Misplaced Pages

Pepsis thisbe

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Species of wasp

Pepsis thisbe
Pepsis thisbe and prey, Riverside County, California, 2024
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Pompilidae
Subfamily: Pepsinae
Genus: Pepsis
Species: P. thisbe
Binomial name
Pepsis thisbe
Lucas, 1895

Pepsis thisbe, also known as Thisbe's tarantula-hawk wasp, is a species of spider wasp in the family Pompilidae. Females are 32-44 mm long with a dark blue body and orange wings.

Description

The females of this species sport curly antennae, while the males' are straight. Males do not have stingers and females have ones about 7mm (¼ inch) in length. Adults are nectarivores (feeding on flower material), but females hunt tarantulas as food for larvae, hence their name. They are found throughout the American Southwest in desert areas.

References

  1. "Thisbe's Tarantula-hawk Wasp (Pepsis thisbe)". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  2. "Pepsis thisbe". GBIF. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  3. "Pepsis thisbe species Information". BugGuide.net. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  4. Will, Kip; Gross, Joyce; Rubinoff, Daniel; Powell, Jerry A. (2020). Field Guide to California Insects. Oakland, California: University of California Press. p. 454. ISBN 9780520288744.
  5. "Tarantula Hawk (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-05-14.

Further reading

  • Vardy, C. R. (2005). "The New World tarantula-hawk wasp genus Pepsis Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae)". Zoologische Verhandelingen.

External links

Taxon identifiers
Pepsis thisbe


Stub icon

This Apocrita-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: