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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

Wasp (?) and friend - Sapyga martinii Thynnidae? Bee - Sapyga centrata Id help needed - bee Krombeinopyga pumila Sapyga louisi? - Sapyga louisi Krombeinopyga pumila? - Krombeinopyga pumila Sapyga louisi
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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