Cryptocheilus bicolor

Cryptocheilus bicolor (orange spider wasp) is a large, strikingly coloured spider wasp from Australia.

Orange spider wasp
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Pompilidae
Genus: Cryptocheilus
Species:
C. bicolor
Binomial name
Cryptocheilus bicolor
(Fabricius, 1775)
Synonyms
  • Heterodontonyx bicolor (Fabricius, 1775)
  • Heterodontonyx basalis Haupt, 1935
  • Heterodontonyx guerini Banks, 1941
  • Salius bicolor (Fabricius, 1775)

Description

Females can be up to 35mm in length. The head, legs and antenna are black and orange-yellow in colour, with dark brown to black thorax and eyes. The wings are orange brown colour and there are the broad orange bands on the black abdomen.[1]

Biology

This wasp is a predator of the huntsman spiders (family Sparassidae) and wolf spiders (Lycosidae). It paralyses the spider by stinging it in its underside. The prey is then dragged to a burrow, dug by the female using shovel-like hairs on its front legs. The wasp then lays an egg on the spider, and conceals the nesting chamber at the end of the burrow. When the grub hatches it feeds on the spider before pupating[1] in a thin silky cocoon in the cell.[2]

The wasp's sting has been described as extremely painful and "shockingly powerful".[3]

Orange spider wasp with huntsman spider, Sydney NSW

References
  1. "Orange Spider Wasp - Priocnemis bicolor".
  2. "Spider wasps".
  3. "One insect has the most painful sting in Australia, and this scientist knows firsthand". ABC News. 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
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