Family SPHECIDAE
Mud-daubers, Sand Wasps
Introduction
This cosmopolitan family contains very small to very large solitary wasps. Australia has 693 described species and subspecies in 57 genera of which about a quarter are endemic. Adults are often collected on flowers or at nesting sites. Nests are made by burrowing in the ground, by using existing cavities in the ground, in dead wood or the pith of plants, by constructing mud cells in the open, on house walls or rocks or tree trunks, and by using abandoned mud nests. One genus (Acanthostethus) is kleptoparasitic. Adults of other genera provision their cells with insects—there are records from almost all the orders as well as spiders and Collembola. Most genera exhibit some degree of prey specificity. Bembix is unusual in this respect, for while most Northern Hemisphere species studied prey on Diptera, about one third of the Australian species whose prey is known use other orders (Hymenoptera, Odonata and Neuroptera) and two species have been found to prey on more than one order of insects (Evans & West Eberhard 1970; Naumann 1991). Recent work on the biology of Arpactophilus sp., Spilomena sp. and Pison sp., not mentioned as a biological reference because the species were not identified, was published by Naumann (1983), on Lyroda sp. by Evans & Hook (1984) and Nitela sp. by Smithers (1990).
The Ampulicinae is treated as a subfamily of the Sphecidae (Bohart & Menke 1976) and although the Australian genus Sericogaster Westwood, 1835 was believed by early workers to belong in the Sphecidae, it was transferred to the bee family Colletidae by Menke & Michener (1973) and is not included in this family.
Seven subfamilies are recognised in the Australian Sphecidae (Bohart & Menke 1976; Naumann 1991):
Ampulicinae contains Ampulex, Dolichurus and the endemic Aphelotoma and Austrotoma.
Sphecinae contain species of Ammophila, Chalybion, Isodontia, Palmodes, Parapsammophila, Podalonia, Prionyx, Sceliphron, and Sphex.
Pemphredoninae contains Allostigmus, Arpactophilus, Ceratostigmus, Polemistus, Psenulus, Spilomena and the endemic Paracrabro.
Larrinae contains the genera Aha, Auchenophorus, Dicranorhina, Larra, Larrisson, Liris, Lyroda, Nitela, Pison, Sericophorus, Sphodrotes, Tachysphex, Tachytes and Trypoxylon.
Crabroninae contains Dasyproctus, Ectemnius, Lestica, Neodasyproctus, Piyuma, Podagritus, Rhopalum, Williamsita, Zutrhopalum and the endemic Chimiloides, Notocrabro and Pseudoturneria.
Bembicinae previously Nyssoninae (Menke 1997), contains Ammatomus, Argogorytes, Bembecinus, Bembix, Clitemnestra, Sphecius and the endemic Acanthostethus, Austrogorytes and Exeirus.
The only Australian representative of Philanthinae is Cerceris.
Recent phylogenetic studies of Brothers (1975), Gauld & Bolton (1988), Alexander (1992), Brothers & Carpenter (1993) and Hanson & Gauld (1995) have confirmed that the Sphecoidea (Sphecidae including Ampulicidae) and Apoidea (bee families) form a monophyletic group. Since a family-group name based on Apis predates a name based on Sphex the correct name of the sphecoid-bee superfamily should be Apoidea and not Sphecoidea (Michener 1986).
General References
Alexander, B.A. 1992. An exploratory analysis of cladistic relationships within the superfamily Apoidea, with special reference to sphecid wasps (Hymenoptera). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 1(1): 25-61
Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A.S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: a Generic Revision. Berkeley : Univ. California Press ix 695 pp.
Brothers, D.J. 1975. Phylogeny and classification of the aculeate Hymenoptera, with special reference to the Mutillidae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 50: 483-648
Brothers, D.J. & Carpenter, J.M. 1993. Phylogeny of Aculeata: Chrysidoidea and Vespoidea (Hymenoptera). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 2(1): 227-304
Evans, H.E. & Hook, A.W. 1984. Nesting behaviour of a Lyroda predator (Hymenoptera : Sphecidae) on Tridactylus (Orthopterla : Tridactylidae). Australian Entomological Magazine 11: 16-18
Evans, H.E. & West Eberhard, M.J. 1970. The Wasps. Ann Arbor : Univ. Michigan 265 pp.
Gauld, I. & Bolton, B. (Eds.) 1988. The Hymenoptera. Oxford : Oxford University Press 332 pp.
Hanson, P. & Gauld, I. 1995. The evolution, classification and identification of the Hymenoptera. pp. 138-156 in Hanson, P. & Gauld, I. (eds). The Hymenoptera of Costa Rica. Oxford : Oxford University Press xx 893 pp.
Menke, A.S. 1997. Family-group names in Sphecidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 6(2): 243-255
Menke, A.S. & Michener, C.D. 1973. Sericogaster Westwood, a senior synonym of Holohesma Michener. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 12: 173-174
Michener, C.D. 1986. Family group names among bees. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 59: 219-234
Naumann, I.D. 1983. The biology of mud nesting Hymenoptera (and their associates) and Isoptera in rock shelters of the Kakadu Region, Northern Territory. Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service Special Publication 10: 127-189
Naumann, I.D. 1991. Hymenoptera. pp. 916-1000 in CSIRO (ed.). The Insects of Australia. A textbook for students and research workers. Melbourne : Melbourne University Press Vol. 2 pp. 543-1137
Smithers, C.N. 1990. First record of Psocoptera as prey of Australian Sphecidae (Hymenoptera). Australian Entomological Magazine 17(2): 42