Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Has been treated as a synonym of the European H. morio. There is some confusion over the correct name for this species; it was traditionally treated as H. morioides.
Synonyms: Say 1823
Anthrax morioides, Anthrax catulina, Hemipenthes catulina
Note: Anthrax morio and Hemipenthes morio used in error in literature for North America.
Identification
Head: Round; dark brown to black.
Male and female identical, eyes of female only slightly wider, barely discernable.
Antenna: Black, very short.
Thorax: Dark brown to black with rust hairs across shoulders; sometimes thorax is bald. Thorax sides may have some yellowish hairs which do not form a definite line.
Wings: Dark brown, covering about 2/3rds of the wing, lower dark margin step-like. The dark extends to the inner margin or anal cell. Three sets of cross veins have a light mark on each side of the vein, called aureoles. One near base, one about mid-wing, and another small one below (or R4 + R5, M2 and CUP).
Legs: Dark brown with a row of spines on front shin (tibiae). Feet lighter.
Abdomen: Dark brown to black with small to large yellowish spots across each segment and a yellowish line across lower margin. Dark fringe mixed intermittently with some white on side edges of abdomen.
Habitat
Forest edges and meadows.
Season
All season in southern U.S. Late May to August in the north.
Food
larvae are hyperparasites (parasites of parasites), mainly of larvae of flies (Diptera, Tachinidae), as well as parasitic wasp larvae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) and caterpillars of the family Noctuidae.
Remarks
Types:
Holotype as Anthrax morioides by Say, 1823. Type Locality: Missouri. Type destroyed.
Syntypes as Anthrax catulina by Coquillett, 1894. Type Locality: Washington & California. Apparently the 4 syntypes were lost from the United States National Museum, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. per Evenhuis & Greathead (1999).
See Also
Anthrax georgicus wing is almost identical, often with a small, off-white round spot at mid wing. A. georgicus also lacks the aureoles on crossveins which are present on H. morioides.
Print References
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1823-24, Vol. 3 by Say, pg. 42.
Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, 1877, Vol. 3 by Osten Sacken, pg. 241.
Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 1894, Vol. 21 by Coquillett, pg. 100.
Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 1962, vol. 35, by Painter & Painter, pp. 117-118.
Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, 2008 #6: Bee Flies by Kits et al., pp. 11-12.
Zootaxa, 2009, #2074 Hemipenthes by Hernandez, pp. 31-32 and pp. 46-47.
