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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 » Thread-waisted Wasps (Sphecidae) » Sphecinae » Sphecini » Sphex » Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus)

Species Sphex ichneumoneus - Great Golden Digger Wasp

Classification · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Internet References · Works Cited

Sphex ichneumoneus? - Sphex ichneumoneus - male

Great Golden Digger Wasp - Sphex ichneumoneus

Great Golden Digger Wasp, Ferson Creek Fen Park - Sphex ichneumoneus - female

Great Golden Digger Wasp - Sphex ichneumoneus - male

Great golden digger wasp - Sphex ichneumoneus - Sphex ichneumoneus - 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 Sphecidae (Thread-waisted Wasps)

Subfamily Sphecinae

Tribe Sphecini

Genus Sphex

Species ichneumoneus (Great Golden Digger Wasp)

Explanation of Names

Sphex ichneumoneus (Linnaeus 1758)

ichneumoneus from the Greek ἰχνεύμων, 'tracker', + -εῖος, a suffix that creates an adjective form(1)

Size

15-27 mm

Identification

Head and thorax have golden hair. Metasoma black with orange/red on first 2-3 segments. Eastern specimens are dark-winged; western ones, clear-winged.(2)

Range

across NA to the neotropics

Habitat

Fields, meadows, with sandy areas nearby

Food

nests provisioned with long-horned orthopterans

Life Cycle

One paralyzed prey is placed in each cell, and one egg is laid on it. One generation per year.

Remarks

burrow is almost vertical, with cells radiating from central shaft

Internet References

species page(3)

Works Cited

1.	Wasp Farm Howard Ensign Evans. 1963. Comstock Publishing.

2.	A reclassification of the Sphecinae with a revision of the Nearctic species of the tribes Sceliphronini and Sphecini Bohart RM and Menke AS. 1963. University of California Publications in Entomology 30:91-182.

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

Contributed by Cotinis on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by Stephen_WV, Beatriz Moisset, Mike Quinn, v belov, PaleoJon
Last updated 14 May, 2023 - 3:05pm

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