Poecilopompilus mixtus (Fabricius)

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 : 20

Poecilopompilus mixtus (Fabricius)

BRAZIL: Rio Grande do Sul State, São Martinho da Serra; 2 February 2009, 1948 EST; P. Reck. Host: Misumenops callinurus Mello-Leitão ( Thomisidae ), adult female. The wasp examined the immobilized crab spider with its antennae and mouthparts as it laid dorsal side upward on a large rock. She grasped the spider by its right pedipalp or chelicera with her mandibles, dorsal side upward, and dragged it backwards across the ground ( Reck 2009).

Misumenops callinurus is a new host species and uncommon family for Poecilopompilus mixtus . Poecilopompilus mixtus is unusual among congeners in provisioning nests with immobilized Araneidae or Thomisidae in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Dominican Republic ( Kurczewski et al. 2022b).

BRAZIL: São Paulo State, São Sebastião da Grama; 27 March 2023; P. L. C. Dias. Host: Nephilingis cruentata (Fabricius) ( Araneidae ) (African hermit spider), immature. The wasp stood on the ground holding the paralyzed African hermit spider, ventral side upward, grasping its chelicera with her mandibles. The wasp would have found this introduced and established species of spider in its arboreal web, engaged it, and chased it to the ground. ( Dias 2023).

Nephilingis cruentata is a new host araneid genus and species for Poecilopompilus mixtus .

COLOMBIA: Cundinamarca Department, Tena Municipality; 17 July 2022, 1247 PM; D. Amaya. Host:? Wagneriana sp. ( Araneidae ), adult female. The wasp grasped the immobilized orb-weaver by its left forecoxa-trochanter joint with her mandibles and walked backwards through a tangle of grasses, holding the spider in a cephalothorax upward position ( Amaya 2022).

Wagneriana sp. ( Araneidae ), if correct, has been reported once previously for Poecilopompilus mixtus from Peru ( Kurczewski et al. 2020). This pompilid species preys on a variety of araneid genera and Thomisidae ( Kurczewski et al. 2020, 2022b).

COLOMBIA: Valle de Cauca Department, Cartago; 4, 8 June 2023, 1323–1700 PM; J. D. Arango. Host: Metazygia laticeps (O. P.-Cambridge) ( Araneidae ), adult male. The wasp stood atop the surface of a leaf holding the paralyzed orb-weaver, left side upright, grasping the coxal joint of its left foreleg with her mandibles and stood over the immobilized male orb-weaver as it laid ventral side upward ( Arango 2023c).

Metazygia laticeps is a new host species for Poecilopompilus mixtus .

COSTA RICA: Alajuela Province, San Ramón, Soltis Center; 9 May 2022; S. Marshall. Host: Eustala sp. ( Araneidae ) [det. C. Viquez], adult female. There are three photographs of this wasp with an immobilized orb-weaver on a broad leaf plant above ground level. The wasp’s wings are held upward at a 45–60° angle above her dorsum. The smaller orb-weaver is retained ventral side upward or on its left or right side. In the first photograph, the wasp is lapping up regurgitated fluid from the spider’s mouthparts using her own mouthparts. The second and third photographs show the wasp grasping the coxa-trochanter joint of the spider’s left foreleg or second left leg with her mandibles (Marshal 2022; S. Marshall, pers. comm.).

Eustala sp. ( Araneidae ) is reported herein as a new host genus for P. mixtus . Poecilopompilus mixtus is rather polyphagous in host selection having been photographed or collected with immobilized species of Araneidae in Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Cuba; and Thomisidae in Costa Rica and Dominican Republic ( Kurczewski et al. 2013, 2020, 2022b).

HAITI: Ouest Department, Croix-des-Bouquets Arrondissement, Thomazeau Commune; 11 January 2015; R. Durocher. Host: Metazygia? gregalis (O. P.-Cambridge) ( Araneidae ) [det. R. C. West, A. Tosto], adult female. The wasp stood beside the paralyzed orb-weaver as it laid, dorsal side upward, on low grasses ( Durocher 2015).

Metazygia? gregalis , a new host genus and species for P. mixtus from Haiti, was the correct host but wrong location information in Kurczewski et al. (2022b).