Toltec scoliid wasp
Dielis tolteca
The Toltec scoliid wasp is a hairy, colourful wasp from the southwestern United States and Mexico. The female has bright orange bands on her body, and the male has four pale yellow stripes. You often see it on yellow goldenrod flowers.
Lives in
The southwestern United States, Mexico and Haiti, often on goldenrod flowers
What does it eat?
The grown-ups visit flowers, especially goldenrod. Like other scoliid wasps, its larvae feed on beetle grubs in the ground.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Toltec scoliid wasp about 22 km/h (14 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The orange on the female can be a full band, a thin stripe or almost nothing, and everything in between.
2
The male has a yellow band behind his head too, which helps tell him apart from look-alike wasps.
3
It lives as far away as the island of Haiti in the Caribbean.
you asked
Most asked questions about Toltec scoliid wasp
?Where can you see a Toltec scoliid wasp?
On goldenrod flowers in the southwestern United States, Mexico and Haiti.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dielis tolteca
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Scoliidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Scoliidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Dielis tolteca (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by icosahedron Depicted place: Contra Costa County, CA, USA ( 38°00′50″N 121°46′59″W / 38.014025022°N 121.7830380185°W / 38.014025022; -121.7830380185 ). CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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