Ammosphex solonus (Banks)

Kurczewski, Frank E., West, Rick C. & Waichert, Cecilia, 2024, New host records for Nearctic and Neotropical spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), Insecta Mundi 2024 (34), pp. 1-32 : 24-25

Ammosphex solonus (Banks)

ARIZONA: Cochise County, Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, “Elevation 5,300 feet ”; 18 November 2018; C. W. Melton. Host: Unidentified species ( Lycosidae ), 12 mm (wasp, 11 mm). A series of photographs shows the wasp examining the immobilized wolf spider with her antennae as it laid dorsal side upward on the ground and dragging it backwards across the ground, dorsal side upward, grasping the patella of its left hindleg or base of second left leg with her mandibles ( Melton 2018).

COLOMBIA: Magdalena State, Santa Marta ; 18 February 2023, 1252 PM ; R. de Minca. Host: Unidentified species ( Ctenidae ), adult female. The wasp examined the wandering spider with her mouthparts as it laid ventral side upward on the ground surface. She then lapped up hemolymph from the sting puncture wound near the base of the spider’s left hind leg. She transported the spider backwards across the bare ground in a cephalothorax upright position, grasping it’s left hind coxa with her mandibles ( De Minca 2023) .

Ammosphex solonus provisions its nests predominantly with wolf spiders ( Lycosidae ) and, rarely, Gnaphosidae ( Krombein 1979; Kurczewski and Edwards 2012) and Zoropsidae [as Tengellidae ] ( Kurczewski et al. 2017). Our recent host records for this species are in accord with this host spider selection.