Spider Wasp Family (Pompilidae)

The tarantula hawk is a large, hard-bodied wasp that actually attacks a kills tarantulas (Aphonopelma) in southern California. Females have conspicuously coiled antennae, as shown in this photo. The female wasp stings the tarantula on the underside between the legs, in a vulnerable unprotected area. With her powerful mandibles, she drags the paralyzed tarantula to her burrow and lays a single egg on its body. The egg hatches into a larva which feeds on the tarantula. At maturity, the larva spins a cocoon and undergoes metamorphosis. The adult wasp may emerge from the burrow during the same year or the following spring, depending on when the cocoon was spun. The sting of a female tarantula hawk is described as "excruciating." See following hymenopteran pain index:

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt has created a 4 point ranking system to compare the pain of hymenopteran stings. It is called the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. I have summarized his ranking system in the following table:

As I have stated above, I am not certain about the species of following wasps or their sex. In general, males are apparently a little smaller than females; however, several species are listed for this area. I am not about to allow one to sting me just to see if it is a stinging female or nonstinging male! Females often have coiled antennae; however, they can apparently also straighten their antennae like wasps in photo. I also don't trust antennae color to determine their sex. According to Bugguide.net, Pepsis mildei has orange antennae. Other species in the Twin Oaks Valley area have black antennae. In addition, females can have coiled or straight antennae.

Taranantula Hawks On Milkweed In Joshua Tree National Park

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Velvet Ants (Family Mutillidae)

Two species of "velvet ants" (Dasymutilla sp.) from the author's entomology collection in the early 1960s at CSULA. Red and white velvet ants are occasionally seen in the dry foothills of San Diego County. This attractive, furry insect is actually a wingless female wasp. She scurries around on the ground presumably searching for prey. This insect can inflict a painful sting that reportedly subsides quickly. According to entomologist Christopher Starr, it is on the same pain level as the paper wasp.

Velvet "ants" are hairy, wingless female wasps with a painful sting. Winged males look very different, a good example of sexual dimorphism. This male showed up in my kitchen!

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Minute Wasps Including Chalcids & Other Superfamilies

The Estimated Number Of Minute Parasitoid Wasp Species May   Exceed The Total Number Of Described Beetles On Our Planet!

Wingless Wasp (Family Myrmosidae)

Go Back To Table Of Ant Images From Owens Peak     Click Here

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End of year visitor to my home (Day 6936 Of 3rd Millennium): This tiny ant look-alike is a wingless (flightless) ichneumon wasp. With more than 60,000 species in this enormous wasp family I am lucky to identify it to level of subfamily! Wasps On Wayne's Word

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Pincer Wasp (Family Dryinidae)

This tiny ant-like wasp is only about 5 mm in length.

A minute, ant-sized dryinid wasp. Wingless females have pincer-like appendages at the tips of the front legs that are used to catch leafhopper grubs (family Cicadellidae) which act as hosts to the larvae of these wasps. The pincer claw on foreleg is a remarkable adaptation that I was unaware of in my biology career. In fact, I never saw this small wasp until Mr. Disparti found one at his home in southern California. Like the preying mantis (order Mantodea) and mantispid (order Neuroptera), pincer wasps have evolved grasping forelegs; however, they are structurally quite different from raptorial forelegs of mantids and mantispids. Dryinids are very important agents of biological control.

Virla, E.G., Moya-Raygoza, G. & Guglielmino, A. 2023. "A Review of the Biology of the Pincer Wasps (Hymenoptera: Dryinidae)." Austral Entomology: https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12658.

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Chalcid Wasp (Superfamily Chalcidoidea)

This tiny parasitic wasp is only 2 mm in length.

Note: Mr. Disparti also discovered another chalcidoid wasp (Superfamily Chalcidoidea) in south Escondido. It belongs to the parasitoid genus Anastatus (possibly A. japonicus). This species is an egg parasite used extensively in biological control of destructive insects.

