Australia has long been described as the headquarters for the Flower Wasps, with a recent revision of the Australian genera by Brown (2025) bringing the current total of described species for the continent to well over 700 in more than 70 genera, the great bulk of these in Thynninae – yet indications are even as many more species remain to be described! The common name, first coined by Froggatt (1907), originally refered to those now placed in the two Thynnidae subfamilies with strong sexual dimorphism — (1) Thynninae where the male is long, slender and fully winged, the related female being much smaller, with body compact and often differently coloured, and always wingless, and (2) Diamminae with the single species, Diamma bicolor (Blue Bottle Ant), where the female is also wingless though much larger than the male. It is the Thynninae males that are often seen in numbers at native flowers on warm days, often with the small wingless female coupled underneath.
Thynninae females spend most of their time tunnelling for soft bodied larval hosts, emerging only for courtship and feeding, with both activities integrated. She initiates courtship by releasing pheromones while perched low to the ground, or even from just below the ground surface. Males actively search low to the ground and find a signalling female rapidly. Once found, she is usually picked up immediately and removed from the signal site to prevent competition from other males. Copulation takes place in flight, with the male typically providing nectar for the female either from regurgitate or from the flowers he visits. Males in several genera have evolved an occipital cavity under the head to store nectar for females (for Australia, this includes Tachynomyia, Tachyphron and Tachynoides). While nectar is the main food source recorded, the paucity of flower visiting records for some genera suggests other sources such as the exudates of planthoppers, scales and aphids. After mating, the male drops the female to the ground to search for hosts.
Despite their great numbers and activity, there are only a small number of records of Thynnidae host larvae. Only soil-dwelling Scarabaeidae larvae are recorded for Australian Thynninae, though the shear numbers of Thynninae wasps suggests other hosts are likely, possibly including non-scarab Scarabeoidea, weevils, and bembecine wasps. Rhagigaster females have been found in ants nests, and thus probably are parasites of ant larvae. Diamma bicolor (Diammaninae) are parasites of mole cricket nymphs (Gryllotalpidae). Nothing is known of the hosts of other Australian subfamilies, Anthoboscinae and Myzinae.
Tasmania has a small slice of the overall Australian fauna, with 35 species in 21 genera being listed by Brown (2025), though at least a further 5 genera have undescribed species indicated. Over 50% of the species are collectively found in the following four genera (no. spp.) — Eirone (9), Rhytidothynnus (4), Neozeleboria (3), and Aeolothynnus (2) — all other Tasmanian genera have a single species. There are 9 endemic species (Xanthobosca confusa, Eirone basimaculata, E. celsissima, E. exilis, E. leai, E. lucida, Rhytidothynnus pugionatus, Neoseleboria tubual, & Tmesothynnus humilis), with a further 3 (Tachynomyia abdominalis, Iswaroides decipiens, & Pappothynnus humilis), originally described from Tasmania, belonging to cryptic mainland complexes that are likely also endemic to the island state.
Genera list – known Tasmanian genera with those indicated present by Brown (2025) with no species described in square brackets (unlinked genera we have not documented):
Aeolothynnus Agriomyia [Anthobosca] Ariphron Arthrothynnus Aulacothynnus Catocheilus [Chilothynnus] Diamma [Dimorphothynnus] Eirone [Guerinius] Iswaroides [Leptothynnus] Lophocheilus Neozeleboria Pappothynnus Phymatothynnus Psammothynnus Rhagigaster Rhytidothynnus Tachynomyia Thynnoides Tmesothynnus Xanthobosca Zeleboria
Subfamily Anthoboscinae
Subfamily Myzininae
(Currently empty – not known for Tasmania)
Subfamily Diamminae (Blue “Ants”)
Subfamily Thynninae
Tribe Rhagigasterini
Tribe Agriomyini
Tribe Tachynomyini
Tribe Thynnini
Pending ID Thynninae
References
Alcock, J. 1981. Notes on the reproductive behaviour of some Australian thynnine wasps. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 54: 681–693.
Brown, G. R. 1998. The generic status of Catocheilus Guérin-Méneville and Hemithynnus Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae:
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Brown, G. R. 2001. Status of the Ariphron generic group (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae): a critical review. Australian Journal of Entomology 40: 23-40.
Brown, G. R. 2025. Revision of the Australian Thynnidae and Tiphiidae (Hymenoptera). Zootaxa 5681: 001-862.
Brown, G. R. & Phillips, R. D. 2014. A review of the diet of flower wasps (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae: Thynninae). Northern Territory Naturalist 25: 50–63.
Froggatt, W .W. 1907. Australian Insects. William Brooks and Co., Sydney.
Given, B. B. 1954. Notes on Australian Thynninae. I. Ariphron bicolor Erichson. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 78: 258-261.
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Kimsey, L. S. 2004. Illustrated keys to males of the genera of wasps in the subfamily Thynninae (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 106 (3): 571–585.
Turner, R. E. 1908. A revision of the Thynnidae of Australia (Hymenoptera). Pt II. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 33: 70–256.
Turner, R. E. 1914. New fossorial Hymenoptera from Australia and Tasmania. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 38: 608–623.
Williams, F. X. 1919. A note on the habits of Epactiothynnus opaciventris Turner, an Australian Thynnid wasp. Psyche 26: 160–162.