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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps » Apoid Wasps (Apoidea)- traditional Sphecidae » Thread-waisted Wasps (Sphecidae) » Sphex » Sphex habenus
Photo#68925
Wasp - Sphex habenus - female
Copyright © 2006 Machele White

Wasp - Sphex habenus - Female
Lady Lake, Lake County, Florida, USA
August 5, 2006
Size: ~33mm
First I apologize for these images. This big beautiful wasp is fine, but I had to chill it to get shots of it, and quickly. I have only seen this type in my yard a few times, but was never able to get anywhere near it, this one actually got trapped in my screen room.I have seen this symbol ~ used with measurements, I am guessing it stands for about, or around? if not I can change that, she was cold and drawn in a bit, so she was a little bigger, but not much.

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Wasp - Sphex habenus - female Wasp - Sphex habenus - female Wasp - Sphex habenus - female
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Contributed by Machele White on 6 August, 2006 - 6:57am
Last updated 6 October, 2006 - 4:41am

Sphex
Yes, this appears to be one of the Florida duo which Patrick may have solved. THis one with the dark abdomen may be habenus. The other species is flavovestitus. See the comments at those species shots.
… Herschel Raney, 6 August, 2006 - 9:06am login or register to post comments

 
Thank you,
I am moving to sphex, and will let you experts place it or frass, or tell me what to do.
… Machele White, 6 August, 2006 - 10:00am login or register to post comments

 
Likely S. habenus
Scott Nelson (and I) think this very dark one with the prominent gold "halter" (or rein) and all dark abdomen to be Sphex habenus:

(We're crossing our fingers and chanting "I love hymenoptera" three times to make this identification.)
"Habenus" means "reined"--that's the basis of my guesswork. A similar species has more extensive yellow on the thorax and an orange abdomen, we're all starting to guess is Sphex flavovestita:

"Flavovestita" meaning "dressed in yellow" or something like that, I think.

Unless you object, I guess I'll move these to habenus--they appear identical to ones Scott and I already assigned to that species. In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose.

Don't frass your images--it is very useful to have good detail shots with the scale.
… Cotinis, 6 August, 2006 - 8:12pm login or register to post comments

The ~ symbol.
I have always used the tilde symbol "~" to mean "approximate" because in math and logic it stands for "is similar to". I hope that is a rather common practice, but I learned that many moons ago in high-school (that it can mean approximate) so I don't know if that's a well known meaning today.

I read it as "approximately" if that's any consolation.

Sorry, can't help with the bug ID, I'm half-way clueless about most species of any bug it seems.
… Keoeeit, 6 August, 2006 - 7:01am login or register to post comments

 
Thank
you.
… Machele White, 6 August, 2006 - 7:03am login or register to post comments

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