Campsomeriella thoracica

Campsomeriella thoracica
Female of a Campsomeriella thoracica
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Scoliidae
Genus:	Campsomeriella
Species:	C. thoracica
Binomial name
Campsomeriella thoracica (Fabricius, 1787)
Synonyms

Campsomeriella thoracica is a species of scarab parasitoid wasp that has been recorded in the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Description

Female

This species exhibits very significant Sexual dimorphism. The female’s body is a reflective black colour, with two smoky, iridescent pairs of wings. She has six legs, and the hind legs are remarkably large, with tough bristles resembling spikes pointing at a downwards angle from the body. The thorax is remarkable, as it is covered in soft, ginger hair which leads to the common mistaken identity of a bee. On her head is a pair of orange and large compound eyes and three small ocelli, only detecting change in light. She possesses a pair of large, powerful but relatively blunt mandibles. The compound eyes are well-developed giving the wasp a large field of view. Her antennas are short, and relatively thick.

Male

The Male is very bee-like. His body has an overall grey colour, as opposed to the female’s jet-black. His abdomen’s patterning consists of alternating reddish-orange and black stripes, typical of many wasps. Coated with a layer of soft, grey hair, the male’s legs are not as muscular as the female’s, being thin and lacking the spike-like bristles of the opposite sex. He is only about half her size, and his mandibles are much smaller than hers. He has similarly sized compound eyes, but they are grey instead of orange. Another key difference is that the Male has much longer antennae than the female, about a third as long as he is. He has two pairs of wings which are fully transparent