''Episyron quinquenotatus'', the white-trimmed black wasp, is a North American species of
pompilid
Wasps in the family Pompilidae are commonly called spider wasps, spider-hunting wasps, or pompilid wasps. The family is cosmopolitan, with some 5,000 species in six subfamilies. Nearly all species are solitary (with the exception of some group-ne ...
spider hunting wasp.
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.
Distribution
From
Yukon and
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
south to the
Gulf of Mexico states such as
Texas,
Arkansas and
Alabama.
Subspecies
''E. q. quinquenotatus'' in the eastern part of the range
''E. q. hurdi'' in the western part of the range.
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 cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...
. 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.
Grubs which hatch too late in the season to mature will often go into diapause over the winter.
[Kurczewski, F. 2010 Prey and Nesting Behavior of Some North American Spider Wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) Northeastern Naturalist, 17(1) 115–124]
References
Pompilinae
Hymenoptera of North America
Insects described in 1835
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