Ammophila sabulosa

Ammophila sabulosa
Ammophila sabulosa taking nectar on a hemp agrimony flower head
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Sphecidae
Genus: Ammophila
Species:
A. sabulosa
Binomial name
Ammophila sabulosa
Synonyms [1]

Sphex sabulosa Linnaeus, 1758

Ammophila sabulosa, the red-banded sand wasp, is a species of the subfamily Ammophilinae of the solitary hunting wasp family Sphecidae, also called digger wasps.[2][3] Found across Eurasia, the parasitoid wasp is notable for the mass provisioning behaviour of the females, hunting caterpillars mainly on sunny days, paralysing them with a sting, and burying them in a burrow with a single egg. The species is also remarkable for the extent to which females parasitise their own species, either stealing prey from nests of other females to provision their own nests, or in brood parasitism, removing the other female's egg and laying one of her own instead.

  1. ^ Ljubomirov, Toshko; Yildirim, Erol (2008). Annotated Catalogue of the Ampulicidae, Sphecidae, and Crabronidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of Turkey. Pensoft Series Faunistica. Vol. 71. Pensoft Publishers. p. 37. ISBN 978-954-642-312-2.
  2. ^ Peckham, George W.; Peckham, Elizabeth G. (1905). Wasps, Social and Solitary. Constable. OCLC 881361050.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Casiraghi 2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).