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

Species Calopompilus pyrrhomelas

Unknown wasp - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas Spider Wasp - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas - female Calopompilus pyrrhomelas 01a - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas - male Tarantula Hawk??? - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas Tarantula hawk? - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas Pepsini? - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas - female Black wasp with orange wings - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas Wasp I think - Calopompilus pyrrhomelas - female
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)
Superfamily Pompiloidea (Spider Wasps, Velvet Ants and allies)
Family Pompilidae (Spider Wasps)
Subfamily Pepsinae
Tribe Pepsini (Tarantula-hawk Wasps and Allies)
Genus Calopompilus
Species pyrrhomelas (Calopompilus pyrrhomelas)
Explanation of Names
Calopompilus pyrrhomelas (Walker, 1866)
pyrrhomelas = from the Latin pyro-, from the Ancient Greek πῦρ ('fire, fiery') + New Latin melās, from the Ancient Greek μέλας‎ ('dark, black'). Sometimes translated together as 'fieryblack'.
Range
western (BC; AZ, CA, ID, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA)(1)
Food
Adults of this entire genus are not known to commonly visit flowers.

A recent (2023) study has determined host records to include mygalomorph spiders, including Antrodiaetus pacificus, A. pugnax, Atypoides riversi (Antrodiaetidae , folding-door spiders), and Calisoga longitarsis (Nemesiidae, false tarantulas).(2)
Life Cycle
Females appropriate the burrows of their hosts rather than dig their own nests. After locating a host burrow, the wasp lures the spider to the entrance of the burrow and then pulls it out. After stinging the to-be host, the spider then drags it back inside the burrow. After laying her eggs on the host, the female wasp leaves the burrow and seals the nest with soil from the entrance.(2)
Works Cited
1.Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.
2.Nesting behavior of the spider wasp Calopompilus pyrrhomelas (Walker) Hymenoptera: Pompilidae)
Frank E. Kurczewski, Marshal Hedin, & Rick C. West. 2023. Insecta Mundi, 0980: 1-7.