Talk:Sphecius speciosus

Magicicada

Do Cicada Killer Wasps feed on Magicicada; specifically, Brood X that has emerged in many US states in the past month? I ask because the Magicicada article had a mention of CKWs feeding on them, but it was removed when someone noticed that these cicadas typically died off by June, whereas this article states that CKWs don't emerge until July.

Brood X Cicada & Unknown Wasp

I took this picture on 30 May 2004 of a yellow-and-black- (not yellow-and-red/brown-) striped wasp picking over a dead Magicicada, but didn't know what kind of wasp it was, or even if it was attempting to consume or lay eggs in the hapless cicada. Could someone familiar with CKWs and/or wasps in general explain:

1. What kind of wasp this is?
2. If it is a Cicada Killer Wasp, how it might be up and about in May?
3. If CKWs only come out in July, what kind of cicadas do they kill?

Thank you. -- Jeff Q 16:57, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Jeff, I'm by no means an expert on cicadas or wasps, but the last question is easy: there are many more species of cicadas than the Magicicada, and many of the North American species have an emergence period that does overlap with that of the CKW. They are even called collectively (and informally) the "dog day cicadas" precisely because they appear in July or August, i.e., during the Dog Days. CKWs certainly feed on those. Lupo 07:13, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The wasp in the photo is Polistes dominulus, and it is scavenging the carcass of a dead cicada - it almost certainly could NOT kill the cicada itself. Dyanega 19:36, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Hello, anonymous editor!

Hey 206.245.176.26, it's great to see somebody knowledgeable at work! I see you're from Lafayette—you wouldn't be Prof. Holliday himself, would you? Anyway, you might want to cross-check my attempt to clean up the taxonomy to verify that I didn't introduce new errors... Thanks for your good work! Lupo 12:33, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Sorry about the (VERY) late response, but I can almost guarantee that this is NOT Doc Holliday. I am a student of his, and the contributions of 206.245 (blanking pages, comments on emo kids) just don't seem like his kind of thoughts. In addition, the IP for Lafayette College seems to start always in 139.147; 206.245 is a location in Bethlehem (coincidently, Lafayette's rival, Lehigh)139.147.218.186 (talk) 20:23, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi Jeff Q As to your question of what kind of Wasp this is? I'm not sure, but I do know for sure that it is not a Cicada Killer Wasp. I have had to deal with these wasps for about 3 - 4 years now in my yard. The CKW's are much bigger then your wasp. I'm not sure what type of Cicadas they hunt and kill where I live, but the funniest thing to see is one of these wasps carrying a paralyzed Cicada under its belly and trying to fly to its burrow in the ground. They deposit the paralyzed Cicadas into their burrows to feed next years larva, or this years. I have had five or six of these in my yard at a time and it has taken me a few years to kill all of them off. They do also appear in July and I haven't seen them before then. Using a butterfly net to catch them is really easy, and they make a great insect to bring to school for your kids. The main reason that I removed them from my yard is they scared my children. They look very scary, but aren't very harmful. Thanks, Jahmekyat 18:52, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

The Cicada's are not dead they are paralyzed by the sting from the female CKW. The male has no stinger and all he does is fight with other males for mating. I watched about 10 of these wasps flying around in a yard the other day bringing in Cicadas.

May be necessary to give separate pages to other cicada killer species

Given that this page talks almost exclusively about ONE out of 21 known species, it might be advisable to restructure it accordingly - as it is, it looks like it's trying to be a catch-all for multiple genera, which is not in keeping with most taxonomic WP articles (consider the taxobox here, which refers to a single species, and contrast it with the text). Rather than offending previous editors by changing ti now myself, I'll merely point this out as a potential source for future problems, and suggest that the sooner it's addressed, the better. Dyanega 19:35, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, the addition of the species list by User:Sarefo was nice, but it was the exact opposite of what I was suggesting; there IS a page for the genus - the problem was that THIS article focused on a single species (and even had Sphecius speciosus linked to it as a redirect), and yet the text emphasized other members of the genus. I have accordingly restructure it so this is now the page for speciosus and ONLY for speciosus, as it was originally intended.

Range

I don't know i can't find one but I'm sure there are some maps of where this insect is commonly found in the United States and Mexico. Could someone please find out what their habitat is? --Co1dLP1anet 17:19, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

There are no maps available, because there have never been any such studies. Insects are not like birds or mammals; aside from butterflies, people rarely bother to make maps of their distributions. Besides, it is already specified in the text: "This species occurs in the eastern and midwest U.S. and southwards into Mexico and Central America." That means essentially ANYWHERE within that region. Dyanega 20:37, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Male and female eggs

Perhaps can someone elaborate on the information presented about male and female eggs? If the egg-laying female puts a female egg around three cicadas, and a male egg around one cicada, how does she determine the sex of the eggs she is laying, or does the amount of food present (and the nutrition it provides the developing larva) determine the sex somehow?

This point was not made clear, or am I misunderstanding something here?

I know that in some insects, eg.g. mealybugs, the female can produce eggs parthenogenetically, but I think thay all develop into females.

It is unfortunate that the article link required to answer this question cannot effectively be placed on every page related to Hymenoptera, but ALL of them have the same mechanism of sex determination, and it would be incredibly tedious and redundant to try to do put a link in EVERY article individually. Since you asked, this is the pertinent article: Haplodiploid sex-determination system. Dyanega 17:22, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

This article and the wikipedia Importance Scale

Speaking only for myself, I found it very useful and informative. These particular insects have been exceptionally abundant in my girlfriend's neighborhood recently (early August), and she was concerned as to what was making these holes everywhere, and were the wasps she saw flying around of any danger to the many children in her neighborhood should they disrupt the nests by stomping on them, etc. There was also a concern about pets as well.

The article was very useful in answering her questions. Isn't that the point of an encyclopedia?

Witness testimony of attack

on my way to my car, i heard some cicada screams, broken ones at that. He took flight from the tree and was spiraling like an aircraft in a deadly spin to the ground. I find he was being stung multiple times by one of these bees, the cicada had no chance.lol Just thought I'd share a ruthless moment in nature with you all! Murakumo-Elite (talk) 08:18, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Scary bees

The testmaster saw some of these before. They are ginormous. They fly around like crazy and almost fly into you like they are trying to attack. I was so scared that I ran to my car (this was before the testmaster got a DUI). Testmasterflex (talk) 04:10, 19 September 2008 (UTC)