Red-banded sand wasp
Amazing fact
The red-banded sand wasp covers its nest entrance with debris, hiding it from human eyes.
Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (BWARS)
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The red-banded sand wasp covers its nest entrance with debris, hiding it from human eyes.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Red-banded sand wasp
- Scientific name
- Ammophila sabulosa
- Japanese name
- ジガバチ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Hymenoptera
- Family
- Sphecidae
- Genus
- Ammophila
A conspicuous wasp of heaths, dunes and other coastal places. It lives on its own, not in colonies.
The female digs a burrow in sandy ground and carries caterpillars back on foot, sometimes far heavier than herself.
Its larvae grow up eating the moth and butterfly caterpillars their mother brought to the nest.
How the Red-banded sand wasp lives
The female temporarily blocks her nest entrance with sand and tiny stones. She hunts for moth and butterfly caterpillars among plants. She lays an egg on a caterpillar brought into the nest.
Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (BWARS)Basic data
- Size
- males about 19 mm, females about 23 mm
- Diet
- Moth and butterfly larvae
- Range
- Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and the Nansei Islands
Where the Red-banded sand wasp has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ジガバチ
- 简体中文
- 多沙泥蜂
- 繁體中文
- 多沙泥蜂屬
- 한국어
- 나나니
- Español
- Avispa excavadora asiática
- Français
- Ammophile des sables
- Deutsch
- Gemeine Sandwespe
- العربية
- دبور الرمل الشائع
- Русский
- Аммофила песочная
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (BWARS) — Ammophila sabulosaChecked: 2026-11-04
- まちだエコライフ推進公社 — まちだのいきものたち ジガバチChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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