Scoliid Wasp with four orange spots - Scolia nobilitata

Scoliid wasp

Geez, you folks in the southeast have an incredible diversity of scoliid wasps (family Scoliidae)! I have never seen so many different species.

… Eric R. Eaton, 10 August, 2004 - 11:36am

Thanks, might be S. nobilitata, or C. quadrimaculata

Thanks, Eric. Maybe I can narrow it down from there. I'll try to get a better photo too--that was from last year, but I've seen them about this summer. A Scolia nobilitata is abundant in the NCSU collection (193 pinned), though they misspelled it in the database as "nobilita". No photos out there I can find. Looks very suspicious, given the abundance in the collection and my finding it abundant here as well.

Campsomeris quadrimaculata is probably what this is. It is found in the NCSU collection with 42 specimens.

Not really that diverse a family, even in the wasp-rich southeast. NCSU lists just these genera and six species for that state (North Carolina)
Scoliid listing:
Campsomeris--plumipes (194), quadrimaculata (42)
Scolia--bicincta (125), dubia (220), nobilita = nobilitata (193)
Trielis--octomaculatus(a) (38)

We seem to have a lot of wasps, period--there is a dizzying array found on flowers. Now that I know Scolia bicincta, I see it all the time. S. dubia is pretty common too.

Thanks again,
Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 11 August, 2004 - 5:27am

Scolid

Just came from the University of Arkansas museum where I was delivering some robbers but we stay all day and I pulled many wasp drawers preparing to take some this year. We pulled the Scolid drawer and inside it were a monster species which was as large as the Sphecid giant Spheciosus, the Cicada Killer. It was labelled as Campsomeris quadrimaculata. I realized the image on my site was of the same insect and I had mistaken it for the Cicada Killer. I modified the page. I wanted to add a Scolid page anyway. I don't think this small Scolid is C quad.

… Herschel Raney, 21 February, 2005 - 5:37pm

Scolia nobilitata--confirmed

I found an image of this small Scoliid on the web, and Dick Walton of Brownbag Productions verified that this is Scolia nobilitata. The image taken by them was from Durham, North Carolina, where this is a common species. References are in guide page. It is a widespread, common species, and probably shows up in Arkansas as well. It is abundant right now here in Durham on flowers--perhaps the most common wasp at the moment.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 4 August, 2005 - 7:37pm

Thanks Herschel

OK, good to know that. This was quite small, so is not the C. quadrimaculata. That's what I get for speculating.
I'm moving this up to the family level!

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 21 February, 2005 - 5:51pm