Body dark, often with scattered pale metalic-colored hairs on abdomen and/or thorax; wings with dark leading edge; dark area of wing has irregular rear border; trailing edge of wing clear. Proboscis fairly short, does not project beyond face. Face bluntly rounded. Rear margin of eye indented. Front tibia has dark bristles.
Range
New World (almost 2/3 of spp.) and Eurasia; in our area, all but 5 spp. are western (more diverse in sw. US), H. sinuosa e. US + AZ, H. catulina and the holarctic H. morio transcontinental in the US, H. celeris & H. floridana restricted to se. US(2)
Season
H. celeris: Jul-Sep in NC, H. sinuosa May-Sep in NC, Jun-Aug in MN(3)
Food
hosts: Diptera, cocoons of Ichneumonoidea & their Lepidoptera and Diprionidae hosts; records from Bombyliidae pupae, Andrenidae and Acrididae unreliable(4)
See Also
Chrysanthrax has similar wing pattern, but boundary is more linear (not so sinuate), plus golden hair on body