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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Potter Wasps, Mason Wasps.
Adults small to large; 8–16 mm long. Solitary insects.
Head. Eyes emarginate. Antennal segments (10–)12 (females), or (10–)13 (males). Antennae geniculate, or not geniculate. The mandibles long and crossed over when at rest.
Thorax. Thorax black and yellow. Pronotum deeply indented or emarginate at the back; long, extending back to the tegulae. Cenchri absent. Wings present; folded longitudinally when at rest. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma; with the venation well developed. Closed fore-wing cells 6–10. Submarginal cells 3. Hind-wings with closed cells. Mid and hind tibiae with one spur only. Mid tibiae with one spur. Hind femur without a well defined trochantellus. Hind tibiae with spurs specialised for a cleaning rôle.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction; long petiolate, or short-waisted. The ‘waist’ simple. Visible abdominal segments 6 (females), or 7 (males). The gaster colour-patterned; black and yellow. Ovipositor of females not visibly protruding; modified as a retractable sting.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; feeding on prey collected and stored by the adults (insects, often caterpillars).
British representation. Species in Britain 22; Ancistrocerus, Eumenes, Euodynerus, Gymnomerus, Microdynerus, Odynerus, Pseudepipona and Symmorphus.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Aculeata; Superfamily Vespoidea.
Illustrations. • Ancistrocerus parietinus (B. Ent. 137). • Ancistrocerus parietinus (detail: B. Ent. 137). • Ancistrocerus parietinus (dissections: B. Ent. 137). • Ancistrocerus parietinus: B. Ent. 137, legend+text. • Ancistrocerus parietinus: B. Ent. 137, text, cont.. • Eumenes atricornis Fab., = E. coronatus, but cf. Eumenes coarctatus. B. Ent. 013. • Eumenes atricornis Fab.: B. Ent. 013, legend+text. • Eumenes atricornis Fab.: B. Ent. 013, text cont.. • Ancistrocerus, Odynerus, Symmorphus (Saunders XXI). EUMENIDAE. 1, Odynerus spinipes (male). 2, Odynerus reniformis (female). 3, Ancistrocerus parietum (female). 4, Ancistrocerus trifasciatus (female). 5, Ancistrocerus antilope (female). 6, Symmorphus crassicornis (female). 7–9, lateral views of first and second ventral segments: 7, Ancistrocerus nigricornis; 8, Ancistrocerus parietum; 9, Ancistrocerus parietinus. From Saunders (1896). • Pseudepipona herrichii (female, Saunders XX). • Eumenes coarctatus, Symmomorphus mutinensis (Saunders XXII). Symmomorphus mutinensis (f). Eumenes coarctatus (f).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
