Another new wasp in New Zealand

Anterhynchium tamarinum is not known to be established in NZ, but I caught one

December 2025

I have been following the hunt for the yellow-legged hornet very closely. We are in the 5km zone around the original find sites and both signage and traps have appeared in Birkenhead. Finally.

If you have read this blog before, you know that I actively kill introduced wasps and have been setting traps for vespula wasps and the hornet. However, I catch most wasps manually with nets stationed around the property.

On the last weekend in November, I noticed an orangey wasp whilst eating lunch outside and jumped up to net it. It was bigger than a European tube wasp, but smaller than a vespula wasp. I didn't know what it was, but I knew I hadn't seen one before.

Anterhynchium tamarinum

I went online and I still couldn't ID it, but it looked like something that had been seen in Glenfield back in 2022 - the first recording of this new wasp in New Zealand - but hadn't been recorded on iNaturalist since. Reading between the lines, the first person who spotted it could not record it accurately on iNaturalist, because it would identify their location. This sighting was recorded properly once the person had moved on from the property in Glenfield where the wasp was found.

Then yours truly nets another. As soon as I photographed it, I found a specimen jar and put it in the fridge. Then I called MPI. I was later asked to send photos, which I did, and on the Monday a couple of people from the MPI Auckland office came round to collect the wasp. They checked all the structures on the property and under the house and decks for nest activity, but there was no sign of nests for any wasp species.

MPI have identified the wasp as Anterhynchium tamarinum, but it might have been stepped on a little too much to allow all the testing they wanted to do, especially as it is the first they have got a specimen of. Oops. There is no information online about this wasp, other than it is a potter wasp and solitary. And yes, it will take caterpillars for its young - there are photos online - but like the established European tube wasp, it will have nothing like the impact of the social wasps, who can number in the tens of thousands from one nest.

It shows how easily a new wasp can stay under the radar. MPI confirmed that they have had no reported sightings between the 2022 sightings and mine, but Glenfield and Birkenhead are a couple of suburbs away from each other - not far at all. With all the photos rolling in of wasps in the area, as well as traps, the hornet problem may well give vital information about this wasp too. MPI are keeping me in the loop and hopefully they can confirm if there is a population here or whether they have been individually introduced in a similar area. Watch this space.

A carbohydrate hornet trap at the end of our road