Orange Potter Wasp
13 Cooling on RW Tank
Ellura
Yellow-faced Potter Wasp
Profile
 
                      
Yellow-faced Potter Wasp (Diemodynerus cf decipiens ssp decipiens)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)
Family: Potter Wasp (Wasp: Vespidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Yellow-faced Potter Wasp (Diemodynerus cf decipiens ssp decipiens)
This Photo:     Dorsal

Thank you Marco Selis for identifying and Brian Dagley for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
1st Live Photo on-line:
~10mm long. Basically a black wasp, with yellow face markings and orange body patches.
Notice the deeply emarginate eye and wings held up.
In the wing venation description, this shows the difference between this species (top wing) and the very similar looking Paralastor wasps (lower wing).
We thought this was Australodynerus merredinensis but Marco said "Australodynerus have short antennae and the last flagellomere is straight and conical, not surpassing base of F9". When BDagley made a couple of suggestions, Marco said "Diemodynerus decipiens positus has a very different coloration with extensive red pattern on mesosoma, while D. saucius has T1 entirely black. This specimen seems to match Diemodynerus decipiens decipiens, but there are other species described more recently and I don't have descriptions of them. It's better to stay on genus."
Please note we use the "cf" moniker to indicate "looks like". We use a lower level of id quality on our web site than on iNaturalist to help steer people in their own research.

Similar Species: Orange-striped Potter Wasp (Acarodynerus sp) : Mud-nesting Wasp (Paralastor sp ES01)

Copyright © 2019-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 17-Nov-2019
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.