Ammophila sabulosa (Linnaeus, 1758)

Ammophila sabulosa, the red-banded sand wasp, is a species of the subfamily Ammophilinae of the solitary hunting wasp family Sphecidae, also called digger wasps. Found across Eurasia, the parasitoid wasp is notable for the mass provisioning behaviour of the females, hunting caterpillars mainly on sunny days, paralysing them with a sting, and burying them in a burrow with a single egg. The species is also remarkable for the extent to which females parasitise their own species, either stealing prey from nests of other females to provision their own nests, or in brood parasitism, removing the other female's egg and laying one of her own instead.

Source: Wikipedia

Synonyms 13
Ammophila cyanescens, Ammophila mucronata, Ammophila pulvillata, Ammophila vischu, Ichneumon frischii, Podalonia sabulosa, Psammophila sabulosa, Sphex hortensis, Sphex mucronatus, Sphex sabulosus, Ammophila sabulosa cyanescens, Ammophila sabulosa kamtschatica, Ammophila sabulosa sabulosa
  • 22,764 GBIF occurrences
  • 4,830 iNaturalist observations