Psorthaspis mariae

Bradley and Psorthaspis

As I posted on the discussion board, according to J. Chester Bradley when he revised the genus in 1944 this does not match the description of Psorthaspis sanguinea. P. sanguinea would have uniformly infuscate wings, and in all of the pictures on this site I have seen clearly banded wings. However when I narrowed some of my southern Ohio specimens they keyed out to P. legata and P. mariae (both of which have banded wings). I don't believe Bradley's revised description matched his own keys. I will be sending specimens to someone who has more current literature or knowledge to confirm my ID's. Psorthaspis needs a great deal of work it appears. I'll probably visit Michigan State myself, I believe there is a P. mariae determined by Howard Evans in that collection. I'd trust any ID by him!

… Nick Fensler, 1 July, 2006 - 9:09pm

Correcting myself...again

Identifying spider wasps from photographs is a unique challenge for me. I'm used to identifying pinned specimens in cool rooms that smell of moth balls. With the help of Herschel Raney I was able to piece together (through the disadvantages of an old revision that apparently did not take into account individual variation) this Psorthaspis picture. Mr. Raney was able to e-mail me some shots of the museum specimens he had and that specimen was obviously P. sanguinea (having evenly infuscate wings). It is also obvious that these banded winged individuals (this and photograph #4929) are Psorthaspis mariae.

… Nick Fensler, 2 July, 2006 - 7:41pm

Psorthaspis sp

Very interesting information. You should correspond with Herschel Raney, perhaps, and discuss his examination of museum specimens in Arkansas, which is where this ID came from.

Sounds to me like the taxonomy is uncertain at the species level, and perhaps we should move all these photos up to the genus level.

… Cotinis, 2 July, 2006 - 7:57am

Spider wasp

Just returned from the insect museum in Faytetteville where I looked at all the spider wasps again and shot some specimen shots of many.

This is definitely Psorthaspis sanguinea and not Dipogon. Very distinctive. One species pries open the lids of trapdoor spiders. Not sure which species of spider this one takes.

… Herschel Raney, 13 February, 2006 - 4:38pm

Species?

I don't know how up-to-date the NCSU collection is, they list P. brimleyi and P. legata as the most common species. Brimely's book (1) lists P. brimleyi from several nearby sites in the Piedmont. Did you see any of the other species in the genus in the collection? (I certainly have no idea--am just looking at those numbers.)

Many, many thanks on this one!

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 13 February, 2006 - 8:27pm

Psor

The collection had P. brimleyi, P. legata and P. sanguinea. This is sanguinea.

… Herschel Raney, 13 February, 2006 - 8:44pm

Thanks!

Awesome.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 13 February, 2006 - 10:55pm

Wasp

If that is Dipogon, they are extraordinary. The key gives them three-toothed mandibles and a smooth hind tibiae (instead of serrate)as separation points. Don't know if you can see those features in any of your other shots. But you can send them to me anyway Patrick.

… Herschel Raney, 25 September, 2005 - 9:00pm

Yes, other shots available

I've got shots of the tibia, I'm not sure about the mandibles. I'll post some detail shots later next week.

There's a Dipogon pulcrhipennis, "beautiful wings" listed in Brimley and at NCSU. Sounds suspicious. Definitely worth a trip to the NCSU museum if we can't key it here.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 25 September, 2005 - 9:05pm

Dipogon

The four I have for AR are D. pulchripennis (one specimen, I will have Jeff take a look), D. papago, D. fulleri and D. calipterus.

… Herschel Raney, 25 September, 2005 - 9:31pm