Male and female Tiphiid wasps differ in appearance, or are sexually dimorphic. The female is larger and more robust than the male. The female also spends more time on and in the ground.
adult male M. maculata - lateral view
adult male M. maculata - dorsal view
Myzinum maculata are mostly black and can be somewhat hairy. Females range from 11-18 mm (0.43-0.7 inch) in length, while males are 8-16 mm (0.31-0.63 inch). The abdomen has overlapping leaf-like plates, or lamellae, with alternating, conspicuous black and yellow bands.
The abdomen is covered with hairs, except for the metasoma (last segment) which is shiny. Both males and females may have alternating black and yellow bands. However, the male is much more slender and its abdomen is more cylindrical than the female. Males have an upward pointing spine at the end of the last abdominal segment. This spine looks like a stinger but is not (Borror and Triplehorn 1989).
The thorax of both males and females is longer than broad. Males have two plate-like lobes that extend from a hardened plate (the mesosternum) on the underside of the thorax and over the bases of the middle coxae (UM 2009).
Myzinum maculata males have a unique cleft front claw at the end of the terminal tarsomere.
The wings of both males and females are tawny yellow. However, the wings of females are more yellowish then males. Male wings are darker towards the tips and transparent or clear towards their base. The veins on the leading edges or both wings, or costal veins, are pronounced with a darker stigma (prominent wing cell) two-thirds out from the thorax. The wings of the males have six enclosed cells on the front wings (Goulet and Hüber 1993). The tegula (a hardened plate at the base of the front wing) does not completely cover the base of the wing.
On the head, the compound eye sockets are notched or emarginated (Stange 1994). The labrum is folded in front and below the clypeus. There are three ocelli (simple eyes) between and above the eyes. Females have eleven antennal segments, while males have twelve. Antennae are smooth and filiform, or shaped like a thread or filament.
Tiphiids are generally parasitoids on the larvae of two Coleoptera insect families, Scarabaeidae and to a lesser extent Cicindelidae (Selmen 2008, Borror and Triplehorn 1989). Female Tiphiids search out species of these subterranean beetle larvae and access them through tunnels they form or through tunnels formed by the adult beetles (Hanson 1995, Stange 1994, Krombein 1938). When a larva is found, the wasp will lay her eggs on the abdomen of the beetle larva, as an ectoparasite (Quicke 1997, Stange 1994, Schönitzer and Lawitzky 1987, Krombein 1938). The beetle larva becomes partially paralyzed during their development through the injection of neurotoxins (such as proline and polyamine) by the female wasp (Quicke 1997, Hanson 1995). The beetle larva is only partially paralyzed so that the wasp larva may initially feed on a living host (Quicke 1997). Once the wasp larva completely consumes the beetle larva, it constructs a cocoon for overwintering. Wasps emerge from cocoons in the spring (Krombein 1938).
Activity of the females from this point is not known (Krombein 1938). The males are known to congregate on vegetation early in the morning when temperatures are low, presumably waiting for females to emerge from the soil or to forage (Hanson 1995, Krombein 1938).
Authors: Donald Spence, University of Florida; and Amanda Hodges, SPDN, University of Florida
Photographs: Donald Spence, University of Florida; and Johnny Dell
Project Coordinator: Thomas R. Fasulo, University of Florida
Publication Number: EENY-470
Publication Date: June 2010
Copyright 2010 University of Florida
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Department of Entomology and Nematology
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adult
sexual dimorphism
male abdominal spine
plate-like lobes
male tarsus
wing stigma
male head
male antenna