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- Wasp body length 30mm
- Orange Spider Wasp1
- Cryptocheilus sp., (former Salius sp.), subfamily Pepsinae, body length 30mm
- This wasp is large. Its head, legs and antenna are black and orange in colour, thorax and eyes are in black colour. Its wings are in orange colour with black tips. When we took the first photo, it was searching on leaves and ground. We believe it was looking for spider as prey to feed its young. The second picture show the wasp just came out from a hole with empty hand.
- More information and pictures can be found in this page.
- Orange Spider Wasp2
- ? Cryptocheilus bicolor, subfamily Pepsinae, body length 30mm
- This wasp is large. Its head, legs and antenna are black and orange-yellow in colour, thorax and eyes are in dark brown to black colour. Its wings are tinted in orange brown colour. There are the broad orange bands on its black abdomen. We have some observations and recorded in this page.
- Yellow Antenna Black Wasp
- ? Auplopus sp., subfamily Pepsinae, body length 20mm
- We sometimes see this black wasp searching prey on gum tree bark. The wasp has the long bright yellow antenna. More information and pictures please visit this page. Here we would like to thank Professor Denis Brothers sending us email advised that this wasp is in the POMPILIDAE family.
- Mud Nest Tenant Wasp
- ? Auplopus , subfamily Pepsinae, length 20mm
- This wasp look similar to the common Common Mud-Dauber Wasp except with yellow pattern on top of its thorax. However, it is wandering on the mud nest but not building the nest. If the wasp was not building the nest then it could be a parasite wasp. This is a very interesting story. Please keep reading at this page.
- Zebra Spider Wasp
- Turneromyia sp. subfamily Pompilinae, body length 20mm
- We saw this wasp once in Karawatha Forest during early summer. It was searching on the forest floor. We have more pictures and information in this page.
FAMILY POMPILIDAE - Spider Wasps
This page contains pictures and information about Spider Wasps that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
Most member in this family are large wasps. All of them are solitary insect. The female mate and then preparing and nests (usually on ground in soil) and food for her young. The male has shorter life span and die shortly after mating. The egg hatches and the larva feeds on the supplied food, usually spiders. After pupation the new adults emerge, seek a mate and restart their life cycle.
Most of the Spider Warps are orange and black, or just black, i.e., the very strong warning colour. They usually have tinted wings, smooth and shiny body. Their hind-legs are long and always have two prominent spurs. They tend to coil their antennae. They usually hunting on ground with the characteristic wing flicking movement
Females have very powerful sting. They hunt for spider, which they grasp and sting. The spider is then paralyzed and dragged back to nest and lay egg on it. The egg hatches and will feed on the spider.
In a sunny summer day, we sometimes see Spider Warps walking, hopping and flying short distance between plants near the ground, with wings flicking rapidly. They are hunting for spiders as the food for their young. Spider Wasp provides one single spider for each cell. So they have to attack spiders about their same size or even slightly bigger. Some Spider Wasp species mostly hunt for spiders on ground and a few specially hunt for web building spiders.
- Here we would like to thank Graham Brown again for sending us emails to correct some of our mistakes in this page.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 974.
- 2. A field guide to insects in Australia - By Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey, Reed New Holland, 1996, p189.
- 3. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p292.
- 4. Spider wasps Fact File - Wildlife of Sydney, AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, 2007
