File:
<pemphred.htm> [For educational
purposes only] Glossary <Principal Natural Enemy Groups > <Citations> <Home> |
HYMENOPTERA, Sphecidae (Pemphredoninae) (Sphecoidea) -- <Images> & <Juveniles> Please refer also to the following
link for details on this group: Pemphredoninae = Link 1 Description
Members of the subfamily
Pemphredonidae construct galleries in twigs or wood, sometimes using the
abandoned galleries of wood-boring insects, and store their brood cells with
aphids. Other species prey on other
small Homoptera. The nesting behavior
of Stigmus americanus Pack. was studied by Peckham & Peckham
(1895). This species a enlarges old
burrows in decaying wood. Several
wasps may utilize the same gallery, though they nest separately. Each well, when complete, contains about
24 dead aphids, mixed with grains of pith, and the egg is laid on the body of
one of these prey. Adults of this group make nests in
twigs or in soil (Finnamore & Michener 1993). The prey is typically Aphidae (Homoptera) or Thysanoptera, but
some feed also on Collembola. There
were over 402 species known worldwide as of 2000. References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references
may be found at: MELVYL
Library] Peckham, G. W. & E. G. Peckham. 1895.
Notes on the habits of Trypoxylon rubrocintum and Trypoxylon
albopilosum. Psyche 7: 303-06. |