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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Vespoidea » Vespidae » Potter and Mason Wasps (Eumeninae) » Monobia » Four-toothed Mason Wasp (Monobia quadridens)

Species Monobia quadridens - Four-toothed Mason Wasp

Classification · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Season · Food · Life Cycle · See Also · Internet References · Works Cited

Last of the sand gathering wasps. - Monobia quadridens

Four-toothed Mason Wasp - Monobia quadridens

Four-toothed Mason Wasp - Monobia quadridens - male

Black and white wasp - Monobia quadridens

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)

Superfamily Vespoidea

Family Vespidae

Subfamily Eumeninae (Potter and Mason Wasps)

Genus Monobia

Species quadridens (Four-toothed Mason Wasp)

Explanation of Names

Monobia quadridens (Linnaeus, 1763)

quadridens = from the Latin quadrī ('four, square') + dēns (tooth). Apparently referring to the four "teeth" on the abdominal band.

Size

Forewing: ♂ 11.0–14.5 mm, ♀ 14–18 mm(1)

Identification

A single, broad, apical fascia on tergum 1 but otherwise black metasoma.

Range

e US & so. ON west to WI-KS-NM(1)

Season

May-Oct in NC(2)

Food

Adult takes nectar at flowers. Larvae feed on caterpillars of Pyralidae (Phycitinae, Epipaschiinae), Crambidae (Pyraustinae), Elachistidae (Stenomatinae), Amphisbatidae, Gelechiidae and Tortricidae.

Life Cycle

Usually nests in wood borings, but sometimes burrows in dirt banks. Sometimes takes over abandoned nests of carpenter bees or ground bees, also Sceliphron (mud dauber) cells. Nest is provisioned with caterpillars, and cells of nest are separated by mud partitions.

See Also

Euodynerus bidens is similar but less common and has ivory spots behind the eyes:

Internet References

Buck et. al. 2008 Species page(1)

GBIF

iNaturalist

Works Cited

1.	Identification Atlas of the Vespidae (Hymenoptera, Aculeata) of the Northeastern Nearctic Region Matthias Buck, Stephen A. Marshall, and David K. B. Cheung. 2008. Biological Survey of Canada [Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification].

2.	Insects of North Carolina C.S. Brimley. 1938. North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

Contributed by Tony DiTerlizzi on 28 July, 2004 - 8:26pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, Matthias Buck, John S. Ascher, v belov, PaleoJon, Nathaniel Green
Last updated 28 April, 2021 - 8:43am

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