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Photo#151163
October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - female

October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - Female
Bell Slough WMA, Faulkner County, Arkansas, USA
October 9, 2007
Size: 13-14mm
Close up of hind tibia. Not so much serrate as just very laden with curvy spines. Don't know.

Images of this individual: tag all
October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - female October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - female October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - female October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - female October Pomp - Phanagenia bombycina - female

Moved
Moved from Spider Wasps.

Not hind tibia!
You have a nice close-up of the basitarsus, though! Tip of hind tibia is visible, though.

 
tibia tip
i think you could still see the teeth if they were there... having a serrate tibia just rules out Phanagenia bombycina. Ageniella may or may not have a serrate hind tibia and they do amputate the legs... lack of long erect hairs on the propodeum rule out Auplopus. the first picture looks like it has that lateral crease in the first tergite... i like calling it P. bombycina.

pomp
fair enough then... looks just like the two P. bombycina i have caught up here. also, i have seen a number of Auplopus that amputate all the legs and leave the palps, as well as a number of other combinations, no idea if there is a reason for that beyond individual wasp choice.

 
Prey size.
I have never seen any ageniellines amputate the palps...it must not be necessary. It seems that, since ageniellines have a more derived method of prey transport, that it would also seem reasonable to suppose that amputating the legs is necessary for this transport. I have seen Auplopus mud cells containing entirely intact small Salticids, moderately sized Clubionids and Salticids with three or four amputated legs, and a Phanagenia bombycina that had amputated all the legs of its large female Agelenid prey. It appears the wasp has to try to find a happy medium between spending too much energy amputating legs and too much energy straddling and carrying its large prey item.

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