''Sapyga louisi'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of club-horned

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

in the family

Sapygidae The Sapygidae are a family of solitary kleptoparasitic aculeate wasps. They are generally black wasps, similar in appearance to some Tiphiidae or Thynnidae, with white or yellow markings developed to various degrees. The female oviposits her ...

. Adults feed from flowers and larvae are kleptoparasites of leaf cutter bee larvae, including those of ''

Heriades carinata ''Heriades carinata'' is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Both that their pollen-carrying structure (called a ''scopa'') is restricted to the ventral surface of the a ...

''.

Description and identification

''S. louisi'' is distinguished from its allies by its small size and by the yellow body markings. The inner orbits are marked from the mandibles to nearly the upper margin of the eye. The thorax is marked with a narrow band at the anterior margin that is narrowly interrupted as well as lateral spots behind on the pronotum, a pair of spots on the scutellum, and a band on the post-scutellum. The propodeum has a pair of spots, one on each side. The abdomen is marked with a broad band of uniform thickness on the second segment and lateral spots on the following segments each narrowing medially. The sternites are marked with lateral spots on segments 2–4. The male differs from the female in having reduced yellow markings, lacking the spots on the lateral margins of the pronotum, the scutellum, and sternites 3 and 4.

Description and identification

References

Further reading