Pepsis heros
| Pepsis heros | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pepsis heros | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1798) |
Pepsis heros is a South American wasp species. The species is considered to be the largest living species of the hymenoptera .
features
Males of the species reach a body length of 26 to 38 millimeters, females 35 to 63 millimeters. The body of the animals is colored black with a clear, blue-green metallic sheen. The antennas are also colored black. Both pairs of wings are dark amber-yellow to orange-red, the edge blurred on all sides, but markedly darkened, the outermost tip of the forewings lightened whitish again (indistinct in the female). The back of the head is noticeably swollen. The species is almost unmistakable by its color and size. In addition to body size and wing color, it can be distinguished from related species by the rear section of the middle section of the body (mesosoma): the metapostnotum (the rearmost trunk section) and the anterior propodeum have only very fine, barely visible transverse keels and are matt. In other species of the species group, the transverse keels are coarser and the section is at least slightly shiny.
Animals from the west of the distribution area (Colombia and Ecuador) often have completely darkened wings, the edge of which is, however, a little more intense in color than the rest, sometimes the veins stand out a little lighter.
distribution
The species lives in the northern part of South America, in the Amazon basin ( Brazil , Peru , Ecuador , Colombia , Venezuela ) and the Guyanas . It reaches 750 meters in Colombia and 1,100 meters in Venezuela.
Way of life
Little is known about the biology of the species. It is highly likely that, like all species of the genus Pepsis , it hunts spiders of the suborder Mygalomorphae , especially true tarantulas (Fam. Theraphosidae). The species was observed together with the "giant tarantula" Theraphosa blondi , the distribution of which corresponds quite well with that of Pepsis heros . It is not known whether it actually hunts this species specifically. The larvae of Pepsis heros are parasitoids that feed on the body of the spider paralyzed by stings. Adult animals of the genus Pepsis are often flower visitors with a striking preference for the Asclepiadaceae family , but nothing is known about the species itself.
Systematics
The species was first described by Fabricius as Sphex heros , scientific synonyms are Pepsis atrata Lepeletier and Pepsis magnifica Montet. The animals from Central America named by Anders Gustaf Dahlbom under the name Pepsis heros are incorrect determinations of Pepsis marginata and Pepsis frivaldszkyi , due to Dahlbom the species is erroneously listed in some species lists for the region.
The genus Pepsis comprises more than 130 mostly large and strikingly colored species, all of which live in America. Pepsis heros belongs to the Pepsis rubra species group, which is recognizable by a characteristic of the wing veins: the radial vein meets the marginal vein (costa) at a very acute angle to the base of the wing, so that the last cell at the tip is noticeably rounded. In the other species groups in the genus, the angle is more obtuse, sometimes almost right-angled.
swell
- CR Vardy (2000): The New World tarantula-hawk wasp genus Pepsis Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). Part 1. Introduction and the P. rubra species group. Zoological Negotiations Leiden 332. 86 pp.
Individual evidence
- ^ CR Vardy (2002): The New World tarantula-hawk wasp genus Pepsis Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). Part 2. The P. grossato P. deaurata groups. Zoological Negotiations Leiden 337: 135 pp.
- ↑ z. B. Database of Hymenoptera in America north of Mexico
