Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Myzinum

Five-banded Tiphiid Myzinum quinquecinctum - Myzinum - female Irvine Park Wasps #2 - Myzinum - female Wasp, Fly, or what? - Myzinum Just what is this?! - Myzinum Tiphiid Wasp ? - Myzinum - male Myzinum sp. on Mountain-mint (Pycnanthemum) - Myzinum unknown wasp - Myzinum - female Myzinum
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps)
Superfamily Vespoidea (Ants, Stinging Wasps, and Hornets)
Family Tiphiidae (Tiphiid Wasps)
Subfamily Myzininae
Genus Myzinum
Other Common Names
Five-banded Tiphid (M. quinquecinctum)
Explanation of Names
Myzinum Latreille, 1803
Numbers
Nearctica (1) lists 13 species.
Size
19 mm for M. quinquecinctum (2), same species elsewhere reported as 30-35 mm (3)
Range
Eastern and central North America--M. quinquecinctum
Habitat
Typically meadows, fields, lawns (3).
Season
July-September (Minnesota), June-October (several species, North Carolina)
Food
Adults found on flowers, take nectar.
Life Cycle
Larvae are parasitoids of white grubs (scarab larvae), especially May Beetles, Phyllophaga. Female lays one egg per grub in soil. Larvae hatches, penetrates host, first feeding on non-essential tissues, later feeding on essential organs and killng host. Pupae overwinter in soil and adults emerge in early summer, with one generation per year (3).
Print References
Salsbury, p. 263--photo of M. quinquecinctum (2)
Milne, p. 816, plate 475--M. quinquecinctum (3)
Drees, p. 283, fig. 345 (4)
Brimley, p. 436 lists 5 species (as Myzine) for North Carolina (5).
Internet References
Works Cited
1.Nearctica: Nomina Insecta Nearctica
2.Insects in Kansas
By Glenn A. Salsbury and Stephan C. White
3.National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders
By Lorus and Margery Milne
4.A Field Guide to Common Texas Insects
By Bastiaan M. Drees, John A. Jackman
5.Insects of North Carolina
By C.S. Brimley