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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Spider Wasps.
Adults small to large; 4–18 mm long. Solitary insects.
Head. Eyes emarginate (Ceropales), or ovate and not emarginate (usually). Antennal segments (10–)12 (females), or (10–)13 (males). Antennae not geniculate (curling after death). Tongue shorter than the prementum; not pointed (bifid).
Thorax. Thorax black, orange, or black-and-yellow. Pronotum deeply indented or emarginate at the back; long, extending back to the tegulae. Mesopleuron with an oblique suture. Cenchri absent. Wings present; not folding longitudinally. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma; with the venation well developed. Closed fore-wing cells 6–10. Submarginal cells 2 (rarely), or 3. Discoidal cells 2. Hind-wings with closed cells. Hind femur without a well defined trochantellus. Hind tibiae with spurs specialised for a cleaning rôle.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction; long petiolate to short-waisted. The ‘waist’ simple. Visible abdominal segments 6 (females), or 7 (males). The gaster concolorous, or colour-patterned; when concolorous, orange, black or grey; when patterned, black-and-orange or -reddish orange, or black-and-yellow. Ovipositor of females not visibly protruding; modified as a retractable sting.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; predacious, or feeding on prey collected and stored by the adults (specializing on spiders, which are generally paralysed and dragged along the ground to the nest. Some species induce only temporary paralysis, the larvae then parasitizing the living spider).
British representation. Species in Britain about 40; Agenioideus, Arachnospila, Anoplius, Aporus, Auplopus, Caliadurgus, Ceropales, Cryptocheilus, Dipogon, Episyron, Evagetes, Homonotus, Pompilus, Priocnemis (with most of the species in Anoplius, Arachnospila, Dipogon or Priocnemis).
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Aculeata; Superfamily Pompiloidea.
Illustrations. • Episyron rufipes (B. Ent. 238). • Episyron rufipes (detail: B. Ent. 238). • Episyron rufipes (dissections: B. Ent. 238). • Episyron rufipes (B. Ent. 238, legend+text). • Episyron rufipes (text, cont.: B. Ent. 238). • Ceropales variegata: B. Ent. 756. • Ceropales variegata: B. Ent. 756, legend+text. • Ceropales variegata: B. Ent. 756, text cont.. • Aporus, Agenioideus, Anoplius, Episyron, Pompilus (Saunders VIII). Pompilidae. 2, Aporus unicolor. 3, Evagetes dubius (wing). 4, Wing of Pompilus sp. 5, Episyron rufipes (m); 6, Episyron rufipes (f). 7, Agenioideus cinctellus. 8, Anoplius nigerrimus (f). 9, Pompilus cinereus (m). From Saunders (1896). • Cryptocheilus, Anoplius, Arachnospila, Priocnemis (Saunders IX). Pompilidae. 1, 9 &10: Anoplius viaticus (1 & 10 females, 9 male). 2–3, Arachnospila spissa: 2, male; 2a, apical ventral valve of male; 3, female; 3a, anterior tarsus of female. 4, Anoplius infuscatus, anterior tarsus of the female. 5, Arachnospila minutula, posterior tibia of male. 6 & 7, Arachnospila trivialis, two representations of male apical ventral valves. 8, Evagetes crassicornis, male apical ventral valve. 11, Cryptocheilus notatus, male. 12, Priocnemis exaltata, female. From Saunders (1896). • Auplopus, Dipogon, Priocnemis (Saunders X). Pompilidae. 1,3 & 4, Priocnemis hyalinata: 1 & 3, males; 4, female. 2, Priocnemis parvula, male. 5 and 6, Dipogon variegatus, male and female respectively. 7, "Pseudagenia punctum Fabr." (female), = Aulopus sp.? From Saunders (1896). • Ceropales maculatus and C. variegatus (Saunders XI). POMPILIDAE. 1, Ceropales maculata (female). 2, Ceropales variegata (male). From Saunders (1896, Plate XI). • Evagetes dubius, Cryptocheilus notatus, Sphex flavipennis: Stephens 1846. POMPILIDAE. 1, Evagetes dubius, female (as Aporus bicolor). 2, Cryptocheilus notatus (as Pompilus notatus). 3, Sphex flavipennis (if correctly identified, the specimen of this mainland-european species was probably not British). From Stephens, 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
