Kingdom: Animalia
Clade: Euarthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Crabronidae
Common name: Solitary wasps
The Crabronidae are a large paraphyletic group of wasps containing hundreds of thousands of species worldwide.
There are many solitary species of wasps native to New Zealand. They have evolved here with other insects and plants over thousands of years. Most species use or burrow tunnels in the ground, hollow plant stems or holes in trees. Many of the species are pollinator of flowers and have never been considered a nuisance.
Photos below are of a small solitary wasp (9mm body length) photographed in New Plymouth.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
