Tachytes etruscus

Tachytes etruscus is a predatory, solitary wasp belonging to the family Crabronidae. The species was first described by Pietro Rossi in 1790.[2]

Tachytes etruscus
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Family:
Crabronidae
Genus:
Tachytes
Species:
T. etruscus
Binomial name
Tachytes etruscus
(Rossi, 1790)
Synonyms[1]
  • Andrena etrusca Rossi, 1790 species
  • Apis etrusca (Rossi, 1790) species
  • Larra etrusca (Rossi, 1790) species
  • Lyrops argentata (Brullé, 1832) species
  • Lyrops etrusca (Rossi, 1790) species
  • Tachytes argentatus Brullé, 1832 species

Distribution

This species is present in Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia and Spain.[3]

Description

Tachytes etruscus can reach a length of 15–16 millimetres (0.59–0.63 in) in the female, and of 11–14 millimetres (0.43–0.55 in) in males. Its body is largely black, with silver stripes on the abdomen and brown to ferruginous wings, legs, mandibles and palpi.[4]

Biology

Females of this species usually predate on grasshoppers. The females dig holes in the ground in which they build some cells. Then they capture a prey grasshopper, paralyze it with a sting, carry it inside the underground nest and seal it in the burrow along with an egg. The larva consumes the prey during development. Males apparently guard the entrance of the burrows with developing females, waiting for them to emerge. These wasps have a preference for flowers of Solidago virgaurea and Echinophora spinosa.[5]

gollark: Well, ignore, not abandon, it's already abandoned.
gollark: Due to the ongoing Nocturnepocalypse, it may die when people decide that they don't like nocturnes and abandon it to die.
gollark: Save this random AP egg (still on AP) (by giving it views to hatch): https://dragcave.net/lineage/wxO6i/
gollark: _continues attempting to name dragons_
gollark: Oh, good, Antarestorm: we should have an even bigger APocalypse in two days.

References
  1. GBIF
  2. BioLib
  3. Fauna Europaea
  4. Back, Yeong-Bin & Kim, Jeong-Kyu, 2014 "Review of the genus Tachytes Panzer (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae: Crabroninae) of South Korea, with description of one new species".
  5. Natura Mediterraneo


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.