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) » Bembicinae » Sand Wasps (Bembicini) » Spheciina » Cicada-killer Wasps (Sphecius)

Genus Sphecius - Cicada-killer Wasps

Cicada Killer Wasp - Sphecius speciosus - male

Cicada killer - - Sphecius speciosus - male

Pacific Cicada Killer - Sphecius convallis

Eastern Cicada Killer - Sphecius speciosus

Cicada killer (Sphecius speciosus) - Sphecius speciosus

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 Bembicinae

Tribe Bembicini (Sand Wasps)

Subtribe Spheciina

Genus Sphecius (Cicada-killer Wasps)

Other Common Names

Cicada-hawk wasps

Explanation of Names

Sphecius Dahlbom 1843

Numbers

4 spp. in our area(1), 21 total(2); :

Size

30-40 mm

Identification

key to spp. in Holliday & Coelho (2006)(3)

Range

In our area, S. convallis w US, S. grandis sw US, S. hogardii Florida Keys, S. speciosus widespread in east

Map

Season

Summer

Food

Adult feed on nectar(4)

Life Cycle

Females catch and paralyze cicadas (especially Tibicen), often in flight.

After spending fall, winter, and spring being raised on cicada meat, adults emerge aboveground in the summer to excavate new burrows for a new generation.(4)

Remarks

Males have a projection of the last abdominal sternite (a pseudo-stinger) and may jab with it(5)

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.	Improved key to New World species of Sphecius (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) Holliday C.W., Coelho J.R. 2006. Ann. Ent. Soc. Am. 99: 793-798.

4.	Hidden Company that Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips James B. Nardi. 2023. Princeton University Press.

5.	The Wasps Howard Ensign Evans, Mary Jane West Eberhard. 1970. University of Michigan Press.

Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, Lynette Elliott, Mike Quinn, v belov, Marci Hess, PaleoJon
Last updated 22 October, 2023 - 2:13pm

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