Fig Wasps (Family Agaonidae) Also in Superfamily Chalcidoidea

A. Close-up view of a male and female fig wasp (Pleistodontes imperialis) that inhabits the syconia of the Australian rustyleaf fig (Ficus rubiginosa). The slender ovipositor on female wasp is too short to penetrate the ovary of long-style flowers; therefore she does not lay eggs in these flowers. The smaller, wingless male has large mandibles and a greatly reduced body which has two primary purposes: (1) Inseminating the female and (2) Chewing exit tunnels through the syconium wall through which the females escape. The "eye" of an ordinary sewing needle is shown for a size comparison. These wasps were collected from trees growing by the old Life Science building. The biology students were always amazed when I brought them into my laboratory classes. B. A non-pollinator "bogus" fig wasp collected from the syconium of the Baja California wild fig (Ficus palmeri, or possibly Ficus brandegeei). [Note: latest research treats the two previous fig binomials as synonyms of F. petiolaris.] The ovipositor is much longer than the symbiotic pollinator wasp. In fact, some non-pollinator wasps can penetrate the entire syconium wall from the outside. They can also lay eggs in long-style fig flowers reserved for fig seeds. Consequently, no seeds are produced in these flowers. In addition, these "bogus" fig wasps do not pollinate fig flowers. Although they do not benefit the fig tree, non-pollinator wasps of the families Torymidae and Eurytomidae are common inhabitants of New World monoecious fig syconia. Their coexistence with natural fig pollinator wasps is a complex and perplexing coevolutionary problem in fig biology.

Pollination Of The Rustyleaf Fig By Its Symbiotic Fig Wasp Pleistodontes imperialis      See Heads Of Snakefly (Raphidioptera--Raphidiidae) Found In Pitfall Trap On Bridle Path

Complete Index Of On-Line Fig Articles On Wayne's Word

A Petrified Fig Syconium From The Cretaceous Period An Introductory Lecture On The Biology & Diversity Of Figs Bogus Nonpollinator Fig Wasps With Long Ovipositors Calimyrna Fig & Its Amazing Pollinator Wasp Calimyrna Fig Overwintering Mamme Crop Cauliflory In Tropical Species Of Figs (Ficus) Coevolution Of Fig & Fig Wasp: Vicarious Selection Evolution Of Dioecious Fig Species Ficus dammaropsis: A Remarkable Fig From New Guinea Fig Pith Sculpture: Microscopic Carvings From The Azores Figs Of The Holy Land (Their Role In World Religions) Gall Controversy: Do Fig Wasps Really Induce Gall Formation?      Hybrid Between Common Edible Fig & Creeping Fig Multiple Fruits Of The Mulberry Family (Moraceae) Pollination Patterns In Dioecious Figs Sex Determination & Life Cycle Of Common Fig (Ficus carica) Sexuality In Figs--Plant Sexuality & Political Correctness Strangler Figs & Banyans: Truly Remarkable Trees Summary Of Common Fig (Ficus carica) Life Cycle The Amazing Fig/Fig Wasp Relationship The Creeping Fig (Ficus pumila)--Source Of Grass Jelly Vicarious Selection In Figs (Richard Dawkin's Model) Reference Articles Cited In The Above On-Line Pages

It never ceases to amaze me what I find in my insect pitfall traps set in Twin Oaks Valley. The type location for this tiny wingless wasp is the Congo region of Africa! I escape from all the trials and tribulations of southern California in my world of insects! Of course, iNaturalist is a marvelous website for identifying difficult & little known species.

See Matching Images For This Wasp On WaspWeb.org

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Square Headed Wasps (Family Crabronidae)

My latest tiny wasp visitor. This is where I find a lot of my interesting insects at my home. I have pitfall traps set throughout this area.

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Yellow Jackets & Hornets (Subfamily Vespinae)

Yellow Jacket (Vespula pensylvanica). This wasp is about 14 mm long, roughly the size of a honey bee. Like a honey bee, it packs a powerful sting, but unlike a honey bee it can sting repeatedly. Barbs on the honey bee's stinger catch in human skin. The stinger and connected organs remain in the elastic skin when the bee pulls away, a fatal injury to the bee. Yellow jackets live in colonies up to 15,000 individuals, which are differentiated into haploid males, the diploid queen, and diploid female workers. Like the paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus), the nest is made from a mixture of saliva and chewed fibers from dead wood, resembling papier-mâché. Yellow jackets are very fond of meat and fruit. Their appetite and painful sting make them a serious nuisance to picknickers. In addition, yellow jackets can be quite aggressive if their nest is disturbed.

A yellow jacket (Vespula) on fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).

A yellow jacket (cf. Vespula pensylvanica) portrait view!

