Moustache Sand Wasp: S2, Female, ventral

Class:

Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)

Order:

Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)

Family:

Square-headed Wasp (Wasp:Crabronidae) iNaturalist Observation

Species:

Moustache Sand Wasp (Bembix trepida)

This Photo:

🔍S2, Female, ventral🔎

Thank you Kerri-Lee Harris for identifying this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
1st Record in SA on Atlas:
1st Live Photo on-line:
~18mm long Female.
It's not possible to be sure that S1 & S2 are the same species, but the dorsal patterns seem to match up pretty well. Without detailed diagnostic photo's it's not possible to get species id on these properly.
It appears adult Sand Wasps eat pollen, but have no pollen carrying ability to feed their young. In fact it seems they feed their young flies!
We can hardly wait to photograph one filling it's nest with a fly to show you.
Kerri-Lee kindly offered the important diagnostic features of S2 for us:
"A very good match for this species, including the following features:

shape of basitarsus, with 7 amber pecten spines projecting from 4 strongly blackened lobes (cf 'Front Leg Spines' photo to Fig 57 of Evans & Matthews, 1973)
clypeus protruberant but strongly flattened apically; strongly punctate on flattened section (cf 'Face' photo to Fig 13 of Evans & Matthews, 1973)
colour & markings of labrum & clypeus
frons width
overall colour pattern, including shape & colour of metasomal markings (e.g yellow spots on sternites contrasting with white bands on tergites)"

It's important to note that Kerri-Lee's notes on features are related to each specific photo series. She has made a more complete Worksheet available on her website to further help separate Bembix wasps to species.

This species is

Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.

		<<< Previous Moustache Sand Wasp S1, Female, posterior		Next Species >>> Panda Sand Wasp S1, Adult Male, dorsal
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