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)
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)