Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#227874
Psorthaspis Round Mountain - Psorthaspis luctuosa - female

Psorthaspis Round Mountain - Psorthaspis luctuosa - Female
Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas, USA
September 21, 2008
Size: 8mm
Adding this semi-spy photo of this wasp because bugguide may have the world's most complete collection of this genus anywhere. I was trying to find some bait to lure a wolf spider out of a burrow and turned over a dead pine log. This wasp popped out and started jumping around like a velvet ant on crack. I could barely tell it had wings and its flights were more like assisted long jumps with wings. Down into leaf litter and down into dead pine shrapnel again and again. Very hard to shoot. Took two shots on the knee and twisted like a twister player. This appears to be the wasp that Edward Trammel found in his county in north Arkansas this past few months. And it was previously known only from Texas. It is extremely rare to collections apparently. From its very stealthy behavior I can see why. Lovely things, like all in the genus. And this is much smaller than the P. brimleyi and P. mariae I have seen.