Black & Orange Wasp
S1, Female, profile
Ellura
Black & Orange Wasp
S1, Female, Wing Venation
 
                      
Black & Orange Wasp (Sphodrotes rubra)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)
Family: Square-headed Wasp (Wasp: Crabronidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Black & Orange Wasp (Sphodrotes rubra)
This Photo:     🔍S1, Female, Iso-view🔎

Thank you Kerri-Lee Harris for identifying this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~10mm long. A female as it has 10 flagellomeres.
Looks a lot like a bee. 1st indications it was a wasp were the lower antennae joins.

Kerri-Lee kindly quoted Bohart & Menke, 1976, for us saying this was a good match: "
  • Inner orbits parallel or slightly converging below;
  • 3 submarginal cells, second is petiolate;
  • partially or totally red legs, gaster often extensively red;
  • very coarse, dense punctation of entire body;
  • genae broad, so head appears square"

Kerri-Lee came back some time later and said "I'm convinced that this is Sphodrotes rubra. The combination of:
  • entirely red-orange gaster, without any dark markings
  • the very short TI & stout body
  • the dense pubescence of the lower face/head
  • low occiput
  • black mesosoma, with silvery pronotum & mesopleura
  • and, finally, location. This is an inland/arid environment species ... with collection locations including Wilcannia & Wilpena.
It all fits with Lomholdt's (1983) description of this species."

This is a tentative id for now. Kerri-Lee added "There is a chance that this is S. rubricata ... The two species are very similar, and although S. rubricata typically has dark markings on the gaster, Lomholdt stresses the wide variation ... including some with an all orange gaster.
The other slight concern is the wing colour. The darkening towards the tips fits with S. rubricata, whereas S. rubra is described as hyaline (ie clear)."

Kerri-Lee has a number of extensive work sheets to help people id their finds. eg here she has the following as a guide: Work Sheet


Copyright © 2023-2025 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 21-Feb-2023
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.