Antenna-waving Wasp Monitoring

The Antenna-waving Wasp (Tachysphex pechumani) is considered to be a very rare insect in North America; however, it is currently not state or federally listed. This species has a disjunctive range in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada with populations and subpopulations occupying sections of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, northwestern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, southwestern Ontario and the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve (Kurczewski 1998). It is an excellent indicator of ancestral oak savanna (Kurczewski 2000), and small populations still exist in the Oak Openings region of northwest Ohio.

The lifespan of the adult is short (about 2 to 3 weeks), and each female will only lay approximately 12 eggs, having only one generation a year. In mid to late June, the adults emerge from the sand (males 2 to 3 days earlier than females), mate, and then start digging shallow, one-celled, tunnel -shaped nests. One wasp may excavate as many as 14 nests in an area of compact sand, and these nests are often clustered having adjacent entrances within “aggregations.” The 7-8 mm diameter nest holes can be identified by characteristic half-circle openings, with darker sand forming a larger semicircle “tailing” at the flat end of the excavation. One or two eggs are laid on a stung/paralyzed grasshopper and the parasitized individual is then deposited into the tunnel (nest) opening and capped off with sand. The larva will hatch out and feed on the grasshopper, remaining underground for 11 months. Six sites are monitored by staff throughout the month of June each season for adults present and number of nest excavations.