Sphex

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Sphex
SphexPensylvanicus.jpg
Sphex pensylvanicus on a katydid
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Infraorder: Aculeata
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Sphecidae
Subfamily: Sphecinae
Genus: Sphex
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Sphex flavipennis
Fabricius, 1793
Species

More than 130; see text

Wasps of the genus Sphex (commonly known as digger wasps) are cosmopolitan predators that sting and paralyze prey insects. Sphex is one of many genera in the old digger wasp family Sphecidae ( sensu lato ), though most apart from the Sphecinae have now been moved to the family Crabronidae. [1] There are over 130 known Sphex species.

Contents

Behaviour

In preparation for egg laying, they construct a protected "nest" (some species dig nests in the ground, while others use pre-existing holes) and then stock it with captured insects. Typically, the prey are left alive, but paralyzed by wasp toxins. The wasps lay their eggs in the provisioned nest and the wasp larvae feed on the paralyzed insects as they develop.

The great golden digger wasp ( Sphex ichneumoneus ) is found in North America. The developing wasps spend the winter in their nest. When the new generation of adults emerge, they contain the genetically programmed behaviors required to carry out another season of nest building. During the summer, a female might build as many as six nests, each with several compartments for her eggs. The building and provisioning of the nests takes place in a stereotypical, step-by-step fashion.

Sphex has been shown, as in some Jean-Henri Fabre studies, [2] not to count how many crickets it collects for its nest. Although the wasp instinctively searches for four crickets, it cannot take into account a lost cricket, whether the cricket has been lost to ants or flies or simply been misplaced. Sphex drags its cricket prey towards its burrow by the antennae; if the antennae of the cricket are cut off, the wasp would not think to continue to pull its prey by a leg.

The navigation abilities of Sphex were studied by the ethologist Niko Tinbergen. [3] Richard Dawkins and Jane Brockmann later studied female rivalry over nesting holes in Sphex ichneumoneus. [4]

Use in philosophy

Some writers in the philosophy of mind, most notably Daniel Dennett, have cited Sphex's behavior for their arguments about human and animal free will. [5]

Some Sphex wasps drop a paralyzed insect near the opening of the nest. Before taking provisions into the nest, the Sphex first inspects the nest, leaving the prey outside. During the inspection, an experimenter can move the prey a few inches away from the opening. When the Sphex emerges from the nest ready to drag in the prey, it finds the prey missing. The Sphex quickly locates the moved prey, but now its behavioral "program" has been reset. After dragging the prey back to the opening of the nest, once again the Sphex is compelled to inspect the nest, so the prey is again dropped and left outside during another stereotypical inspection of the nest. This iteration can be repeated several times without the Sphex changing its sequence; by some accounts, endlessly. Dennett's argument quotes an account of Sphex behavior from Dean Wooldridge's Machinery of the Brain (1963). [6] Douglas Hofstadter [7] and Daniel Dennett [8] have used this mechanistic behavior as an example of how seemingly thoughtful behavior can actually be quite mindless, the opposite of free will (or, as Dennett described it, sphexishness).

Philosopher Fred Keijzer challenges this use of Sphex, citing experiments in which behavioral adaptations are observed after many iterations. Keijzer sees the persistence of the Sphex example in cognitive theory as an indication of its rhetorical usefulness, not its factual accuracy. [9] Keijzer also noted that repeated inspection of a disturbed nest may very well be an adaptive behavior, thus diminishing the aptness of Hofstadter's metaphor. [9]

Species

Sphex argentatus Sphex argentatus fumosus 1.jpg
Sphex argentatus
Sphex funerarius with prey

The genus Sphex contains 132 extant species: [10]

Fossil Species

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sphecidae</span> Family of wasps

The Sphecidae are a cosmopolitan family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps, mud daubers, and other thread-waisted wasps.

<i>Sceliphron</i> Genus of wasps

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<i>Pepsis</i> Genus of wasps

Pepsis is a genus of spider wasps belonging to the family Pompilidae. Species within this genus are also called tarantula hawks, as they usually hunt tarantulas, similarly to many species in the genus Hemipepsis. These wasps are restricted to the Americas, with the related genus Hemipepsis occurring in both Old and New Worlds.

<i>Larra</i> (wasp) Genus of insects

Larra, also known as mole cricket wasps or mole cricket hunters, is a genus of wasps that prey on various species of mole crickets. They have gained prominence as integrated pest management agents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pemphredonidae</span> Family of wasps

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<i>Chalybion</i> Genus of wasps

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<i>Ammophila</i> (wasp) Genus of wasps

Ammophila is the type genus of the subfamily Ammophilinae of the hunting wasp family Sphecidae. Ammophila is a large and cosmopolitan genus, with over 200 species, mostly occurring in the warmer regions of all continents apart from Antarctica.

<i>Chlorion</i> Genus of wasps

Chlorion is a genus of parasitoid wasps in the family Sphecidae. Species have been recorded from the Americas, Africa and tropical Asia through to Java; they appear to prey mostly on Orthopteran insects.

<i>Podalonia</i> Genus of wasps

Podalonia is a genus of parasitoidal wasps in the family Sphecidae.

<i>Prionyx</i> Genus of wasps

Prionyx is a genus of wasps in the family Sphecidae. They are known to hunt and feed on grasshoppers.

<i>Crossocerus</i> Genus of insects

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<i>Tachytes</i> Genus of wasps

Tachytes is a genus of predatory, solitary wasps, containing about 300 species.

<i>Hemipepsis</i> Genus of wasps

Hemipepsis is a genus of large pepsine spider wasps found throughout the tropics. They are commonly known as tarantula hawks. Hemipepsis wasps are morphologically similar to the related genera Pepsis and Entypus, but distinguishable by the pattern of wing venation. In South Africa 18 plant species from three plant families, the Apocynaceae, Orchidaceae, and Asparagaceae subfamily Scilloideae are pollinated exclusively by Hemipepsis wasps.

<i>Stizoides</i> Genus of wasps

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<i>Ferreola</i> (wasp) Genus of wasps

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References

  1. ↑ Pulawski, Wojciech J. (25 April 2021) [2014]. "Family Group Names and Classification: and taxa excluded from Sphecidae sensu lato" (PDF). California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Fabre, J.H. (1915/2001). The hunting wasps. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
  3. ↑ Tinbergen, N. (1974). Curious naturalists (2nd Ed). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  4. ↑ Dawkins, Richard; Brockmann, H. Jane (1980). "Do Digger Wasps Commit the Concorde Fallacy?" (PDF). Animal Behaviour. 28 (3): 892–896. doi:10.1016/s0003-3472(80)80149-7. S2CID   54319297 . Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  5. ↑ Dennett, Daniel (1973). "Mechanism and responsibility". In T. Honderich (Ed.), Essays on freedom of action. London: Routledge.
  6. ↑ Dean Wooldridge (1963). The Machinery of the Brain. McGraw-Hill
  7. ↑ Hofstadter, Douglas (1985). "On the seeming paradox of mechanizing creativity". In Metamagical themas. Penguin. pp. 526–546.
  8. ↑ Dennett, Daniel (1973). "Mechanism and responsibility". In T. Honderich (Ed.), Essays on freedom of action. London: Routledge.
  9. 1 2 Keijzer, Fred. "The Sphex story: How the cognitive sciences kept repeating an old and questionable anecdote" (PDF). Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Pulawski, Wojciech (11 October 2021). "Sphex" (PDF). California Academy of Sciences .
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