphex are cosmopolitan predators that sting and paralyze prey insects. Sphex is one of many genera in the old digger wasp family Sphecidae, though most apart from the Sphecinae have now been moved to the family Crabronidae. There are over 130 known Sphex species.
Sphecius speciosus, often simply referred to as the cicada killer or the cicada hawk, is a large digger wasp species. Cicada killers are large, solitary wasps in the family Crabronidae. The name may be applied to any species of crabronid which preys on cicadas, though in North America it is typically applied to a single species, S. speciosus. However, since there are multiple species of related wasps, it is more appropriate to call it the eastern cicada killer. This species occurs in the eastern and midwest U.S. and southwards into Mexico and Central America. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them. In North America they are sometimes called sand hornets, although they are not hornets, which belong to the family Vespidae. Cicada killers exert a measure of natural control on cicada populations and thus may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which their cicada feed.
Zyzzyx is a monospecific genus of sand wasp, containing a brightly colored, medium-sized species, Zyzzyx chilensis. It is primarily a predator on flies, but has been observed to consume skippers. "Zyzzyx" is a replacement name proposed in 1937 by V. S. L. Pate for Therapon, originally described by J. Parker in 1929.
The Sphecidae are a cosmopolitan family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps, mud daubers, and other thread-waisted wasps.
The Crabronidae are a large paraphyletic group of wasps, including nearly all of the species formerly comprising the now-defunct superfamily Sphecoidea. It collectively includes well over 200 genera, containing well over 9000 species. Crabronids were originally a part of Sphecidae, but the latter name is now restricted to a separate family based on what was once the subfamily Sphecinae. Several of the subfamilies of Crabronidae are often treated as families in their own right, as is true of the most recent phylogenies.
Philanthus triangulum, commonly known as the European beewolf, bee-killer wasp or the bee-eating philanthus, is a solitary wasp that lives in the Western Palearctic and Afrotropics. Although the adults of the species are herbivores, the species derives its name from the behaviour of the inseminated females, who hunt Western honey bees. The female places several of its paralysed prey together with an egg in a small underground chamber, to serve as food for the wasp larvae. All members of the genus Philanthus hunt various species of bees, but P. triangulum is apparently the only one that specialises in Western honey bees.
The Bembicini, or sand wasps, are a large tribe of crabronid wasps, comprising 20 genera. Bembicines are predators on various groups of insects. The type of prey captured tends to be rather consistent within each genus, with flies (Diptera) being the most common type of prey taken. Nests are typically short, simple burrows, with a single enlarged chamber at the bottom which is stocked with freshly killed prey items for the developing wasp larva; the egg may sometimes be laid before the chamber is completely stocked. It is common for numerous females to excavate nests within a small area where the soil is suitable, creating large and sometimes very dense nesting aggregations, which tend to attract various species of parasitic flies and wasps, many of which are cleptoparasites; in some cases, the sand wasps prey on their own parasites, a surprisingly rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Although sand wasps are normally yellow and black, some are black and white with bright green eyes.
Bembix rostrata is a protected species of sand wasp native to Central Europe. The genus Bembix - of which B. rostrata is among the most distinctive species - has over 340 species worldwide and is found mostly in warm regions with open, sandy soils; Australia and Africa have a particularly rich variety of species.
Cerceris is a genus of wasps in the family Crabronidae. It is the largest genus in the family, with over 1030 described species and subspecies. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species on every continent.
The Nyssonini are a group of cleptoparasitic bembicine wasps generally distinguished by the petiolate second submarginal cell of the forewing and rather strongly sculptured head and mesosoma. Most species also bear sharp propodeal projections and spiny hind tibiae.
Philanthus gibbosus, which is commonly referred to as a beewolf due to its predation practices, is a species of bee-hunting wasp and is the most common and widespread member of the genus in North America. P. gibbosus is of the order Hymenoptera and the genus Philanthus. It is native to the Midwestern United States and the western Appalachians. P. gibbosus are often observed to visit flowers and other plants in search of insect prey to feed their young. The prey that P. gibbosus catches is then coated in a layer of pollen and fed to the young wasps.
Cerceris fumipennis, the only species of buprestid-hunting Crabronidae occurring in eastern North America, is found throughout the continental United States east of the Rockies: from Texas and Florida north to Maine, Wyoming, and into Canada. The wasps most often nest in open areas of hard-packed sandy soil surrounded by woody habitat suitable for their buprestid beetle prey.
The thin-waisted social wasps, which typically reside in Neotropical regions from Central to South America, are a small genus of wasps that build nests and live in colonies ranging in size from 1 to 18 members. Microstigmus is widely considered to be the only true eusocial species within the family Crabronidae. Like all Hymenoptera, Microstigmus has an interesting sex determination pattern. Females are 2n (diploid), spawning from eggs that have been fertilized, while males are 1n (haploid) and spawn from unfertilized eggs. Female wasps contain the eggs within their egg sac and have the option of fertilizing them or not, thus having complete control of the gender of their offspring. This wasp genus, part of the suborder Apocrita, is distinguished physically by the narrow waist (petiole) between the end segment of the thorax (mesosoma) and the beginning of the abdomen (metasoma). Specifically, it is in the subgroup of "apoid wasps", those that exhibit social behavior in nesting and foraging. Evidence does exist that in some species social altruism is visible; however, studies on these topics have been limited. The small size and enclosed nest structure makes it difficult to obtain significant data. Although it was originally classified under the Sphecidae family due to its elongated petiole, Microstigmus has been reclassified into the new Crabronidae family.
Sphecius grandis, also called the western cicada killer, is a species of cicada killer wasp (Sphecius). The western species shares the same nesting biology as its fellow species, the eastern cicada killer. S. grandis, like all other species of the genus Sphecius, mainly provides cicadas for its offspring. It forms nest aggregations and mates and broods once in a year, in July and early August. The wasp is on average 3 cm (1 in) to 5 cm (2 in) in length and is amber-yellow with yellow rings on its abdomen.
Ammophila sabulosa, the red-banded sand wasp, is a species of the subfamily Ammophilinae of the hunting wasp family Sphecidae. Found in northern Europe, the wasp is notable for the mass provisioning behaviour of the females, hunting caterpillars mainly on sunny days, paralysing them with a sting, and burying them in a burrow with a single egg. The species is also remarkable for the extent to which females parasitise their own species, either stealing prey from nests of other females to provision their own nests, or in brood parasitism, removing the other female's egg and laying one of her own instead.
Gorytes quinquecinctus is a species of sand wasps belonging to the family Crabronidae.
Stizus fasciatus is a species of sand wasps belonging to the family Crabronidae.
Bembecinus tridens is a species of sand wasps belonging to the family Crabronidae.
Argogorytes mystaceus is a species of solitary wasp in the family Crabronidae.
Cerceris rybyensis, the ornate tailed digger wasp, is a Palearctic species of solitary wasp from the family Crabronidae which specialised in hunting small to medium-sized mining bees. It is the type species of the genus Cerceris and was named as Sphex rybyensis by Carl Linnaeus in 1771.
