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Genus Tachytes

Square-headed Wasp - Tachytes crassus - female wasp - Tachytes - female The Six Wasp Special - #2 of 6 - Tachytes distinctus - female Which Tachytes? - Tachytes distinctus - male wasp ? - Tachytes - female Green eyed wasp, bee, ant, ??? - Tachytes Square-headed  Wasp - Tachytes guatemalensis - male A reddish variant of Tachytes validus? - Tachytes - 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)
No Taxon (Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps)
Family Crabronidae (Square-headed Wasps, Sand Wasps, and Allies)
Subfamily Crabroninae
Tribe Larrini
Subtribe Gastrosericina
Genus Tachytes
Explanation of Names
Tachytes Panzer 1806
from the Greek ταχύτης, 'swiftness, speed'
Numbers
35 spp. in our area divided into 7 species groups(1)(2), ~300 worldwide(3)
abdominalis-group (6 spp.)
amazonus-group (2 spp.)
aurulentus-group (5 spp.)
distinctus-group (4 spp.)
ermineus-group (8 spp.)
mergus-group (1 sp.: T. mergus)
pepticus-group (9 spp.)
Size
7-19 mm(4)
Identification
Key to spp. in (4)
Some species have very dark eyes:

in some species, males have modified flagellomeres:
basal: apical:
Range
worldwide
Life Cycle
Nests in sand, provisioned with grasshoppers, katydids
See Also
Some other green-eyed wasps, e.g. Larra, look similar.
Tachysphex spp. are generally smaller, with a pointy abdomen, and no pygidial plate.
Print References
Hilltoping behavior: Alcock (2007)