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A first-time analysis of taxonomically relevant characters, functional morphology, geographic distribution, ecoregion preference, and hypothetical host spiders of Pepsis basifusca Lucas (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae: Pepsinae) is presented. This analysis is compared with other Nearctic species in Vardy’s (2005) Pepsis menechma species-group, particularly P. cerberus Lucas and P. elegans Lepeletier which are suspected parasitoids of trapdoor spiders. Pepsis basifusca females differ from females of these species in possessing a rounded gena-postgena in dorsal view; straight mid and hind tibial spurs; short hind tibial inner spur; and short, very stout, and backward slanted hind tibial bristles. Pepsis basifusca Level III Ecoregions comprise mountains, plateaus, highlands, and tablelands, often at high elevation (~3,000–5,000 feet (914–1,524 meters), from Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri to Panama. Pepsis basifusca, the smallest Nearctic congener, should be expected to capture comparatively small mygalomorph spiders like some other species in Vardy’s (2005) Pepsis menechma species-group. Based on taxonomic, morphological, biogeographical, and potential host spider criteria, P. basifusca should probably be removed from this group and transferred to another species-group.
ZooBank registration. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4D3BF37C-3358-4C25-B56A-104C57301AE2
After 105 years of study and 425 recent natural photographs, the host spider and nesting behavior of Pepsis elegans Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae: Pepsinae) remain a mystery. Pepsis elegans is the only species in the large and impressive genus Pepsis Fabricius that lives east of the Mississippi River, mainly in the southern U.S. The other 14 Nearctic Pepsis species inhabit the southern U.S. west of the Mississippi River and northern Mexico. They capture and provision their nests with large, hairy, heavy-bodied, stout-legged tarantulas of the genus Aphonopelma Pocock (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae), the only native theraphosid genus in this region. There are no tarantulas east of the Mississippi River, except in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, and no valid host spider records or nesting biology information for P. elegans, the largest spider wasp in the eastern US. Rau and Rau’s (1918) questionable field observation of this secretive, dark, violaceous-winged spider wasp yielded no nest, host spider or wasp specimen, and only initiated questions about its identification and nesting biology. The method of host spider transport, as described in Rau and Rau’s (1918) observation, is identical with that of Entypus fulvicornis (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae: Pepsinae), a species similar in size and color to P. elegans and often misidentified as such and vice versa. Potential host spider for P. elegans may include cork-lid trapdoor spiders in the genus Ummidia Thorell, especially U. audouini (Lucas) (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Halonoproctidae). This spider is abundant, sizeable, and stout enough to provide sufficient food for the developing P. elegans larva. The genus Ummidia and P. elegans have nearly identical geographic location maps and occur in the same habitat. Pepsis elegans could conveniently use the spider’s burrow as a nest without having to excavate one from the ground surface and be detected by the burrowing activity or lengthy, arduous, and cumbersome host spider transport. Pepsis elegans females from various localities had dried mud on the forewings and body inferring they were underground in moist, fine-grained soil as in a burrow. Females were active at night introducing the possibility of cryptic nocturnal nesting, as in some other Pepsis species. Ummidia audouini is nocturnally accessible in its burrow entrance, holding the trapdoor slightly ajar as it waits in the darkness to ambush unsuspecting prey. Punzo’s (2005) study of the closely related, orange-amber-winged, southwestern U. S. and Mexican P. cerberus Lucas is questionable based on the spider misidentification, possible wasp misidentification, and incompatible spider wasp-tarantula size difference. The host of P. cerberus and P. novitia Banks, a possible P. cerberus × P. elegans hybrid (Hurd 1952), is likely the southwestern wafer-lid spider Eucteniza relata (O. P.-Cambridge) (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Euctenizidae) (Gillaspy 1990) and not Aphonopelma as indicated by Punzo (2005).
ZooBank registration. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A5795DAA-ABE6-494D-A6A5-1BCA9D84D0C7
Hurd (1952), in revising the Nearctic species of Pepsis Fabricius, separated P. cerberus Lucas from P. elegans Lepeletier based on external morphology and geography. Vardy (2005), in his Western Hemisphere Pepsis revision, combined these taxa and several Neotropical color and structural variants in a broad definition of P. menechma Lepeletier extending across ~11,250 km and two continents. Vardy (2005) synonymized the familiar and well-documented, 160-year-old P. elegans under P. menechma probably because it appeared several pages later in Lepeletier’s (1845) Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Hyménoptères. Vardy’s (2005) interpretation of Pepsis menechma as a viable species presents a taxonomic and nomenclatural problem. He violated the principle of nomenclatural stability in synonymizing the widely and established species names P. elegans and P. cerberus under P. menechma, a name that had not been used for 160 years. Recent discoveries warrant a re-evaluation of the problematic taxonomy of this species complex. Morphological and ecological divergence of P. elegans and its sister taxon, P. cerberus, combined with their narrow sympatric distribution justifies species recognition. Hurd’s (1952) two species concept for P. elegans and P. cerberus is more practicable, useful, and nomenclaturally acceptable than Vardy’s (2005) P. menechma. Pepsis cerberus Lucas and P. elegans Lepeletier should be reinstated as species and removed from the synonymy of Pepsis menechma Lepeletier.
ZooBank registration. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F59B3131-74DE-4704-9936-337E380BF3E0