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Subfamily Brachycistidinae

Representative Images

Mutillid? - Brachycistis - male Red wasp in El Paso, Texas - Colocistis - male Brachycistidinae? Male? - Brachycistis - male Male, Brachycistidinae - Colocistis crassa - male Brachycistis? - Brachycistis - male Deep Canyon-0BG.J.1966.02 - Stilbopogon - male Male, Brachycistidinae? - Brachycistis - male Small red and black nocturnal wasp - Brachycistis - male

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 Tiphioidea
Family Tiphiidae (Tiphiid Wasps)
Subfamily Brachycistidinae

Other Common Names

nocturnal tiphiid wasps (only applies to the western hemisphere species)

Explanation of Names

Brachycistidinae Kimsey 1991

Numbers

66 spp. in 10 genera in our area; ~80 spp. in 12 genera total(1)
not yet in the guide (sp.#): Brachycistellus (1) · Brachycistina (1) · Glyptacros (5) · Hadrocistis (2) · Paraquemaya (1 in our area, 4 total) · Sedomaya (1)

Identification

no felt line on tergite II, unlike in Mutillidae & Bradynobaenidae (William Ericson's comment)

Range

w. NA

Habitat

females are wingless and burrow in sand, only coming out to breed; males are nocturnal and come to light, sometimes by the thousands

Food

the only recoded host for the subfamily is larva of Eusattus or a closely related tenbrionid (Borowiec & Kimsey 2015)

See Also

Chyphotidae · Mutillidae · Myrmosidae

Works Cited

1.Phylogeny and checklist of the nocturnal tiphiids of the Western Hemisphere (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae: Brachycistidinae)
Kimsey L.S., Wasbauer M.S. 2006. J. Hymenopt. Res. 15: 9-25.
Contributed by Matthias Buck on 6 July, 2007 - 5:17pm
Additional contributions by Robin McLeod, v belov, PaleoJon
Last updated 30 October, 2023 - 4:57pm

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