''Cerceris rybyensis'', the ornate tailed digger wasp, is a

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

species of solitary wasp from the family Crabronidae which specialised in hunting small to medium-sized mining bees. It is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Cerceris __NOTOC__ ''Cerceris'' is a genus of wasps in the family Crabronidae. It is the largest genus in the family, with over 1030 described species and subspecies.Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1771.

Description

''Cerceris rybyensis'' females measure 8-12mm in length, males measure 6-10mm. It has distinctive yellow and black bands on its abdomen, including a segment wide yellow band in the middle, and yellow tibia on the rear legs. Cerceris rybyensis01

Distribution

''Cerceris rybyensis'' is a Palearctic species which is found from southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

in the west through most of Europe, including

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

east to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Habitat

''Cerceris rybyensis'' occurs in areas of sandy soils, both coastal and inland, but it can also be found in areas with heavier soils and in chalk grassland. It has even been recorded from a suburban garden in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It often nests in association with other burrowing wasps and bees including the sand tailed digger wasp ('' Cerceris arenaria'').

Biology

''Cerceris rybyensis'' is unvoltine and the adults have a flight period of June to September. The females hunt small and medium-sized bees of different genera, the prey being stung to paralyse it. The female also squeezes the prey's neck with her mandibles; the prey normally survives for around two days after capture. Normally bees are hunted as they return to the nest loaded with pollen as this is the most efficient way to hunt as the bees return to a fixed point and the pollen load makes them less able to avoid the wasp. However, there are records of prey which are either females without any pollen or males. Depending on the size of the prey each cell is provisioned with between five and eight prey items. Females ''C. rybyensis'' often nest in quite dense aggregations, usually located on exposed compacted soil in level ground. Nests have been recorded on an unsurfaced road, in abandoned sand quarries and even in soil between the paving stones of a patio in a suburban garden. The nest burrow is up to 15 cm long and short lateral burrows are dug out of the tunnel sides and these terminate in single cells. The main burrow starts as a vertical shaft but the lower part is almost horizontal with the soil surface. The larvae spin robust cocoons at the end of the flight period to overwinter in. Each nest may be provisioned with a single species of bee, and between 30 and 30 may be found in a nest. On leaving her burrow to hunt the female flies around it to orientate herself but on return she flies straight into the burrow. Mating in ''C. rybyensis'' starts on the ground but normally the pair move into cover to finish copulation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q857547 Crabronidae Hymenoptera of Europe Insects described in 1771 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus