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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps » Square-headed Wasps, Sand Wasps, and Allies (Crabronidae) » Square-headed Wasps (Crabroninae) » Larrini » Gastrosericina » Tachytes

Genus Tachytes

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Life Cycle · See Also · Print References · Works Cited

Tachytes guatemalensis? - Tachytes guatemalensis - male

Tachytes, abdominalis-group I think, species possible from these images? - Tachytes - 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 Crabronidae (Square-headed Wasps, Sand Wasps, and Allies)

Subfamily Crabroninae (Square-headed Wasps)

Tribe Larrini

Subtribe Gastrosericina

Genus Tachytes

Explanation of Names

Tachytes Panzer 1806

from the Greek ταχύτης, 'swiftness, speed'

Numbers

34 spp. in our area(1), ~300 worldwide(2)

Size

7-19 mm(3)

Identification

Key to spp. in (3)

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)

Works Cited

1.	Ascher J.S., Pickering J. (2017) Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)

2.	Pulawski W.J. (2003-) Catalog of Sphecidae sensu lato (Apoidea excluding Apidae)

3.	A key to the genus Tachytes in America north of Mexico with descriptions of three new species (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae, Larrinae) Richard Bohart. 1994. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 96:342-349.

Contributed by Joel Kits on 20 April, 2005 - 9:34pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, John S. Ascher, v belov, Robert H. Biagi
Last updated 4 July, 2022 - 7:01am

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