ID for this insect (wasp?) please.

Abdulkarim Elnaas

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Found this guy buried upside down, under some debris, in the sand, on the beach of Misrata, Libya. I saw the dark underside and thought it was just a darkling beetle, but boy am I glad that I didn't dig it out with my hand.

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basin79

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Jacob Ma

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It may be a type of solitary sand wasp under the family Crabronidae in the tribe Bembicini. It may also be under either the subfamily Nyssonini or Astatinae, but I'm no wasp expert especially on species around Africa.
 

Abdulkarim Elnaas

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I placed it in a container with sand and some date palm wood and it wasted no time whatsoever digging itself under again. I came back to the container after a bit and I found a hole under the palm. It tried to dig as far as it could cuz when I looked through the bottom of the container I could see some of its black body pressed against the plastic.

EDIT: I think Scoliidae is the right direction, but narrowing it further would be difficult for me. The way the wasp looks resembles the other wasps in Scoliidae I can see on Google. Pimelia larva are everywhere, if you are willing to dig for them, so I could definitely see there being a wasp species taking advantage of those.
 
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Jacob Ma

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I think Scoliidae is the right direction, but narrowing it further would be difficult for me. The way the wasp looks resembles the other wasps in Scoliidae I can see on Google. Pimelia larva are everywhere, if you are willing to dig for them, so I could definitely see there being a wasp species taking advantage of those.
Scoliids are primarily scarab-larvae feeders, but this may or may not apply to African species in Scoliidae. Try offering a possible host that it may use, because Bembicinae are known to supply their young with food but Scoliidae will leave their larvae alone. The pictures do show more resemblance to a member of Scoliidae than a member of Bembicinae, so it would make sense that it is a Scoliid.
 
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