FNZ 32 - Sphecidae (Hymenoptera) - Life Cycle
Harris, AC 1994. Sphecidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 32, 112 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
;
no.
32.
ISBN 0-478-04534-4 (print),
).
Published 07 Oct 1994
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/0E1574B4-3C0C-4336-A49C-FCE1F6C55192
LIFE CYCLE
The sphecid egg is white, elongate-ovoid, sausage-shaped, and slightly curved. Larvae are white, almost fusiform, hymenopteriform (eucephalous), with whitish-cream translucent cuticle. The final-instar larval stage is usually attained in less than 3 weeks, and cocoon-spinning commences less than a month after the egg was laid. The larva often incorporates into the surface of the cocoon material from the floor of the cell, such as fragmentary food remains and sand grains (Fig. 110-114). Cocoons of species of Podagritus are of this type, whereas Rhopalum cocoons are smooth. Cocoons of New Zealand species of Pison are cylindrical, matt, greyish-buff, and rounded at either end, whereas those of Sceliphron are brown and shining. Cocoons of Spilomena are very thin, white, and sac-shaped.
Although Pison spinolae is bivoltine, most New Zealand sphecids are univoltine or variable. For instance, Podagritus albipes is univoltine in some places (e.g., Blue Stream MK), bivoltine in others, and possibly multivoltine in yet others, but it has a winter prepupal diapause. All New Zealand sphecids spend at least the winter in a prepupal diapause. The following spring the prepupa moults into an exarate pupa which has stout, spined processes on the abdomen. Pupal development takes about 14 days, ending in adult emergence.