Analysis of Spider Wasp Host Selection in the Eastern Great Lakes Region (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae)

Abstract Analysis of host selection in 57 spider wasp species and 1 species-complex from the eastern Great Lakes Region revealed new ecological, taxonomic, and size relationships, supplementing and updating information for the family Pompilidae in the Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico (Krombein 1979). The spider wasps preyed on large, moderate-size, or somewhat small spiders, according to their own size, and disregarded very small and tiny spiders when stocking a nest cell with a single host spider and wasp's egg. Large pompilid species preyed mainly on adult, penultimate, and subadult female spiders, and small spider wasp species captured mostly immature/juvenile spiders. Three differentsized spider wasp species inhabiting sandy soils—Anoplius cleora (large), A. apiculatus (medium-size), and Priocnemis cornica (small)—exclusively or frequently captured different sizes, sexes, and stages of the shoreline sand spider Arctosa littoralis (Lycosidae). Anoplius nigritus, A. semicinctus, and A. ...