Sphex cognata

Black Digger Wasp at Deakin, ACT

Sphex cognata at Deakin, ACT - 21 Feb 2018
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Identification history

Sphex cognata 17 Mar 2018 MichaelMulvaney
Sphex cognata 16 Mar 2018 michael.batley
Lipotriches sp. (genus) 23 Feb 2018 MichaelMulvaney
Unidentified 21 Feb 2018 JackyF

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User's notes

wasp-like insect about 12mm, prominent black and creamy stripes

3 comments

michaelb wrote:
   18 Mar 2018
Spelling corrected to Sphex cognata.
We have sightings of Sphex species which have considerably better photos than this one. See
https://canberra.naturemapr.org/Community/Species/21678
Would you be able to ID some of them for us?
   18 Mar 2018
Most of the images I looked at seemed to be S. cognatus, but another possibility is S. vestitus. Somebody more familiar with wasps than I am may be able to do better using Dörfel and Ohl 2015 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4591716/pdf/zookeys-521-001.pdf). The gender of Sphex is male, so the specific part of the name should end in -us if it is an adjective.
michaelb wrote:
   18 Mar 2018
Thanks Michael
Re the spelling, I should have said we align our names with ALA because we export our data to them, and they have Sphex cognata:
https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:115dba46-0725-4c43-b1a9-826353ec5a20

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Location information

Sighting information

  • 1 Abundance
  • 21 Feb 2018 05:52 PM Recorded on
  • JackyF Recorded by

Additional information

  • sitting still on grass seedhead over shallow water Associated plant
  • 5mm to 12mm Animal size

Species information

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