Herbstellus pachylopus (Kohl)

Kurczewski, Frank E., West, Rick C., Waichert, Cecilia, Kissane, Kelly C., Ubick, Darrell & Pitts, James P., 2020, New and unusual host records for North American and South American spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), Zootaxa 4891 (1), pp. 1-112 : 7-8

Herbstellus pachylopus (Kohl)

ARGENTINA: Chubut Province, Cerro Bayo; 28 March 2018; E. A. Candia (andres.ig_22). Host: Diplothelopsis cf bonariensis Mello-Leit„o ( Nemesiidae ), adult or subadult female. The wasp pulled a paralyzed tube trapdoor spider on the sandy sparely vegetated ground, dorsal side upward, grasping the metatarsal segment of its 2 nd right leg with her mandibles. She released the spider, ran a short distance on the ground to inspect its burrow, returned and switched her grasp to the base of the femur of the same leg and continued to drag the spider to its burrow. The wasp reopened the spider’s trap-door and kept it open, bracing it with her hindlegs as she pulled the spider sideways down the burrow, grasping its ventral mid-section with her mandibles. The wasp emerged, closed the trap-door and covered it by scraping sand on it using her forelegs alternately. She evidently enticed the spider from its burrow, chased it for a distance across the ground surface, captured and immobilized it ( Candia 2018; N. Ferretti, INBIOSUR, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2018 pers. comm.).

CHILE: Los Ríos Region, Valdivia Province, 4 km SE of Coñaripe, Pellaifa Lake; 18 January 2020; P. C. A. Egger (patriciaae71). Host:? Tomopisthes sp. ( Anyphaenidae ), adult or subadult female. A short video shows the wasp pull the paralyzed ghost spider backwards on the gravelly sparely vegetated ground, dorsal side upward, grasping its right foreleg with her mandibles. The wasp releases the spider and runs around for a few moments to locate what is possibly the spider’s ground burrow. The wasp then grasps the spider by a right foreleg with her mandibles and drags the spider down into the ground burrow ( Egger 2020).