Of the three species of Crabro which occur in Britain, C. cribrarius is the largest. Male Crabro can be readily distinguished from other medium-sized British and Irish sphecids by their conspicuous fore-tibial shields.

Specimens of the 'Saxon wasp', the second species of social wasp to have recently colonised England, are more difficult to identify in the field than its congener D. media. It is a very close relative of D. norwegica but lacks the pair of red spots on the second gastral tergum (but beware, these markings are also absent in some D. norwegica).

Ectemnius cavifrons is one of the largest and most common species of its genus in Britain.

See Oxybelus uniglumis for general notes on this species.

This is the most common of our Oxybelus species.

This is a very close relative of Ammophila sabulosa; in many of its sites it flies with its congener, and may be locally abundant.

This species is a very close relative of C. ruficornis and care is necessary to distinguish between them, particularly when identifying males.

Ecological studies in the Norfolk Brecklands (Field & Foster, 1995; Willmer, 1985a,b) and Europe (Hamm & Richards, 1930) make this one of the best-known British aculeates.