Pepsis terminata Dahlbom, 1843

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 : 6-7

Pepsis terminata Dahlbom

BRAZIL: Pará State, Novo Progresso; 3 January 2023; T. S. Peper. Host: Acanthoscurria theraphosoides (Doleschall) ( Theraphosidae ) [det. R. Bertani], adult female. A short video shows the wasp pulling the paralyzed tarantula backwards up a freshly excavated slope, dorsal side upward, grasping the base of its left pedipalp with her mandibles ( Peper 2023).

ECUADOR: Napo Province, Tena, Parque Amazonico “La Isla”; 4 October 2022, 1651 PM; E. Hjalmarson. Host: Acanthoscurria theraphosoides , adult female. One photograph shows the wasp grasping the tarantula by its second left leg tibia/patella joint with her mandibles as it laid dorsal side upward on the leaf-covered rainforest floor. A second photograph shows the wasp standing in front of the paralyzed tarantula. A third photograph shows the wasp re-grasped the tarantula by the base of its second left leg with her mandibles and pulled it backwards across the ground ( Hjalmarson 2022).

Acanthoscurria theraphosoides from Brazil and Ecuador is a new host species for Pepsis terminata . Species of Acanthoscurria are common host spiders for P. terminata in Brazil, Ecuador, Martinique, and St. Lucia ( Kurczewski et al. 2020, 2022b).

Pepsis pretiosa species-group ( Vardy 2002)