Spider Wasp: Pompilidae family
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Hi Daniel,
This wasp was scurrying up a gum tree with a large spider for lunch.
See http://www.geocities.com/ brisbane_wasps/YellowAntWasp.htm for more information about this predator.
Grev
East Coast Australia
Spider Wasp with prey from Australia
Hi Grev,
Nice to hear from you again. Thanks so much for helping to expand our new What’s That Bug Down Under? portion of our website. By the way, adult Spider Wasps don’t eat spiders. The spiders are food for the wasp larvae.
tarantula hawk
Is this what I think it is? I shot this on 8/12 in Martinsburg, WV in a disturbed open field. Thanks,
Rob Schwander
hi Rob,
For some reason, we are unable to log onto BugGuide today, and BugGuide is our favoritie research resource when we need to identify a species that we are uncertain about. For now, we will say that this is a Spider Wasp in the family Pompilidae, and it may be a Tarantula Hawk in the genus Pepsis. The only Pepsis species substantiated as being in the East is Pepsis menechma, and we did locate a photo, and it seems to resemble your wasp. We will verify either through Eric Eaton or upon the return of BugGuide to the World Wide Web.
Update: BugGuide has returned …
and we are nearly certain this is the Elegant Tarantula Hawk, Pepsis menechma. Though BugGuide does not indicate submissions from West Virginia, there are reports from border state Virginia. Since there are no Tarantulas in West Virginia other than pets, it is believed the Elegant Tarantula Hawk feeds Trapdoor Spiders to its progeny.
Correction: (08/13/2008)
Daniel: Pepsis menechma probably does occur in southern West Virginia, but the image is of a different spider wasp: Entypus unifasciatus. They do get quite large. Excellent image of a female!
Eric
Correction: (08/13/2008)
Bugman,
I am no expert, but I think I recognize a submission today that you tentatively identified as a tarantula hawk. I think it’s a close relative of the tarantula hawk, but is actually an Entypus Unifasciatus. It’s not quite as vicious or as large. 
Misty Doy
Canonsburg, PA
¶ Posted 12 August 2008 § ‡ ° Amazing photos I took of 4 species on and around Milkweed plants in Fremont Peak state park, California, on July 4th Hi What’s That Bug people,
I took some really incredible photos on a hike in Fremont Peak. We found (at least) four species enjoying the blooming milkweed plants, and of particular interest were the enormous Pepsid spider wasps. I am attaching just one native-resolution photo (of the Pepsid), because they are 2Mb each on average, but I have hosted several more on Photobucket; hit the below links to check them all out. The attached photo isn’t the best, but it has the best view of the forewing cells – you can see the shape and size of many of them, which might allow for a species identification. We have: the Pesid wasp. We estimated they were at least 2 inches long. Blue Milkweed Beetle” or something related to it? At least two specimens photographed, Milkweed Longhorn Beetle” or related. My goodness these guys are charismatic. Especially see the head-on photo and profile photo. Some kind of “Milkweed Bug”, the yellow guy. He looks similar to a Small Milkweed Bug, except that he’s yellow instead of red. A darkling beetle. My wife says there are over 30,000 species. Any clue which one?? A velvet ant, including his burrow. But which velvet ant?? Monarch Butterfly larvae? Some kind of caterpillar, we think Monarch because of the location and the plant, but it’d be great if you confirmed. A cicada. They were buzzing mightily. We managed to spot one in the grass. Please feel free to use any of these photos, with the attribution to the photographers: Joshua Stanley and Marnia Johnston. They were all taken with a Canon Powershot A720 IS in macro mode on July 4, 2008 at Fremont Peak, California.
Josh Stanley
Hi Josh,
Your Tarantula Hawk image is wonderful. We believe Eric Eaton has a special interest in this genus and he may be able to shed some light on the species where we cannot. Your multi-species letter is not really conducive to our archiving system and posting all of your wonderful images will probably take the better portion of the day, so we will limit ourselves to just the Tarantula Hawk. The caterpillar is a Monarch. If we have time after posting some other submissions, we may return to your letter and post an additional image.
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