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

Species Sphex ichneumoneus - Great Golden Digger Wasp

Classification · Other Common Names · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · See Also · Print References · 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

Sphex ichneumoneus with prey - Sphex ichneumoneus - 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 (minus Anthophila) - Apoid Wasps)

Family Sphecidae (Thread-waisted Wasps)

Subfamily Sphecinae

Tribe Sphecini

Genus Sphex

Species ichneumoneus (Great Golden Digger Wasp)

Other Common Names

Great Golden Sand-digger Wasp

North American Great Golden Digger Wasp

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Sphex ichneumoneus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Orig. Comb: Apis ichneumonea Linnaeus, 1758

Explanation of Names

Sphex ichneumoneus (Linnaeus, 1758)

from the Greek ἰχνεύμων (ichneúmōn), meaning 'tracker', + -εῖος (-eus), a suffix that creates an adjective form of a noun(1)

Size

15-27 mm

Identification

A robust sphecid, frequent on flowers and very active. Head and thorax have golden hair. Abdomen black with orange/red on first 2-3 segments. Eastern specimens are dark-winged whereas western specimens are clear-winged.(2)

Range

widely dist. across NA to the neotropics

Habitat

Fields, meadows, with sandy areas nearby

Season

mostly: Jun-Oct (BG data)

Food

Feeds its young on various types of Orthoptera

Life Cycle

Female digs burrow almost vertically. Cells are dug radiating out from central tunnel. Larvae are provisioned with crickets, camel crickets, katydids (long-horned grasshoppers). One paralyzed prey is placed in each cell, and one egg is laid on it. One generation per year.

See Also

S. dorsalis females have the 7th abdominal segment red.

S. texanus females have black legs and typically more silvery-yellow pubescence.

Print References

(3)(4)

Internet References

Discover Life

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.	American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.

4.	California Insects Jerry A. Powell, Charles L. Hogue. 1989. University of California Press.

Contributed by Cotinis on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by Stephen_WV, Beatriz Moisset, Mike Quinn, v belov, PaleoJon
Last updated 2 July, 2022 - 11:45am

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