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Photo#968484
Pepsis grossa/formosa ? - Pepsis grossa - female

Pepsis grossa/formosa ? - Pepsis grossa - Female
Lamar, Prowers County, Colorado, USA
July 29, 2014
ID vs P thisbe based on "hairy" legs. Note that P formosa name was changed to P grossa recently, as I understand

Images of this individual: tag all
Pepsis grossa/formosa ? - Pepsis grossa - female Pepsis grossa/formosa ? - Pepsis grossa - female

Moved
Moved from Tarantula Hawks.

Moved
Moved from Pepsini.

 
P grossa
I still believe that this is P grossa, and added another image - perhaps truer to real life color - that would assuage some of Eric Eaton's concerns. See comments under that image

 
I would
tentatively agree to an ID of P. grossa; however, I have never seen a specimen of P. basifusca and it would be assuming the row of spines we are looking at is the row referred to in the literature. I can say for certain it is not P. mildei, P. thisbe, or P. pallidolimbata. Also keep in mind that range extensions of spider wasps are a common occurrence.

 
Colorado Pepsis ID
Fair Enough. Thanks for taking the time to respond. It is, truly, much appreciated
Steve Mlodinow

 
This is indeed P. grossa
Pepsis grossa is unique in the genus in having males with only 10 flagellomeres(1) (12 antennal segments including scape & pedicel)...and there's barely enough resolution to count 10 flagellomeres in the full-size version of your image here.

While Eric's points were warranted when all there was to go on was the single (oblique angle) photo you initially posted...the 2nd photo you posted shows the dark apical/marginal wing band is actually fairly wide. And the photo also addresses Nick's concern about the possibility of P. basifusca...it has a much narrower apical/marginal band:

   

 
Ooops...I erred in assuming this is a male, but still P. grossa!
The flagellomeres in your photo above don't look thick enough for a male...compare to those in Salvador's post of a male of (the dark "pattoni" form of) P. grossa:

   

And it looks like there may be just 6 (rather than 7) visible abdominal segments, which would also support this being a female. Also, Salvador's photo above shows another typical character of male P. grossa...namely, a fairly conspicuous hyaline apical wing margin (which is often less pronounced in female P. grossa according to Vardy(1), and seemingly absent here).

Since females of all Pepsis species have 10 flagellomeres... the "10 flagellomere character" cited in my comment above thus becomes inconclusive for P. grossa here.

Nevertheless, this is certainly not P. basifusca (= P. angustimarginata in Hurd(2)(1952)), from the wide submarginal dark wing band.

And, most decisively, it can be seen in your image above that the fore-femur has long hairs on the underside, which according to couplet 19 of the key in Hurd(2)(1952), separates female P. grossa and "P. arizonica" from females of all other (nearctic) species in the genus. And there are no hairs on the hind-femur...which eliminates the alternative of what Hurd(2) called P. arizonica (later synonymized under P. cassiope in Vardy(1)(2002)). Those two characters take this unequivocally to a female of P. formosa formosa (= P. grossa) using the key in Hurd(2)(1952) via couplets 1 → 19 → 20 → 21.

BTW, a careful reading of Hurd(2)(1952) indicates he already suggested the likely synonymy of P. formosa with P. grossa, and that synonymy was formalized in Vardy(1)(2002).

 
P grossa
Aaron. Thanks for you hard work, diligence, and education here. This was one of my first submissions to BugGuide, and I've learned much since, perhaps the most obvious of which is to submit all photos that show different angles (and thus characters) well. I did know of formosa=grossa; it is mentioned somewhere in BugGuide.

Not likely P. grossa
Pepsis grossa generally has very wide dark bands along the outer margin of the wing, with the wings not nearly as bright orange as shown here.

 
P grossa
See added photo and tell me what you think
Steve

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Nice pic
!

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