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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Spider Wasps, Velvet Ants and allies (Pompiloidea) » Club-horned Wasps (Sapygidae)

Family Sapygidae - Club-horned Wasps

Classification · Other Common Names · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Food · Remarks · Works Cited

Krombeinopyga pumila? - Krombeinopyga pumila

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)

Superfamily Pompiloidea (Spider Wasps, Velvet Ants and allies)

Family Sapygidae (Club-horned Wasps)

Other Common Names

Sapygid Wasps

Explanation of Names

Sapygidae Latreille, 1810

Numbers

17 spp. in 5 genera and 2 subfamilies in our area;(1)(2) ~80 spp. in 12 genera worldwide

Fedtschenkiinae

1. Fedtschenkia (1 sp.: F. anthracina)

Sapyginae

2. Eusapyga (5 spp.)

3. Krombeinopyga (2 spp.)

4. Polochrum (1 spp.)

5. Sapyga (8 spp.)

Size

10‒15 mm(3)

Identification

Usually black spotted or banded with yellow, eyes deeply notched. Short legs. Differ from Myzininae (Tiphiidae) in being smaller and in lacking mesosternal lobes. Differ from Mutillidae in having the body bare.

Key to genera by Kurzenko (1996).(2)

Food

Larvae are parasites or cleptoparasites of other aculeate larvae, esp. of leaf-cutting bees that nest in hollow twigs(3)

Remarks

Widespread but rather uncommon

Most diverse in the western US. Only 6 species are reported east of Texas: E. rubripes carolina, S. centrata, S. confluenta, S. louisi, S. maculata, & S. martinii.

Works Cited

1.	Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.

2.	A new Nearctic genus of Sapygidae with a key to the Nearctic and Palaearctic genera (Hymenoptera, Sapygidae) Kurzenko N.V. 1996. Mem. Ent. Soc. Wash. 17: 89-94.

3.	American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.

Contributed by Beatriz Moisset on 18 May, 2006 - 10:27am
Additional contributions by waspGeorge, Aaron Schusteff, v belov, PaleoJon, bdagley
Last updated 11 April, 2024 - 1:36am

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