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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#93968
Cicada Killer - Sphecius speciosus

Cicada Killer - Sphecius speciosus
Roslyn Harbor/William Cullen Bryant Preserve, Nassau County, New York, USA
August 12, 2006
I don't know if there is more than one species of these things.

Only one Eastern species (Sphecius speciosus)
Two similar species exist, one in the far South and the other in the West, but they have wholly rusty red, rather than black, markings.

 
Sphecius
S. hogardii has been found several times in Florida from the Caribbean and Cuba. Dr. Ascher may know how it is marked and if it is distinctive. And S. grandis makes it as far east as Arkansas and perhaps farther.

 
2 Bees
Thanks for your input on both species.

 
there is a new, very useful key:
Title: Improved Key to New World Species of Sphecius (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

Authors: Holliday, C. W.; Coelho, J. R.

Source: Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 99, Number 5, September 2006, pp. 793-798(6)

Publisher: Entomological Society of America

 
Cicada Killer
Thanks for your input.