Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Sphex pensylvanicus - Great Black Digger Wasp

Big Black Wasp ID Request - Sphex pensylvanicus - male Please correct or confirm Sphex pensylvanicus (Great Black Wasp) - Sphex pensylvanicus wasp 3 - Sphex pensylvanicus wasp - Sphex pensylvanicus - female Unidentified Spider Wasp - Sphex pensylvanicus Unnown wasp - Sphex pensylvanicus NC Sphecinae - Sphex pensylvanicus - male Sphex pensylvanicus? - Sphex pensylvanicus - female
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)
No Taxon (Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps)
Family Sphecidae (Thread-waisted Wasps)
Subfamily Sphecinae
Tribe Sphecini
Genus Sphex
Species pensylvanicus (Great Black Digger Wasp)
Other Common Names
Great Black Wasp
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Ammobia pensylvanica, Chlorion pensylvanicum, Sphex pensylvanicus var. robustisoma Strand 1916
Explanation of Names
Sphex pensylvanicus Linnaeus 1763
Size
average BL: ♂ 22 mm, ♀ 28 mm(1)
Range
se. Canada (ON-QC) & throughout the US (except the northwest) into Mexico
Season
Jul-Sep in NC(2)
Food
Provision nests (in burrow in soft earth) with katydids, such as Microcentrum or Scudderia, usually ~3 prey items per nest.
Life Cycle
see (3)
Works Cited
1.A reclassification of the Sphecinae with a revision of the Nearctic species of the tribes Sceliphronini and Sphecini
Bohart RM and Menke AS. 1963. University of California Publications in Entomology 30:91-182.
2.Insects of North Carolina
C.S. Brimley. 1938. North Carolina Department of Agriculture.
3.Wasp Farm
Howard Ensign Evans. 1963. Comstock Publishing.