Numbers
This species is polytypic, containing three subspecies.
Size
~6-14 mm (females>males).
Identification
Usually covered with a short, appressed silvery pubescence. This pubescence forms a line on the rear edge of the pronotum.
The first three abdominal segments are marked with orange.
They possess a tarsal comb.
Wings are weakly infuscate, having a darker terminal band.
Not at all hairy.
Third submarginal cell usually not petiolate.
Abdomen virtually without shininess; mesosternum without a spiniform process (separates it from Anoplius semirufus.
Range
Transcontinental. Subspecies have different ranges. A. a. apiculatus is found in the west, A. a. autumnalis is found mainly in the east and eastern Great Plains, and A. a. pretiosus is found mainly on the eastern coastal plain.
Habitat
This species is found almost exclusively in sandy habitats, often close to water (beaches and sand dunes).
Food
Adults uncommonly visit flowers, usually umbellifers.
Life Cycle
Females provision nests with spiders of the family Lycosidae. They are fossorial; they have very long comb-spines on the front tarsi as an adaptation to this.
See Also
Anoplius semirufus. Probably not separable in the field. May be separable with good photos.
Print References
See Krombein et al., 1979 [cite:61558] for notes on distribution and prey records.
See Evans, 1951 (A taxonomic study of the nearctic spider wasps belonging to the tribe pompilini, Part II. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc., 76: 207-361) [will probably post as a book later]
