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

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Species Cerceris fumipennis - Smoky-winged Beetle-bandit

Representative Images

Digger Wasp - Cerceris fumipennis mason / potter wasp - Cerceris fumipennis - female Crabronidae? - Cerceris fumipennis - male small wasp? - Cerceris fumipennis Beewolf? - Cerceris fumipennis - female Smokey-winged Beetle Bandit Wasp Cerceris fumipennis? - Cerceris fumipennis Wasp - Cerceris fumipennis wasp with a beetle - Cerceris fumipennis - 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 Philanthinae
Tribe Cercerini
Genus Cerceris
Species fumipennis (Smoky-winged Beetle-bandit)

Explanation of Names

Cerceris fumipennis Say 1837

Identification

Smoky brown wings, a creamy yellow band on T2, 3 pale spots on face in females, 2 in the males
Mating

Range

much of NA east of the Rockies + BC (map)(1)

Food

Females with prey

Life Cycle

Ground-nesting; nest entrance diameter is about a pencil's

Remarks

preys mostly on Buprestidae. The wasp is used to detect EAB presence (Careless et al. 2009)

Print References

Dube M., Chandler D. (2017) Biology, prey, and levels of prey paralyzation by Cerceris fumipennis Say (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) in New Hampshire. Ent. News 126: 343‒351.