Crabronid Hub
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been progressively building my knowledge of Australian Crabronidae … genus by genus. It’s an ongoing project and every time I tackle the identification of a new taxon I learn more about the group overall. This seems a good time to gather all the bits and pieces, and not simply as an aid to navigating the various workbook pages and related blog posts. I also need a single repository for the general resources that apply to the family as a whole.
Hence the ‘hub’.
Like all our workbook pages, these notes are a work in progress. Although developed simply for my own use, and no doubt imperfect, I’m happy to share these resources with anyone similarly absorbed by this charismatic group of wasps.
Where this all began
In the spring of 2022 I discovered a relatively large wasp nesting in the sand of the forest floor. That started me on a journey to learn more about Austrogorytes and related species. I quickly realised that I needed a conceptual map for differentiating the various crabronids … and I needed to understand more about their morphology too. For the story back then, see my January 2023 blog post Sand Wasp Puzzles: Part 1. There never was a Part 2. What I imagined at the time might be just a short series has turned into a complex network of notes and resources.
Comparing crabronid tribes
The following summary table (matrix) is a useful first step in distinguishing between Australia’s 46 plus crabronid genera. A combination of eye shape, ocelli form, and forewing venation is often enough for identification to tribe level. And then features such as the shape of the gaster and the position/shape of the antennae can reduce the list of candidates even further.
The summary table is best viewed as a pdf. Simply click image to open and/or download the latest version.
Australian Crabronidae, along with brief notes on Ampulicidae & Sphecidae (the other ‘spheciform’ families) … click image to view/download the latest version as a pdf (<200k)
To make sense of the summary table above requires some familiarity with the important body parts of these wasps. There are diagrams towards the bottom of this page (‘Morphology & terminology’ section), but those dive into rather technical details. As an entrée, the "Crabronid ID clues” page shows some of the key features … as they appear in field photos.
From tribe to genus
For the four most diverse tribes, I have put together more detailed notes on distinguishing the distinguishing the various genera.
From genus to species
I’m progressively adding to these pages, sometimes tacking a genus and all the known species within it (e.g. Bembix), at other times working up a detailed picture of an individual species (e.g. Bembix littoralis). Many of these pages include summary tables (matrices), and all will include reference to the relevant literature and any other useful resources I’ve found.
Biology, ecology, and discovery blog posts
Links to crabronid-related blog posts from the main part of our website. Most describe our observations of nesting behaviour, with interpretation based on the literature.
Morphology & terminology
Notes that can help make sense of the various terms used in descriptions of crabronid morphology. Different authors adopt different nomenclature, and even individual authors will change the terms they use over time. It can be confusing!!
Taxonomies also change over time
It is not uncommon for taxa to be elevated or demoted, depending upon our collective knowledge and the preferences of particular authors. One side-effect of this is the challenge it poses the reader when dipping in and out of references that employ different systems. For example, the Crabroninae of today encompass both the Crabroninae and Larrinae of Bohart & Menke (1976). The following table helps me keep track.
Sphecid Wasps of the World – a must have publication
Much of what I need to know to discriminate between Australia’s 46 genera is available in a single publication … thanks to the mammoth efforts of Bohart & Menke (1976)! This remarkable treatise – all 695 pages of it – is among the references I most value. Lately I’ve been using the introductory chapters to untangle the complexities of thoracic morphology and the plethora of different terms employed by different authors.
see Wikispecies page for access
Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A.S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: A generic revision. University of California Press, Berkeley … available for access or download from Internet Archive