Article

Alexander V. Fateryga, PhD, Senior Researcher of the T.I. Vyazemsky Karadag Scientific Station – Nature Reserve of RAS – Branch of A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS (298188, Russia, Feodosiya, Kurortnoe, Nauki Street, 24); iD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5346-3477; e-mail: fater_84@list.ru
Valentina V. Fateryga, PhD, Senior Researcher of the T.I. Vyazemsky Karadag Scientific Station – Nature Reserve of RAS – Branch of A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS (298188, Russia, Feodosiya, Kurortnoe, Nauki Street, 24); iD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0031-1955; e-mail: valentina_vt@mail.ru
Maxim V. Onchurov, Lecturer of the Department of General Biology and Genetics of the Institute of Biochemical Technology, Ecology and Pharmacy of the V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University (295007, Russia, Simferopol, Vernadskogo Avenue, 4); iD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2139-2085; e-mail: larinioides@mail.ru

Fateryga A.V., Fateryga V.V., Onchurov M.V. 2025. On the biology of two species of ground-nesting eumenine wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae) and their cuckoo-wasp parasites (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae) from the Tarkhankut Nature Park, Crimea. Nature Conservation Research 10(4): 31–42. https://dx.doi.org/10.24189/ncr.2025.021

Hemipterochilus bembeciformis and Tropidodynerus interruptus nest in ground with rather similar soil characteristics (light to medium clay loam). Two nests of the former species and four of the latter were excavated. Both species used water to moisten the ground. Females of H. bembeciformis surmounted the nest entrance with a 1–4 mm high mud collar; the nest entrance of T. interruptus was simple but temporary closed with mud pellets by the wasps. One nest of H. bembeciformis was abandoned, while another contained two brood cells as ends of a branched burrow; all nests of T. interruptus were one-celled. A caterpillar of Acontia trabealis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was recorded as a prey of H. bembeciformis, while females of T. interruptus hunted on larvae of Rhinocyllus conicus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) extracting them from fading capitula of Carduus nutans subsp. leiophyllus. Cuckoo wasps Chrysis cylindrica and Ch. valesiana were observed at nests of both species, while only cocoons of the former species were recorded in the brood cells of both H. bembeciformis and T. interruptus. Chrysis cylindrica is recorded as a parasitoid, since its larva consumes the host larva and its cocoons were found inside cocoons of the host-wasp species. The cocoon of T. interruptus is described. Hemipterochilus bembeciformis and T. interruptus form a Müllerian mimicry ring with at least two other eumenine-wasp species co-occurring in the Tarkhankut Nature Park: Paragymnomerus signaticollis and Pseudepipona herrichii. The biology of all four species is discussed; all of them are confined to threatened steppe habitats and require our attention and conservation efforts.

brood parasites, Chrysis cylindrica, Hemipterochilus bembeciformis, mimicry ring, nest structure, trophic relationships, Tropidodynerus interruptus

Received: 24.06.2025. Revised: 21.08.2025. Accepted: 16.09.2025.

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