Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Recent evidence by Pitts et al. (2006) suggests that the Ceropalinae is much more restricted than defined by Townes (1957). The genera Notocyphus and Minagenia, though included in Ceropalinae by Townes, belong in separate subfamilies (Notocyphinae for the former and Pepsinae for the latter). Currently the only other genus included in the subfamily Ceropalinae is extralimital to the Nearctic (Irenangelus, pantropical).
Explanation of Names
Ceropales Latreille, 1896
Numbers
14 species:
1.
Ceropales bipunctata (2 sspp.:
bipunctata &
tibialis)
2. Ceropales brevicornis
3. Ceropales cubensis (2 sspp., 1 in our area: albopicta)
4.
Ceropales elegans (3 sspp.:
elegans,
aquilonia, &
quaintancei)
5. Ceropales femoralis
6. Ceropales fulvipes
9.
Ceropales maculata (5 sspp., 4 in our area:
caenosa,
fraterna,
rhodomerus, &
stretchii)
10. Ceropales neomexicana
13.
Ceropales robinsonii (2 sspp.:
robinsonii &
stigmatica)
Size
3-15 mm. Dimorphism with respect to size is not as marked in this genus as it is in many other pompilid genera.
Identification
S6 of female strongly compressed laterally
Labrum fully exposed.
Eyes strongly divergent above, emarginate above the middle.
Spines at apex of hind tibia of equal size and spacing.
None of the nearctic species have serrate hind tibia.
Lacks a groove in the second sternite and a pocket in the basioposterior corner of the third discal cell.
Wing venation:
Range
Transcontinental. Some species are restricted, others are small and poorly known and may be more widespread than collection records indicate.
Habitat
Varied, related to host (see life cycle). Many species inhabit woods.
Season
Most of the warm season from May (early records from late April in Townes (1957)) to October.
Food
Adults often visit flowers. Spider prey varied (see Life Cycle).
Life Cycle
These wasps are cleptoparasites of other pompilidae. Females perch on vegetation, stalking a host female until it has found and paralyzed a prey item. The female Ceropales then lays an egg in the book lungs of the paralyzed spider prey of other spider wasps when the prey is left unattended during nest construction. The larva that hatches eats the host egg and then the spider. Some species may have several generations per year; larger species are normally univoltine.
Print References
Townes, H.K. 1957. Nearctic wasps of the subfamilies pepsinae and ceropalinae. U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 209: 1-286. (keys, descriptions, distribution) (
Relevant Section)
Krombein, K.V. 1979. Pompilidae, pp. 1569-1570. In Krombein, K.V., P.D. Hurd, Jr., D.R. Smith, and B.D. Burks, eds. Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Vol. 2 Apocrita (Aculeata). Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, D.C. (species, distribution, hosts of some species)
Pitts, J.P., M.S. Wasbauer, C.D. von Dohlen. 2006. Preliminary morphological analysis of relationships between the spider wasp subfamilies (Hymenoptera:Pompilidae): revisiting an old problem. Zoologica Scripta, 35:1 (pp.63-84).
