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Photo#92864
Pompilid - Aporus niger - female

Pompilid - Aporus niger - Female
buffalo national river, newton County, Arkansas, USA
September 16, 2006
Size: ~10-12mm
perhaps this is a male Psorthaspis mariae... i had found other P. mariae in the same area and about the same time... however, i do not know what other Psorthaspis might occur at that location. my apologizes for the poor pictures, this was a rather small wasp that would not let me get anywhere close to it. here it is running through the leaf litter, the profile showing the rather long pronotum and high collar.

Images of this individual: tag all
Pompilid - Aporus niger - female Pompilid - Aporus niger - female Pompilid - Aporus niger - female Pompilid - Aporus niger - female Pompilid - Aporus niger - female

Aporine...
through the numerous discussions everyone has had about Psorthaspis I think it's been established that there are four species of that genus in Arkansas: P. legata, P. mariae, P. brimleyi, and P. sanguinea. Three of these are mostly orange and P. brimleyi is marked with orange on the second tergite. This individual is clearly all black and is also female, so it rules out the all black males of Psorthaspis. Unless I'm mistaken northern Arkansas is still in an area where there is only one species of Aporus, A. niger. That's probably the best bet for the look of the wasp, the habitat, and the region.

 
Aporus
well, i missed the mark... A. niger is, as far as i know, the only species in that genus here, however, i did not think i would run into one, and of our four eastern Psorthaspis, P. mariae is the only one i have found in that part of the state (the P. mariae pictures i added were from the weekend before). i had seen no Aporus first hand (prior to this exception), so if you do not mind my asking, what is the way of telling this Aporus female from a male of one of the Psorthaspis... other than the number of SMCs, which do not show up in my photos. i did not catch this wasp, and was not able to get close enough to it to determine anything other than the tribe, so i have been working solely off the pictures. as always, i thank you for the information.

 
Aporus vs. Psorthaspis
I was going off of female vs. male. Overall body shape and behavior are basically where I was working from, that is, what you describe is almost certainly searching behavior. The robust body and relatively large head are distinctly female. In all of the keys I could find (Bradley, 1944, Evans, 1966, and The Pompilid Project website) the two genera are separated at the first couplet, and that couplet is the number of submarginal cells in the anterior wing, which isn't all that great for separating from photos. I can say that male Psorthaspis usually have a whitish sheen because of their white pubescence and are rather large, but can be about the same size as a female Aporus. However, I have just seen some male Psorthaspis mariae from Hocking County, Ohio and they are distinctly different from this individual. I think once you differentiate sex it should be pretty smooth from there, at least in Arkansas (I couldn't say that for many western states). If you need anymore info just let me know, especially if I haven't explained what you were looking for.

 
Aporus
i think you have answered my question admirably. i feel i need to see more specimens, which i really do not have access to. i am going to start collecting Pompilids this coming summer, perhaps that will help (i really only took pictures last year). in any case, the behavior certainly seemed to be that of a hunting female. my thanks as always.

 
In reverse...
I did this learning process in reverse. I didn't start trying to identify spider wasps from photographs until I had seen thousands of pinned specimens. I think it helps with photo IDs immensely, and I encourage you to take Herschel's offer if you haven't already done so.

 
Pompilids
Nice to hear you will take some Pompilids this summer Edward. We are going to be at the museum in Fayetteville likely all day on February 12th next month delivering last year's robbers and looking over the wasps again. I will shoot some more and improved Pompilid shots of specimens as well to add to the website. We would be glad to have you stop by. Just email me for the other details.

 
museum
that is the kind of offer i can not refuse, as i have not had the chance to look through the Pompilids there... and have really wanted to. i have emailed you, and appreciate the invitation.

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