Common mace wasp
| Common mace wasp | ||||||||||||
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Common Mace Wasp ( Monosapyga clavicornis ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Monosapyga clavicornis | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The common club wasp ( Monosapyga clavicornis ) is a hymenoptera from the family of the club wasps (Sapygidae). The species is common and not endangered.
features
The animals reach a body length of 8 to 12 millimeters. Their bodies are black and have small yellow spots on their head, thorax and legs. On the second to fourth abdominal segment there is a pair of yellow spots that usually flow together to form bandages. On the last tergite there is another yellow spot in the middle, in the males it is whitish in color. The tips of the antennae are yellow-brown.
Occurrence
The species is widespread in Central Europe and is common in places. It lives near the nesting sites of its hosts, especially on old wooden stakes. The flight time is from March / April to July.
Way of life
The common mace wasp parasitizes bees of the genera Heriades , Osmia and Anthophora . The females are often found near the bees' nesting openings in dead wood or hollow stems. An egg is laid anywhere in a bees' brood cell, which is still unlocked and filled with pollen and nectar. The wasp larva that hatches from it first sucks out the bee egg and then feeds on the supplies. In some years the wasp populations are so large that they can significantly decimate the bees.
swell
- Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
