Ceropales maculata

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Ceropales maculata
Ceropales maculata (47936916403).jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Pompilidae
Genus: Ceropales
Species:
C. maculata
Binomial name
Ceropales maculata
(Fabricius, 1775)
Synonyms
  • Maculata maculata
  • Ceropales semiannulatus
  • Ceropales tristis
  • Ceropales balearica [1]
Ceropales maculata Ceropales maculata P1250622a.jpg
Ceropales maculata
Ceropales maculata Ceropales maculata P1250620a.jpg
Ceropales maculata

Ceropales maculata is a kleptoparasitic spider wasp found in the holoarctic region. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Biology

Ceropales maculata is an uncommon spider wasp. This species intercepts other spider wasps engaged in prey transport and lays its eggs in the book lung of the captured spider. C. maculata then allows the other spider wasp to return to its nest, where the C. maculata larvae hatch, eat the host egg, and consume the spider. [5] [6]

Spider wasps kleptoparasitised by C. maculata include species in the genera Priocnemis , Pompilus , Agenioideus , Arachnospila , Anoplius , Episyron and Auplopus in Britain and Europe. Other species of non-Pompilid solitary wasp which use spiders as prey, for example the sphecid Miscophus, may also be parasitised by C. maculata.

This species is univoltine; adults are seen from May to September. [2]

Habitat

C. maculata can be found in sandy areas such as heathlands, coastal dunes and sand pits. [2]

Related Research Articles

Ctenizidae Family of spiders

Ctenizidae is a small family of mygalomorph spiders that construct burrows with a cork-like trapdoor made of soil, vegetation, and silk. They may be called trapdoor spiders, as are similar species, such as those of the families Liphistiidae, Barychelidae, and Cyrtaucheniidae, and some species in the Idiopidae and Nemesiidae. In 2018, the family Halonoproctidae was split off from the Ctenizidae, leaving only three genera; later, the genus Stasimopus was removed. The family now consists of only two genera and five species.

<i>Dolichovespula maculata</i> Species of wasp

Dolichovespula maculata is a species of yellowjacket and a member of the eusocial, cosmopolitan family Vespidae. It is known by many colloquial names, primarily bald-faced hornet, but also including bald-faced aerial yellowjacket, bald-faced wasp, bald hornet, white-faced hornet, blackjacket, white-tailed hornet, spruce wasp, and bull wasp. As a species of yellowjacket wasp, it is not a true hornet, which are in the genus Vespa. Colonies contain 400 to 700 workers, the largest recorded colony size in its genus, Dolichovespula. It builds a characteristic large hanging paper nest up to 58 centimeters (23 in) in length. Workers aggressively defend their nest by repeatedly stinging invaders.

Ichneumonidae Family of wasps

The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps or ichneumonids, is a parasitoid wasp family within the insect order Hymenoptera. This insect family is among the most species-rich branches of the tree of life. At the same time, it is one of the groups for which our knowledge most severely lags behind their actual diversity. The roughly 25,000 species described today probably represent less than a quarter of their true richness, but reliable estimates are lacking, as is much of the most basic knowledge about their ecology, distribution and evolution. Ichneumonid wasps, with very few exceptions, attack the immature stages of holometabolous insects and spiders, eventually killing their hosts. They thus fulfill an important role as regulators of insect populations, both in natural and semi-natural systems, making them promising agents for biological control.

Tarantula hawk Common name for two genera of wasps

A tarantula hawk is a spider wasp (Pompilidae) that preys on tarantulas. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis. They are one of the largest parasitoid wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food; a single egg is laid on the prey, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living prey.

Spider wasp Family of wasps

Wasps in the family Pompilidae are commonly called spider wasps, spider-hunting wasps, or pompilid wasps. The family is cosmopolitan, with some 5,000 species in six subfamilies. Nearly all species are solitary, and most capture and paralyze prey, though members of the subfamily Ceropalinae are kleptoparasites of other pompilids, or ectoparasitoids of living spiders.

