Evagetes
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| Evagetes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Spider Wasp, Evagetes ingenuus caught near the Dead River in Marquette County, Michigan. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Pompilidae |
| Subfamily: | Pompilinae |
| Genus: | Evagetes Lepeletier, 1845 |
| Type species | |
| Evagetes bicolor Lepeletier, 1845 | |
Evagetes is a genus of spider wasps from the family Pompilidae. There are 72 described species, of which 58 are found in the Palaearctic region, 11 in the Nearctic region, with a few penetrating to the Afrotropical, Oriental and Neotropic regions.[1] Evagetes wasps are kleptoparasitic on other pompilid wasps, especially the genera Arachnospila, Anoplius, Episyron and Pompilus,[2] digging into their sealed burrows, eating the host egg and replacing it with an egg of its own.[3] Evagetes wasps are characterised by their very short antennae. Most are species are black with the base of the antennae rufous, several Evagetes species are very metallic bluish insects.[4]
The type species was named by Lepeletier as Evagetes bicolor in 1845 but this has since been recognised as a synonym for E. dubius.[5]