''Sapyga louisi'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of a 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 ...

in the family – Sapygidae. Adults feed from flowers and the larvae are kleptoparasites of leaf cutter bee larvae, including those of '' Heriades carinata''.

Description and identification

''S. louisi'' is distinguished from its allies by its small size and by the yellow body markings it has. 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 the 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 aspects of 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