Podium is a genus of thread-waisted wasps in the family Sphecidae. They hunt cockroaches as provisions for their larvae.
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:
Podium agile species-group Podium agile Kohl, 1902 Podium friesei Kohl, 1902 Podium plesiosaurus (F. Smith, 1873) Podium trigonopsoides Menke, 1974
Podium eurycephalum species-group Podium eurycephalum Ohl, 1996
Podium fumigatum species-group Podium angustifrons Kohl, 1902 Podium aureosericeum Kohl, 1902 Podium bugabense Cameron, 1888 Podium chalybaeum Kohl, 1902 Podium denticulatum F. Smith, 1856 Podium foxii Kohl, 1902 Podium fulvipes Cresson, 1865 Podium fumigatum (Perty, 1833) Podium intermissum Kohl, 1902 Podium iridescens Kohl, 1902 Podium luctuosum F. Smith, 1856 Podium opalinum F. Smith, 1856 Podium sexdentatum Taschenberg, 1869 Podium tau (Dalla Torre, 1897)
Podium rufipes species-group Podium rufipes Fabricius, 1804 Podium batesianum W. Schulz, 1904 Podium kohlii Zavattari, 1908 Podium krombeini Bohart and Menke, 1963
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