Bristly dagger wasp
| Bristly dagger wasp | ||||||||||||
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Bristly dagger wasp ( Scolia hirta ) |
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| Scolia hirta | ||||||||||||
| ( Closet , 1781) |
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The bristly dagger wasp ( Scolia hirta ) is a hymenoptera from the family of the dagger wasps (Scoliidae). The species is very rare in Germany and classified as critically endangered. Only recently, probably due to climatic changes, has there been a slight recovery of the populations in the eastern German federal states.
features
The animals reach a body length of 16 to 22 millimeters. They have a shiny black body color and wear wide yellow bands on the second and third, sometimes also on the fourth abdomen segment. Their wings are tinted black-brown. It can be confused with the similar Scolia sexmaculata , which is somewhat smaller and has yellow bandages separated in the middle on the third and fourth, sometimes also on the fifth abdomen segment.
Scolia hirta unifasciata
Occurrence
The species is common in the Mediterranean , further north, in southern Central Europe they are rare. They live in hot, preferably sandy locations with only sparse vegetation. The flight time is from July to September.
Way of life
The wasps are flower visitors and prefer blue flowers. The larvae, on the other hand, like all representatives of the dagger wasps , live parasitically on larvae of scarab beetles , to which the female with her heavily thorny front legs easily digs through, whereby beetles of the genera Anomala and Potosia are parasitized. The beetle larvae are found using the excellent sense of smell.
After the detection, the host is stunned with a sting, and then an egg is laid on it. At the beginning the young larvae only suckle on the skin of the grub; However, in the course of development this is completely eaten up.
swell
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
