Ent. Pl. spheges. [a. Gr. σφήξ (pl. σφῆκες) wasp.] A genus of digger-wasps; a wasp of this genus.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 689/2. Sphex, Ichneumon Wasp, or Savage.
1805. Bingley, Zool. (ed. 3), III. 354. Many species of the Sphex are common in England;… their larvæ feed on dead insects, in the bodies of which the parent Spheges lay their eggs.
1857. Gosse, Omphalos, 319. Immense tribes of solitary Bees, Wasps, and Spheges.
1881. Darwin, Veg. Mould, 93. A sphex … stocks its nest with paralysed grasshoppers.
attrib. 1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 196. An insect of the Sphex or Ichneumon kind.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xi. (1818), I. 351. Similar laborious exertions are not confined to the bee or Sphex tribe.
1897. Contemp. Rev., June, 869. A sphex-wasp stings into helplessness the caterpillars it has selected.
Hence Sphexide, a wasp belonging or related to the genus Sphex.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 230. In the Hymenoptera, such as wasps, bees, sphexides, &c. the extremity of the abdomen incloses a sting, calculated for attack or defence.
