Observations on the Nesting and Prey of the Solitary Wasp,Tachysphex inconspicuus, with a Review of Nesting Behavior in theT. obscuripennisspecies group

Abstract

The nesting behaviors of 10 females of Tachysphex inconspicuus (Kirby) (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) were studied on a sandy, mowed lawn at the La Selva Biological Station in northeastern Costa Rica on 27–29 April 1980. Twenty-four completed nests were observed, excavated, and measured. The nests had oblique, short burrows leading to one or two shallow cells. Prey cockroaches belonging to 11 species of Chorisoneura and Riatia fulgida (Saussure) (Blattaria: Blattellidae), all tropical wet forest canopy indicator species, were removed from the cells, weighed, and identified. The cockroaches consisted mainly of adult females, selectively preyed upon over adult males and nymphs due to their larger sizes. The aggregate prey mass in cells was separable into prospective larger (heavier) female and smaller (lighter) male cells. Wasps usually oviposited on the heaviest cockroach in a cell, in most cases an adult female. Atypical genus behavior included (1) prey being carried to one side of the wasp and perhaps grasped by a hindleg during removal of the temporary entrance closure and nest entry and (2) wasp's egg being laid affixed to a forecoxal corium and extending backward in a longitudinally posteriad position across the prey's ventral thorax. A comparison with the nesting behavior of other species in the Tachysphex obscuripennis species group is made.