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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) » Crabroninae » Larrini » Gastrosericina » Tachytes

Genus Tachytes

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

Square-headed Wasp - Tachytes crassus - female

The Six Wasp Special - #2 of 6 - Tachytes distinctus - 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)

Works Cited

1.	Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.

2.	Ascher J.S., Pickering J. (2024) Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)

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

4.	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, PaleoJon
Last updated 28 July, 2024 - 5:39pm

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