.jpg)
Sphecius
Sign in to saveCicada killer wasps (genus Sphecius) are large, solitary, ground-dwelling, predatory wasps. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them, after stinging and paralyzing them. Twenty-one species worldwide are recognized. The highest diversity occurs in the region between North Africa and Central Asia.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderHymenoptera
- FamilyCrabronidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 58
- With media
- 1
- Family
- Crabronidae
- Collections
- MHNCA, ASU, UMNH, UTEP, MNA, NMMNHS
- Recorded in
- Mexico, United States
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Image
- Magicicada fg01.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- taxon name
- Sphecius
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Sphecius
- taxon common name
- Cicada Killers
- topic's main category
- Category:Sphecius
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Species
- References
- External links
Cicada killer wasps (genus Sphecius) are large, solitary, ground-dwelling, predatory wasps. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them, after stinging and paralyzing them. Twenty-one species worldwide are recognized. The highest diversity occurs in the region between North Africa and Central Asia.
In North America, the term "cicada killer wasp" usually refers to the most well-known species, the eastern cicada killer (S. speciosus). A few other related genera also are sometimes referred to as "cicada killers", e.g. Liogorytes in South America and Exeirus in Australia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sphecius” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.