Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Stictia carolina - Horse Guard Wasp

Cicada Killer, male? - Stictia carolina - male Eastern Cicada Killer (Sphecius speciosus)? - Stictia carolina Cicada Killer? - Stictia carolina - male Horse Guard Wasp - Stictia carolina - female Wasp - Stictia carolina - female Horse Guard Wasp - Stictia carolina - male Wasp? - Stictia carolina bee mimic on yarrow- id please? - Stictia carolina
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps)
Family Crabronidae (Square-headed Wasps, Sand Wasps, and Allies)
Subfamily Bembicinae
Tribe Bembicini (Sand Wasps)
Subtribe Bembicina
Genus Stictia
Species carolina (Horse Guard Wasp)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Stictia carolina (Fabricius, 1793)
Sticta carolina [!] (Fabricius, 1793) - misspelling
Monedula carolina Drury [!] - misattributed authority
Monedula carolina (Fabricius, 1793)
Orig. comb.: Bembix carolina Fabricius, 1793
Explanation of Names
Stictia carolina (Fabricius, 1793)
carolina = named after the state of Carolina, which itself comes from the Latin Carolus ('Charles') in honor of King Charles I of England
Food
Flies, mostly tabanids (80%), occasionally other prey, cicadas and skippers
Remarks
"a really big sand wasp (just behind the cicada killer). They get their name by hanging out around equines and pouncing on tabanids which they paralyze and stuff into their burrows for their offspring." -Eric R. Eaton

"The horse-guard (Monedula carolina Drury), a predaceous wasp, is among the more important checks on the horsefly. These wasps lay their eggs in burrows and watch over them until they hatch. As soon as larvae appear, the wasps supply them with food, which consists of horsefly adults. The wasp frequents pastures where they pick the flies off the molested horses and cattle and carry them to their nests." -- Bernard Segal, Synopsis of the Tabanidæ of New York, Their Biology and Taxonomy: I. The Genus Chrysops Meigen, Journal of the New York Entomological Society 44(1):51-78 (1936)
See Also
Bembix belfragei is a similarly-marked species that can be distinguished as follows:

1) Bembix belfragei only has two pale spots on the third abdominal segment (tergum 3) (left image), while Stictia carolina usually has four (right image):



2) B. belfragei has smaller eyes that are separated by a distance distinctly greater than the width of one eye (left image), while S. carolina has larger eyes that are separated by a distance approximately equal to eye width (right image):


3) In males, tergum 7 of B. belfragei is black, more rounded, and wider. Sternum 7 is not visible from above, only the middle prong (left image). In S. carolina, tergum 7 is narrow and with a white spot, and sternum 7 forms a pair of projecting processes on each side of the tergum (right image - the middle prong is sternum 8):


4) B. belfragei sometimes has enclosed black spots (left image), while apparently S. carolina never does (right image):


5) The female of B. belfragei has the spots on the second to last segment (tergum 5) more drawn out, not round (left image), while the female of S. carolina usually has a pair of more or less round (right image):
Internet References
The Sand Wasps: natural history and behavior. Howard Ensign EVANS, Kevin M. O'Neill