What Are Flower Wasps?

WHAT ARE FLOWER WASPS??

Flower wasps are solitary wasp and this species are large and often bright colored with metallic appearance. Flower wasps are also known as Tiphiidae and it belongs to the super family of Scarabaeoidea.  Flower wasps are found through out Australia and they are about 2.5cm to 3.0 cm long.

A Flower Wasp from Australia

Most of them are small in size and they are found in urban gardens, forest, woodlands and heath. They are often seen during late summer season between the flowers and they pollinate native plants. Flower wasps are not aggressive and they will rarely sting people. Such insects are required to maintain the population of other insects and they have an amazing life cycle.

The female wasps are wingless and they hunt mole crickets. They female paralyze the prey with the sting and they lay egg up on it. The hatched larva is been fed inside the living host. Male wasp looks similar to that female but are more slender. Adult feed nectars and they are minor pollinators. They are called flower wasps because the visit flowers and the hairy wasp drink nectar. Nectar provides them good energy and they use the power to wing muscles.

Adult female flower wasps are powerful wasp and they are designed to dig. The female wasp keep on searching for beetle grubs on the ground and they are good enough to dig into compost heaps or saw dust of tree to find them. Flower wasps do not make nest or form colonies.

Life cycle

The female wasp dig through the soil and reaches to the beetle larvae and when they find a grub, they lay egg on it. Many species are wingless female and among these species the wasp mates on the wing. The male wasp carries the female wasp on the wing and some males feed the wingless female.
After finding a beetle grub they don’t kill it. These wasps paralyze the prey by stinging them and when the egg hatches inside the paralyzed beetle grub, it is surrounded by living tissues. If the female wasp stings their prey to kill them then the tissues would rot and decompose immediately. The hatched wasp larvae know which part of the paralyzed prey has to be eaten first and they feed the prey as long as possible.

Black flower wasp

Black flower wasp belongs to the family of scoliidae and they are large in size. Black color wasps are not aggressive and they have stunning colored wings. These insects are very common in Eastern Australia. They feed nectar and the blue winged insects are solitary. These insects are seen around areas of turf, shrubs and composite piles. Their legs are covered with short bristles and the female wasp doesn’t have antenna. They are solitary and they don’t make nest. Black flower wasps pollinate native plants and they rarely sting.

Danger to human beings

If female flower wasps are disturbed then they can sting you. They are not aggressive but they attack people near where they are searching for food.