Small Zebra Spider Wasp
S1, Female, Wing Venation
Small Zebra Spider Wasp
S3, Male, Wing Venation
| Small Zebra Spider Wasp S1, Female, Wing Venation | | Small Zebra Spider Wasp S3, Male, Wing Venation | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Zebra Spider Wasp (Wasp: Pompilidae: Pompilinae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Small Zebra Spider Wasp (Ctenostegus sp) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S2, Female, Wing Venation🔎 | ||||
Thank you Dr Paul Whitington for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere See the other Zebra Spider Wasp (Pompilinae sp) for a discussion of variations in this sub-family. S1 was ~9mm long (body & head), wingspan ~15mm. S2 was slightly larger ~10.5, while S3 was smaller again ~9mm. Significantly smaller than the Turneromyia sp we found. Note the stripes are less distinct, more grey that silvery white. We cannot be sure but S3 has quite a different abdomen shape to S1 & S2, as well as proportionally thicker antennae. As such, we suspec S1 & S2 are female, while S3 is a male. Also note the 2 sub-marginal cells on the wing venation; diagnostic for this genus. Paul said "Wing venation is a match to figs.2-12 in Evans, H.E. "A revision of spider wasps of the genus Ctenostegus" Aust.J.Zool. Suppl.Ser. 1976, 43: 1-107. In his paper "A revision of spider wasps of the genus Turneromyia" Aust.J.Zool. Suppl.Ser. 1984, 101: 1-59, Evans states that the distinguishing feature to the closely related pompilid species Turneromyia is the presence of 3 submarginal cells in the forewing of Turneromyia vs. 2 submarginal cells in Ctenostegus." Similar Species: Large Zebra Spider Wasp (Turneromyia sp) | |||||
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