Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Cryptus

Wasp - Cryptus albitarsis - male Ichneumon wasp -  - Cryptus albitarsis - male Ichneumon with red abdomen - Cryptus albitarsis - female wasp in yard - Cryptus albitarsis Cryptinae? - Cryptus albitarsis Ichneumonidae from Farwell Canyon Dunes - Cryptus Ichneumonoidea - Cryptus albitarsis - female Female, Ichneumonid wasp - Cryptus - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon ("Parasitica" - Parasitoid Wasps)
Superfamily Ichneumonoidea (Braconid and Ichneumonid Wasps)
Family Ichneumonidae (Ichneumonid Wasps)
Subfamily Cryptinae
Tribe Cryptini
Subtribe Cryptina
Genus Cryptus
Numbers
19 species (1 widespread)(1)
1. Cryptus albitarsis: widespread eastern (NF to w. NT to SC, AL, & TX)
2. Cryptus arcticus: western (BC, NT; AK, CA)
3. Cryptus aridus: western (BC; CA, CO, ID, OR)
4. Cryptus crassulus: northeastern (QC; MI)
5. Cryptus krombeini: WV
6. Cryptus latigenalis: western (CO, MT)
7. Cryptus leechi: ne. NT
8. Cryptus mentigus: western (YT; AK, AZ, CA, CO, NM, OR, WA)
9. Cryptus minimus: western (SK to NM to AB, e. WA, e. OR, & NV)
10. Cryptus moschator iroquois: eastern (QC to NJ to MI & OH)
11. Cryptus mutatus: western (AB, s. BC; CO, ID, w. MN, e. SD, WA)
12. Cryptus ocellaris: western (CA, w. NV, OR)
13. Cryptus persimilis: transcontinental (NS to s. BC to SC, TX, s, AZ, & s. CA)
14. Cryptus recurvatus: western (AZ, CA, TX)
15. Cryptus rufovinctus: western (s. BC; CA, ID, NV, OR, UT, WA)
16. Cryptus rugifrons: western (AZ, CA)
17. Cryptus ruralis: western (AB, BC, s. MB, SK; CO, ID)
18. Cryptus scapulatus: CA
19. Cryptus sodalis: western (ssp. rugosiscutum: CA, s. OR; ssp. sodalis: AZ, CO, NM, TX)
Remarks
There are only two species with a widespread eastern distribution (C. albitarsis and C. persimilis). Within the east, C. albitarsis is readily separated from other species by the entirely black legs (apart from white hind tarsi in the males). Other species have at least the hind femora fulvous or fulvoferruginous. Care should be taken where multiple species overlap in the west as these species will not always be readily distinguishable in photographs.