Podium is a genus of thread-waisted wasps in the family Sphecidae. They hunt cockroaches as provisions for their larvae.
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Description and identification
Podium have an elongate petiole typical of thread-waisted wasps. As cockroach-hunting wasps, their bodies are flattened and elongate, a trait homoplastically shared with the Ampulicidae.
Distribution and habitat
Podium is primarily a neotropical genus apart from 3 species that occur in the United States.
Behavior
Much like Chalybion, female Podium either repurpose abandoned mud nests, nest in pre-existing cavities, or built trap nests in plants such as bamboo. In species that build nests with multiple cells, the dividing walls are constructed out of mud. The female hunts cockroaches, which she stings and paralyzes, to provision these cells. She lays an egg between the fore coxae of one of the provisioned cockroaches either before or after placing in the cell. Afterward, the female seals the cell with mud. In multicellular nests, additional cells are built in the same manner. Once the final cell of the nest is completed, she constructs a nest plug out of mud.
Species
There are 23 species in the genus Podium: