''Bicyrtes'' is a genus of large, often brightly coloured predatory
sand wasps. Many species in this genus provision their nests with paralyzed
Pentatomidae
Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert G ...
, while other species make use of
Reduviidae
The Reduviidae is a large Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family of the suborder Heteroptera of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera (true bugs). Among the Hemiptera and together with the Nabidae almost all species are terrestrial ambush ...
and
Coreidae
Coreidae is a large family (biology), family of predominantly sap-sucking insects in the Hemipteran suborder Heteroptera. The name "Coreidae" derives from the genus ''Coreus'', which derives from the Ancient Greek () meaning bedbug.
As a fam ...
instead.
This genus gets its name ("two-humped") from the two noticeable projections arising from the rear of the mesosoma (middle segment).
Selected species
* ''
Bicyrtes affinis''
(Cameron, 1897)
* ''
Bicyrtes capnopterus''
(Handlirsch, 1889)
* ''
Bicyrtes diodontus''
(Handlirsch, 1889)
* ''
Bicyrtes discisus''
(Taschenberg, 1870)
* ''
Bicyrtes fodiens''
(Handlirsch, 1889)
* ''
Bicyrtes insidiatrix'' (
Handlirsch, 1889)
* ''
Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus''
(Say, 1824)
* ''
Bicyrtes spinosus''
(Fabricius, 1794)
* ''
Bicyrtes variegatus''
(Olivier, 1789)
* ''
Bicyrtes viduatus''
(Handlirsch, 1889)
* ''
Bicyrtes ventralis''
(Say, 1824)
References
Bembicidae
Apoidea genera
Taxa named by Amédée Louis Michel le Peletier
{{Apoidea-stub