Black Flower Wasp 2 - Epactiothynnus sp.


Winged male 20mm

This Flower wasp is black in colour with yellow spot pattern on thorax. The pattern vary among individuals. As all other Flower Wasps, female is wingless. The female legs are modified for digging and her wings are lost. We sometimes found this wasp on sandy footpath in Karawatha Forest and other Eucalypt forest in Brisbane.



It is common to see a male Flower Wasp carrying a wingless female, with tail to tail attached, flying between flowers.

Male Looking for Female

It is common to see a male Flower Wasp carrying a wingless female, with tail to tail attached, flying between flowers.



On Dec 2006, when we looking for the Sand Wasps on a sandy soil, we saw this male Flower Wasp it was searching for something under a dry leaf. It tried very hard for a long while, even did not care about our disturb.



We noticed something was hiding under within those small gravels. We pushed the wasp apart, carefully remove the gravels and tried to see what it was. We saw a large black ant, or actually a female Flower Wasp.



The female Flower wasp was wingless and dark bluish-brown in colour. It was trying to run away.



The male Flower Wasp quickly found the female and attached tail-to-tail with the female, then quickly flied and rested on a small plant.

From the observation, we believed the male Flower Wasp found the female wasp by sense of smell.

Reference:
1. Northern Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.