<i>Steatoda nobilis</i> Species of spider

Steatoda nobilis is a spider in the genus Steatoda, known in the United Kingdom as the noble false widow and is often referred to as the false widow. As the common name indicates, the spider superficially resembles and is frequently confused for the black widow and other spiders in the genus Latrodectus. S. nobilis has medically significant venom, where in England, it has a reputation as one of the few local spider species that is capable of inflicting a painful bite to humans, with most bites resulting in symptoms similar to a bee or wasp sting.

<i>Zygiella x-notata</i> Species of spider

Zygiella x-notata, sometimes known as the missing sector orb weaver or the silver-sided sector spider, is a spider species in the family Araneidae. They are solitary spiders, residing in daily-spun orb webs. Z. x-notata is a member of the genus Zygiella, the orb-weaving spiders. The adult female is easily recognized by the characteristic leaf-like mark on her posterior opisthosoma, caudal to the yellow-brown cephalothorax.

Wasp Members of the order Hymenoptera which are not ants nor bees

A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as their common ancestor is shared by bees and ants. Many wasps, those in the clade Aculeata, can sting their insect prey.

<i>Cyrtophora citricola</i> Species of spider

Cyrtophora citricola, also known as the tropical tent-web spider, is an orb-weaver spider in the family Araneidae. It is found in Asia, Africa, Australia, Costa Rica, Hispaniola, Colombia, and Southern Europe. In 2000, it was discovered in Florida. C. citricola differs from many of its close relatives due its ability to live in a wide variety of environments. In North America and South America, the spider has caused extensive damage to agricultural operations.

Mammoth wasp Species of wasp

The mammoth wasp is a very large wasp, with the female reaching up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in), whereas the male is smaller. The species can be seen in warm weather, from May to September.

<i>Ammophila sabulosa</i> Species of wasp

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.

<i>Episyron rufipes</i> Species of wasp

Episyron rufipes, the red-legged spider wasp, is a red and black or completely black spider-hunting wasp.

<i>Pompilus cinereus</i> Species of wasp

Pompilus cinereus, the leaden spider wasp is the most widespread species of the Pompilus spider wasps, and throughout a large proportion of its wide distribution is the only species of Pompilus. It is the type species of the genus Pompilus and therefore of the family Pompilidae.

Cryptocheilus notatus is the largest species of spider wasps (Pompilidae) to be found in Great Britain reaching up to 18mm in length.

<i>Ceropales</i> Genus of wasps

Ceropales is a genus of kleptoparasitic spider wasps from the sub-family Ceropalinae of the family Pompilidae. They are characterised by the taking of the spider prey of other solitary wasps, mainly Pompilidae but members of the Sphecidae that provision with spider prey are sometimes also hosts. In some languages their name translates into English as "cuckoo spider wasp".

Homonotus sanguinolentus, the bloody spider-hunting wasp is a European species of Pompilid wasp.

<i>Aporus unicolor</i> Species of wasp

Aporus unicolor, common name cutpurse, is a highly specialised spider hunting wasp from the family Pompilidae.

<i>Agenioideus cinctellus</i> Species of wasp

Agenioideus cinctellus is a spider wasp of the subfamily Pompilinae with a Palearctic distribution.

<i>Anoplius viaticus</i> Species of wasp

Anoplius viaticus, commonly known as the black-banded spider wasp, is a species of spider wasp. These wasps are known as spider wasps because the females capture spiders to provide their offspring with food. The paralysed spider is cached in a burrow, the wasp lays an egg on it, and when this hatches, the developing wasp larva consumes the spider. This species is found in sandy heathland across most of Europe.

Anoplius infuscatus is a species of spider wasp found mainly in Eurasia.

References

  1. "Ceropales maculata maculata". Eunis.eea.europa.eu. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  2. 1 2 3 Edwards R. & Broad G. (eds), 1998, Provisional Atlas for the aculeate Hymenoptera of Britain and Ireland Part 2, NERC ISBN   1-870393-42-2
  3. "Species Ceropales maculata - BugGuide.Net". bugguide.net. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  4. "Ceropales maculata | Taxonomy Browser | BOLDSYSTEMS". www.boldsystems.org. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  5. Day, M. C. "Spider wasps." Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 6.4 (1988): 15
  6. "Heathland Pompilidae". Natureconservationimaging.com. Retrieved 2012-04-07.