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Japanese Giant Hornet (Subamily Vespinae)

A Japanese giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia japonica) sent from Stephanie in Japan. With their powerful mandibles, several dozen of these giants can annihilate 30,000 European honey bees (Apis mellifera) in a few hours by quickly decapitating them! The native Japanese honey bee (Apis cerana japonica) has evolved a clever strategy for killing this predator if it invades their nest. A mob of several hundred worker bees envelop the invader and vibrate their flight muscles, thus raising the hornet's body temperature by a lethal 2 degrees Celsius. See the following two YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L54exo8JTUs   and   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EZtXNIT5QQ.

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Paper Wasp (Subfamily Polistinae)

A paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus).

See The Nest Of A Paper Wasp

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Thread-Waisted Wasps (Family Sphecidae)

Thread-waisted wasp (Ammophila sp.)

A digger wasp (Chlorion sp.)

A thread-waisted wasp (Ammophila) In Anza-Borrego Desert

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Ichneumon Wasps (Family Ichneumonidae)

A common southern California ichneumon wasp (Enicospilus sp.). It parasitizes the larvae (caterpillars) of various larger moths. Some smaller ichneumons parasitize aphids. These are ecologically beneficial wasps.

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Bees (Family Apidae & Anthophoridae)

Honey Bee (Family Apidae)

Worker female honey bees (Apis mellifera) on their wax honeycomb. The hexagonal cells are used to store honey and to incubate larvae. The remarkable geometric structure of the cells provides for maximum utilization of space.

The wax honeycomb of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is composed of two layers of hexagonal cells. Beeswax, the construction material for the wax cells, is secreted by special glands in the abdomen of worker bees. One layer of cells can be accessed from the front side, and another layer can be accessed from the back side. This ingenious construction of the two layers of cells provides for the maximum utilization of space. The cells are used to store honey and larvae. Larger cells are constructed by the worker bees to accommodate the male drones which develop from unfertilized eggs. Extra large cells are used for larvae of fertilized eggs which are fed "royal jelly." These special females develop into sexually mature queens.

Parthenogenesis & Sex Determination In The Honey Bee   See Mysterious "Yellow Rain" In Southern California Sexual Suicide Of The Male (Drone) Honey Bee

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Valley Carpenter Bee (Family Anthophoridae)

A female worker carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta). Carpenter bees bore into wood and make tunnel-like nests. They inhabit a variety of wood objects, including fence posts, building timbers and telephone poles. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism because the males are golden-brown and very different in appearance.

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Digger Bee (Family Anthophoridae: Genus Anthophora)
These Solitary Bees Make Circular Holes (Burrows) In The Ground

A solitary bee burrowing into the ground (white arrow in top image). After hovering around to find their burrow, they quickly dart into the entrance with surprising speed. These bees are very wary when a photographer is standing near the entrance to their burrow. They are aware of the objects and spatial relationships around the entrance. In fact, this is how they locate the entrance to their nest.

A solitary burrowing (digger) bee of the genus Anthophora (Family Anthophoridae).

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Sweat Bees (Family Halictidae)

A metallic sweat bee (possibly Augochlorella sp.). This family includes several genera of beautiful metallic bees. They are named sweat bees because they are attracted to the salt in human sweat. Their sting is rated 1.0 the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Specimen from the author's entomology collection in the early 1960s at CSULA.

To my surprise, this was not the entrance to an ant nest. It is a ground-nesting metallic sweat bee. I collected one of these for my entomology class at CSULA almost 60 years ago. I have kept it all these years.

Brodiaea santarosae visited by a small sweat bee of the genus Lasioglossum.

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On 16 Nov 2019 at 12:00 noon I spotted a small, black, solitary flower bee on an alula flower in the Palomar College Polynesian Garden. I originally thought it was in the family Megachilidae, but according to Karl Magnacca at University of Hawaii, it belongs to the genus Lasioglossum in the family Halictidae. Bees in this family are important pollinators in San Diego County, particularly the Anza-Borrego Desert region. This bee was definitely interested in the alula flower and was in the apex of floral tube collecting pollen grains from the anther column and from corolla throat. I collected the bee and flower and placed them in a closed vase with water for observations. I watched the bee move about on the flower and it appeared mostly interested in the pollen-bearing anther column; however, after several days it landed several times on the stigma. My observations are substantiated in the following images.

Flower Bee On Hawaiian Alula In Palomar College Polynesian Garden

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Note: Ants Have Been Moved To Another Page

References: Evans, A.V. 2007. Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York, New York. Hogue, C.L. 1993. Insects of the Los Angeles Basin. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

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