Cerceris fumipennis

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Cerceris fumipennis
Dorsal view cerceris.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Crabronidae
Genus: Cerceris
Species:
C. fumipennis
Binomial name
Cerceris fumipennis
Say, 1837

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.

Contents

Known C. fumipennis colonies in Ontario, Canada Cerceris in ontario.jpg
Known C. fumipennis colonies in Ontario, Canada

Identification

Female C. fumipennis Cerceris fumipennis female face.jpg
Female C. fumipennis
Male C. Fumipennis Cerceris fumipennis male face.jpg
Male C. Fumipennis

Cerceris fumipennis is distinguished by five conspicuous characteristics:

Biology

Entrance of a C. fumipennis nest Cerceristumulus.jpg
Entrance of a C. fumipennis nest

Cerceris fumipennis is a solitary ground-nesting wasp. Each lone female constructs and attempts to maintain a single subterranean nest for the duration of the flight season. Her solitary nest is in close proximity to others, forming a neighborhood or informal colony of nests. The nest's entrance is easily visible, marked by a small circular mound of earth. Each nest is composed of a single entrance hole which leads to subterranean cells. Like many crabronid and sphecid wasps, C. fumipennis females mass provision for their cells before laying an egg in them. Adult females provision their cells with beetles of the family Buprestidae.

When hunting for buprestid prey, the maximum foraging range of the wasp is estimated at 2 km with an estimated average flight distance of 750 meters from the nest. Once prey has been found, a female wasp will typically attack a target beetle by alighting on it, climbing over it, and grabbing it by the thorax with her mandibles before inserting her stinger into the base of the beetle's leg (in the membrane of the coxal joint, a gap in the buprestid's armour) and injecting a paralytic venom. Once at the nest entrance or in the burrow, the female wasp will sometimes re-sting poorly paralyzed prey in the same joint.

Within minutes of placing the final paralyzed beetle into its subterranean cell the adult wasp lays a single hotdog-shaped egg along the beetle's mesosternum. Prey beetles are paralyzed, not killed, ensuring that each beetle will remain fresh until the wasp larva can begin feeding upon it. After the egg is laid, the completed cell is detached from the burrow as the female wasp backfills the access with 3 – 6 cm of soil.

Once one cell is completed the wasp begins work on the next cell by excavating in a new direction off the main burrow. Most cells (approximately 5 – 12, but up to 24) are constructed 7 – 20 cm below grade with the egg, larva and pupal stages all developing within the confines of the single nest. In Ontario, the duration of time spent in the brood cell is about 10 months.

Emergence dates and speed of the life cycle vary across the wasp's broad distribution. In Ontario, the flight season typically begins the last week of June and continues until early September. Emergence dates and duration of flight season can be influenced by droughts, which could postpone emergence or shorten the flight season. Ontario colonies are associated with somewhat disturbed sites compacted by human activity such as baseball diamonds, parking areas, infrequently used roads, roadsides, footpaths and the soil around campfire pits.

Value for biosurveillance

A C. fumipennis entering a nest with two buprestid prey Enternest.jpg
A C. fumipennis entering a nest with two buprestid prey

In collecting buprestid prey, C. fumipennis has also been recorded collecting emerald ash borer (EAB; Agrilus planipennis ), a pest insect known for killing North American species of ash trees. EAB has proven difficult to detect using traditional methods of ground/visual surveys and sticky traps, both of which are costly, labour-intensive and at times destructive or impractical. Biosurveillance, using another species to survey for a pest species, offers an alternative approach for the detection and survey of EAB populations. Preliminary studies have shown that the wasp's EAB detection skills far surpass any comparable human technology. C. fumipennis has become a novel ally in efforts to monitor for EAB in Canada and the United States.

Researchers have unofficially nicknamed C. fumipennis the "Smokey Winged Beetle Bandit”. This name has now been submitted to the Entomological Society of America's committee on common names. By transporting mobile populations of this wasp, biosurveillance could facilitate an early warning system for the EAB across the United States & Canada. [1] By using trained wasp watchers to look for what C. fumipennis brings back to its ground nest entrance, this could augment an early warning system that currently only utilizes "Purple Barney traps" that mimic the same color spectrum as Fraxinus ash tree leaves, to attract the EAB.

Related Research Articles

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<i>Sphecius speciosus</i> Species of wasp

Sphecius speciosus, often simply referred to as the cicada killer or the cicada hawk, is a large, solitary digger wasp species in the family Crabronidae. The name may be applied to any species of crabronid that preys on cicadas, though in North America, it is typically applied to this species, also referred to as the eastern cicada killer in order to further differentiate it from the multiple other examples of related wasp species. Sometimes, they are called sand hornets, although they are not hornets, which belong to the family Vespidae. This species can be found 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. Cicada killers exert a measure of natural control on cicada populations, and as such, they may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which the cicadas feed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerald ash borer</span> Species of beetle

The emerald ash borer, also known by the acronym EAB, is a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years. In its native range, it is typically found at low densities and does not cause significant damage to trees native to the area. Outside its native range, it is an invasive species and is highly destructive to ash trees native to Europe and North America. Before it was found in North America, very little was known about emerald ash borer in its native range; this has resulted in much of the research on its biology being focused in North America. Local governments in North America are attempting to control it by monitoring its spread, diversifying tree species, and through the use of insecticides and biological control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mud dauber</span> Common name for several species of wasp

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potter wasp</span> Subfamily of insects

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philanthinae</span> Subfamily of wasps

The subfamily Philanthinae is one of the largest groups in the wasp family Crabronidae, with about 1100 species in 9 genera, most of them in Cerceris; Alexander treats it as having only 8 genera. Historically, this subfamily has frequently been accorded family status. The subfamily consists of solitary, predatory wasps, each genus having its own distinct and consistent prey preferences. The adult females dig tunnels in the ground for nesting.

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Ammophila sabulosa, the red-banded sand wasp, is a species of the subfamily Ammophilinae of the solitary hunting wasp family Sphecidae, also called digger wasps. Found across Eurasia, the parasitoid 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.

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Hunting wasps are members of various taxa of the insect order Hymenoptera. Their habits and affinities vary in many ways, but all practise parental care of their larvae in that they capture prey, usually insects, to feed their larvae. Whether solitary or social, most species construct some form of protection or nest in which they hide the prey and in which the larvae can feed and pupate in reasonable security.

Cerceris californica is a species of wasp in the family Crabronidae. It is found in Central America and North America. This species is a predator of Buprestidae beetles.

<i>Palmodes occitanicus</i> Species of wasp

Palmodes occitanicus is a species of thread-waisted wasp in the family Sphecidae.

References

  1. "Smokey Winged Beetle Bandit Enlisted in NH's Emerald Ash Borer Fight". UNH Today. 2 June 2015.