Beautiful Flower Wasp
Male, dorsal, wings open
Ellura
Beautiful Flower Wasp
Male, Released, profile
 
                      
Beautiful Flower Wasp (Thynnus pulchralis)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)
Family: Flower Wasp (Wasp: Thynnidae: Thynninae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Beautiful Flower Wasp (Thynnus pulchralis)
This Photo:     🔍Male, dorsal, wings closed🔎

Thank you Karen Weaving for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~21mm long Male. Females are wingless.
We were VERY excited when Marie found this in our shadehouse yesterday. A very rare find. This is the first time, on-line, found in the SA Murraylands Region.
The recent Murray River floods may have had an impact on extending it's known range.
A stunning Flower Wasp, with an Aztec-like theme stencilled on it's back. Reminds us of a Sunset over mallee trees on a hot day.
Not only does it have vibrant & contrasting colours, the yellow pigment is missing in many places making detailed patterns and showing the clear substrate of it's exoskeleton.
In the profile shot you can see how squared-off the front of the abdomen is. When sitting normally you don't see the waiste, making it look very much like a sawfly.
It looks very Bembix like underneath.

Copyright © 2023-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 02-Mar-2023
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.