Tachypompilus mendozae (Dalla Torre)

Kurczewski, Frank E., West, Rick C., Waichert, Cecilia & Pitts, James P., 2022, Additional new and unusual host records for Western Hemisphere spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), Insecta Mundi 2022 (928), pp. 1-32 : 16-17

Tachypompilus mendozae (Dalla Torre)

ARGENTINA: La Rioja Province, Chilecito, El Portezuela Municipal Park; 6 November 2020, 2024; N. Greefpool. Host: Xenoctenus marmoratus Mello-Leitão (Xenoctenidae) , adult male [det. N. Ferretti, CERZOS- CONICET, UNS, Bahia Blanca, AR; D. Fernanda Silva Davila, UNMSM, Lima, PE], 14 mm long (wasp, 14 mm). The wasp grasped the spider’s right pedipalp near the end with her mandibles and dragged it backwards, dorsal side upward, across the outer concrete sidewalk of the park. She then pulled it across cobbled rock into a hole at the base of a low retaining wall ( Greefpool 2020a; Greefpool, Chilecito, La Roija, AR, pers. comm. 2020). Greefpool (2020b) photographed this wasp or another female without prey at the same location on 13 November 2020, 2034 hours, searching for openings (presumably a nesting site) in the retaining wall (Greefpool pers. comm. 2020).

BOLIVIA: Santa Cruz Department, Santa Cruz; 31 December 2004, 0956 CET ; J-P. Boerekamps. Host: Ctenus sp. , adult male. The wasp grasped the patella of the immobilized wandering spider’s left pedipalp with her mandibles and, maintaining it dorsal side upward, walked backwards on the substrate ( Boerekamps 2004).

COLOMBIA: Cundinamarca Department, Nocaima; 8 November 2020; O. Encisoa. Host: Ancylometes sp. (Ctenidae) , adult or subadult female. The wasp examined the immobilized wandering spider with her antennae as it laid, dorsal side upward, on the ground ( Encisoa 2020a).

COLOMBIA: Cundinamarca Department, San Bernardo ; 23 May 2020, 1544; O. Martinez. Host: Unidentified species ( Anyphaenidae ), adult or subadult female [det. A. Brescovit, S. C. Crews]. The wasp grasped the immobilized ghost spider near the end of its left pedipalp and dragged it, dorsal side upward, backwards across the ground ( Martinez 2020).

PERU: Ancash Department, Juipon (2600 m elevation); 24 February 2015; S. Dickson. Host: Acanthogonatus ? incursus (Chamberlin) ( Pycnothelidae ) [det. P. A. Goloboff, CONICET. Buenos Aires, AR), subadult female. The wasp pulled the paralyzed pycnothelid spider, dorsal side upward, across the ground and up a vertical adobe wall and into a hole, grasping its left pedipalp with her mandibles ( Dickson 2015).