Episyron quinquenotatus

Episyron quinquenotatus, the white-trimmed black wasp, is a North American species of pompilid spider hunting wasp.

Episyron quinquenotatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Pompilidae
Genus: Episyron
Species:
E. quinquenotatus
Binomial name
Episyron quinquenotatus
(Say 1835)[1]

Description

The body length is approximately 10 mm. The body is mostly black with white markings: a thin line behind each eye, with a second line on side of face bordering inner edge of eye, a thin white crescent along the headward edge of the thorax is broken in the middle, and three white wedge-shaped markings on each side of the abdomen with the central spot, larger than the other two, and may meet in the middle to form a continuous band. Small white spots may be present at tip of abdomen and at base of each wing; wings dusky, darker toward the tips; female front tarsus with a comb of 4 to 6 spines, used for digging the breeding burrows.[2]

Distribution

From Yukon and Northwest Territories south to the Gulf of Mexico states such as Texas, Arkansas and Alabama.[3]

Subspecies

E. q. quinquenotatus in the eastern part of the range

E. q. hurdi in the western part of the range.[2]

Habitat

Sandy, open areas, often by waterbodies.

Habits

Adult females search for orb weaver spiders and paralyse captured prey by stinging the spider on the underside of the cephalothorax. The wasp digs a burrow in loose sandy soil using the combs on its front legs and draws the paralysed spider into it, it then lays an egg on the spider's abdomen which hatches in two or three days, when the grub begins to feed on the soft tissue of the spider.[2] Grubs which hatch too late in the season to mature will often go into diapause over the winter.[4]

References
  1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=154306
  2. http://bugguide.net/node/view/32972,
  3. Finnamore A.T. 1997 Aculeate Wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) of the Yukon, pp. 867 – 900 in H.V. Danks and J.A. Downes (Eds.), Insects of the Yukon. Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods),
  4. Kurczewski, F. 2010 Prey and Nesting Behavior of Some North American Spider Wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) Northeastern Naturalist, 17(1) 115–124


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