Orange Spider Wasp
S5, Female, Femur Colour
Ellura
White-spotted Spider Wasp
Male, dorsal, Wings Open
 
                      
Orange Spider Wasp (Priocnemis tuberculatus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)
Family: Tarantula-hawk Wasp (Wasp: Pompilidae: Pepsini)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Orange Spider Wasp (Priocnemis tuberculatus)
This Photo:     🔍S5, Female, Rear Leg, ventral🔎
Synonyms: Cryptochilus (Prionocnemis) tuberculatus, Cryptochilus tuberculatus or Heterodontonyx tuberculatus

Thank you Joseph (CobalJoseph) for identifying and Brian Dagley, Tony and Jenny Dominelli & Sam Gordon for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Riverland and elsewhere
1st Live Photo on-line:
Females ~19-20mm long.
Mainly black wasp with bright orange head, tail, feelers (antennae) & legs.
Again has 3 purple jewels (actually Ocelli, simple eyes) on its head.
Everyone tends to put them under Cryptocheilus bicolor, but some have black tipped wings, other don't, etc. We don't know the sizes of the specimens in the various on-line photo's, which is generally pretty important.
We originally called this "Cryptocheilus sp ES01", ie we didn't recognise it as any of the 10 known species. In 2022 they were reviewed & redescribed by Jolfaei with DNA analysis to help understand & place them more accurately. As yet, this paper has not been published in a Journal so unfortunately doesn't have any official standing. But Joseph used this paper to determine this was Heterodontonyx tuberculatus. Currently this has the official name of Priocnemis tuberculatus, but the paper moves all our Cryptocheilus to Heterodontonyx. Officially the others are still Cryptocheilus. By adding tribe name to the family we were able to keep them all grouped together here. This is good as they will be under the same genus again in the future.
We first published these 10 years ago on 2nd March 2014, and saw our first on Ellura in Dec 2015.

Copyright © 2023-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 22-Jan-2023
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.