Radumeris radula (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp)

Radumeris radula (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp)Radumeris radula Nectar Feeding Radumeris radula Wasp and Common Black Ant

The Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris radula) is native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, although there have been sightings in New Zealand (specifically of the species Radumeris tasmaniensis).

Like other Scoliid wasps, the females have short antennae, whilst the male of the species have longer antennae. The female of the species are larger then the male. Both male and female Radumeris radula have orange to brownish wings, with very fine veins towards the wing tips.

They are larval parasites, the paralysed prey being placed with the wasp larva as food, by the adult Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp. The size of the wasps appear to depend on the size of the host larva.

Sometimes Radumeris radula is confused with Radumeris tasmaniensis, and whilst tasmaniensis is found mainly in the south of the country and radula in the north, the easiest way to distinguish them is from the colour of the setae on the top of the thorax of the female wasp. In the female Radumeris radula it is a uniform rusty red-brown in colour, whilst in the female Radumeris tasmaniensis it is yellowish in colour.

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Glossary:

• setae
  from the Latin sēta, for “bristle”, setae (in zoology) is the plural in reference to the stiff structure resembling hairs, bristle, or bristlelike process or part on an organism.

More info on the Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris radula) in Alice Springs and our blog My yellow hairy bug…

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Subphylum: Hexapoda
• Class: Insecta
• Order: Hymenoptera
• Superfamily: Vespoidea
• Family: Scoliidae
• Genus: Radumeris
• Species: Radumeris radula

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Radumeris radula (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp)Radumeris radula Nectar Feeding Radumeris radula Wasp and Common Black Ant

WaspsWasps Index Australian Large Wasps Australian Mud Nest Wasps Mud Wasp Velvet Ants Abispa ephippium Acarozumia amaliae Aulacidae Australodynerus Bembix Bembicinae Blue Hairy Flower Wasp Braconidae Chrysididae Cryptocheilus bicolor (Orange Spider Wasp) Delta latreillei (Potter Wasp) Eumeninae Ferreola handschini (Orange-collared Spider Wasp) Flower Wasps Gasteruptiid Wasp Hairy Flower Wasps Isodontia (Grass-carrying Wasp) Lissopimpla excelsa (Orchid Dupe Wasp) Mutillidae Paralastor sp. Pseudabispa bicolor ssp. nigrocinctoides Radumeris radula (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp) Radumeris tasmaniensis (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp) Sceliphron laetum Thynnid Wasps Tiphiidae Yellow and Black Wasp

InsectsBees Beetles Blattodea Butterflies Coleoptera Cicada Crabronidae Diptera Dragonflies & Damselflies Formicidae Hemiptera Heteroptera (True Bugs) Mango Planthopper Moths Orthoptera Orthopteroid Processionary Caterpillar Stink Bugs, Shield Bugs and Allies Syrphidae Wasps Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis) Witchetty Grub