Priocnessus nebulosus (Dahlbom)

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 : 12

Priocnessus nebulosus (Dahlbom)

FLORIDA: Okeechobee County, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park; 6 July 2022, 1433 EDT; C. Welch. Host: Sossipus floridanus Simon ( Lycosidae ) [det. G. B. Edwards], adult male. The wasp grasped the immobilized grass spider by its right chelicera and, holding it dorsal side upward, hung downward while grasping an upright twig with her legs. Maintaining this grasp of the spider, she transported it for more than 2 meters across grasses and small woody shrubs and, eventually, into a very small hole into the ground ( Welch 2022).

Kurczewski and Kiernan (2015) reported eight host records for five different species of Agelenopsis Giebel ( Agelenidae ) for Priocnessus nebulosus , indicating a high degree of prey specificity. Sossipes floridanus ( Lycosidae ) is a new host family, genus, and species for P. nebulosus . Sossipus Simon is the only wolf spider ( Lycosidae ) genus that makes a sheet-web with a funnel-shaped retreat, similar to the funnel web of Agelenidae . Sossipus is apparently filling an ecological niche in certain areas in replacing Agelenopsis as host spider for P. nebulosus . The method of prey transport of P. nebulosus whereby the wasp straddles the spider, grasps its chelicera with her mandibles, and walks forward on the ground without amputating the prey’s legs at the coxa-trochanter joints is a highly unusual method in the Pompilidae ( Evans and Yoshimoto 1962; Kurczewski 2010).