Yellow-headed Flower Wasp
Adult Female, Antenna
Yellow-headed Flower Wasp
Adult Female, Face
Animals
Plants
Info
| Yellow-headed Flower Wasp Adult Female, Antenna | | Yellow-headed Flower Wasp Adult Female, Face | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Hairy Flower Wasp (Wasp:Scoliidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Yellow-headed Flower Wasp (Scolia verticalis)| This Photo: | 🔍Adult Female, Eye & Antenna🔎 | Thank you Elliott Gordon (EGordon88) for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere The female we caught was ~19mm long. The easiest way to differentiate the genders is by the length of the antennae (as with all Scoliids). Females have 10 short flagellomeres, making short antennae. Males have 11 long flagellomeres, making very long antennae. There are differences in the size of the yellow helmet. This does not seem to be diagnostic; treated for now like people with red, black, brown, blonde, etc, hair. Future research may show this indicates sub-species or even species, but for know the current knowledge seems to be it's not diagnostic. The wings are incredibly dark and opaque; very difficult to get a wing venation. The wing venation shot here is totally overexposed with lighting behind the wing to highlight the venation. The other photo's show the natural colour; reflecting a lot of blue.
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