Checklist of and guide to the species of wasps in the genus Scolia in the US and Canada

Checklist of species of wasps in the genus Scolia in the US and Canada

S. bicincta (Fabricius, 1775)
S. bifasciata (Swederus, 1787)
S. consors (Saussure, 1863)
S. dubia (Say, 1837)
S. guttata (Burmeister, 1853)
S. mexicana (Saussure, 1858)
S. nobilitata (Fabricius, 1805)


Guide to the species of wasps in the genus Scolia in the US and Canada

S. bicincta ( Fabricius, 1775; MacKay, 1987)

  • Eastern US
  • Body neither "entirely black" nor "entirely black except for isolated pairs of pale markings on tergites"
  • Tergites not with first and second black and third and backwards red (i.e not S. dubia)
  • Underside of abdomen black; head all black; body covered in black hair; tergites 2 and 3 with broad pale white transverse bands, sometimes divided into large spots; legs black

S. bifasciata (Swederus, 1787, p. 281)

S. consors ( Saussure, 1863; Bartlett, 1912, p. 317; MacKay, 1987)

  • CO, Baja Calif.
  • Body neither "entirely black" nor "entirely black except for isolated pairs of pale markings on tergites"
  • Tergites not with first and second black and third and backwards red (i.e not S. dubia)
  • Underside of abdomen not black
  • Thorax covered in yellowish gray or whitish hairs; antennae black; legs black
  • From descriptions in Bartlett, sounds to be extremely distinct in abdominal pattern from other species. The sides of tergites 1 and 2 red, ventral of tergite 2 also red, tergite 4 with two large irregular yellow marks almost confluent

S. dubia ( Say, 1837; Bartlett, 1912, p. 319-321; MacKay, 1987)

  • Widespread
  • Body neither "entirely black" nor "entirely black except for isolated pairs of pale markings on tergites"
  • Tergites with first and second black and third and backwards red; yellow markings present as either spots on T3 (ssp. dubia dubia) or on face/antennae (ssp. dubia haematodes: AZ-TX); head and thorax brown or black
  • NOTE: This species can be found from California to the eastern coast. Two subspecies are rather sympatric and are thus important in distinguishing species/subspecies. S. dubia haematodes is found in California whereas the farthest west S. dubia dubia has been recorded is in Arizona. S. dubia haematodes differs from S. dubia dubia by the lack of yellow spots on the abdomen. This subspecies is practically indistinguishable from Triscolia ardens, a scoliid in a different genus, in areas where the latter occurs which include California through Texas, without examination of the wing veins. Several people have mentioned that T. ardens does not occur in eastern Texas, specifically the city of Austin or eastern, and have identified similar scoliids as S. dubia haematodes for this reason. However, I disagree with these actions. While I do not have access to nor seen any specimens, according to jonathan142, there have been collections of T. ardens in these areas in eastern Texas. Besides that, I think such a small difference in range should not be a deciding factor for either S. dubia or T. ardens, especially in the face of a rapidly changing biosphere. It may be possible that individuals of S. dubia haematodes have yellow markings on the borders of the eyes and bases of antennae, as MacKay mentions in the key, and that T. ardens lacks these markings, but I have no evidence confirming the latter. However, T. ardens may be significantly larger than S. dubia haematodes, at least for females, but this will depend on the beetle host.

S. guttata ( Burmeister, 1853; Bartlett, 1912, p. 325-327; MacKay, 1987)

  • AZ, NM, c. TX
  • Body not entirely black
  • Tergites not with first and second black and third and backwards red (i.e not S. dubia)
  • Tergite 3 with 2 small pale yellow or whitish spots, usually with this pattern continuing to other tergites; legs black

S. mexicana ( Saussure, 1858; Bartlett, 1912, p. 338; MacKay, 1987) = S. nigrescens

  • TX, west to AZ
  • Body entirely black; legs black

S. nobilitata (Fabricius, 1805; Bartlett, 1912, p. 319-321; MacKay, 1987)

  • AZ-FL
  • Body neither "entirely black" nor "entirely black except for isolated pairs of pale markings on tergites"
  • Tergites not with first and second black and third and backwards red (i.e not S. dubia)
  • Underside of abdomen not black
  • Thorax covered in yellowish or golden hairs; if covered in grayish hairs, antennae (and legs?) reddish; legs usually red

References

Bartlett, O. C. 1912. The North American Digger Wasps of the Subfamily Scoliinae, Annals of the Entomological Society of America 5: 293-340. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11920809#page/342/mode/1up

Hurd P.D. 1952. The Scoliidae of California. Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 1(6): 141-152. https://essig.berkeley.edu/documents/cis/cis01_6.pdf

MacKay W.P. 1987. Scoliid Wasps of the Southwestern United States. Southwestern Naturalist 32(3): 357-362. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3671453?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Nearctica Vol. 2. http://nearctica.com/nomina/pdfs/volume2/S_ZWASP.pdf

Porter, C.C. 1981. Scoliidae (Hymenoptera) of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The Florida Entomologist 64(3): 441-453. http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/57607/55286

Swederus, N.S. 1787. Fortsattning af Beskrisningen pa 50 nya Species af Insecter. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens, Nya Handlingar 8: 276-290. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/180245#page/303/mode/1up

Posted on April 25, 2019 02:37 AM by aispinsects aispinsects

Comments

This is really great. I do not know if you contribute to BugGuide, but there is a discussion forum section for articles--basically the same idea as iNaturalist journal entries. Your journal entries would be worth replicating there, if you are interested:
https://bugguide.net/forum/10
Also, of course, an editor can author "guide pages" in BugGuide, which are like structured journal entries. For instance this journal entry could be incorporated into the guide page for Scolia:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/241

Posted by cotinis about 4 years ago

Add a Comment

Sign In or Sign Up to add comments