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eBio
Annotated List of Spider Wasps from The Bahamas, with Description of a New Species of Tachypompilus (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae)
Frank E. Kurczewski1,*, James P. Pitts2, and Nancy B. Elliott3
1PO Box 15251, Syracuse, NY 13215, USA. 2epartment of Biology, Utah State University, 5305 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322, USA.3Department of Biology, Siena College, Loudonville, NY 12211, USA. *Corresponding author.
Caribbean Naturalist, No. 5 (2013)
Abstract
This paper reports geographic distribution, seasonal distribution, ecological relationships (e.g., host plants and spider associations) and relative abundance of Pompilidae from The Bahamas. Twenty-one taxa, including seven subspecies in more diverse species, are reported from 16 Bahamian islands. The pompilids with the widest Bahamian geographic distributions are Pepsis ruficornis (11 islands), Anoplius insignis bahamas (11), Anoplius fulgidus (8), Pepsis marginata (7), and Anoplius americanus ambiguus (6). The islands with the most taxa of Pompilidae are Eleuthera (12), North Andros (10), Great Inagua (8), Great Exuma (7), San Salvador (7), Great Abaco (5), Cat (5), Long (5), South Bimini (5), and New Providence (5). These records are based on museum specimens and on collections by several individuals who used various collecting methods and sometimes concentrated on single small islands; thus it was difficult to correlate island size with number of pompilid taxa per island (r = 0.355, P = 0.212). Most species of Pompilidae from The Bahamas and nearby Caribbean islands fly, more or less, continuously throughout the year and probably have two or more generations annually, including: Pepsis marginata, P. rubra, P. ruficornis, Auplopus bellus, Epipompilus pulcherrimus, Drepanaporus collaris, Episyron conterminus cressoni, Poecilopompilus mixtus, Tachypompilus larssoni (sp. nov.), Anoplius a. amethystinus, A. americanus ambiguus, A. apiculatus autumnalis, A. insignis bahamas, A. scintillatus, A. fulgidus, and Aporinellus medianus. Comparison of the Bahamian pompilid fauna with that of nearby islands and other adjacent land masses reveal a relatively high percentage of the same taxa, both species and subspecies, in common: Cuba (81.0), Florida (61.9), Dominican Republic (61.9), Mexico (57.1), Puerto Rico/British Virgin Islands (57.1), and South America (33.3). Likely dispersal routes from mainland North America or South America to ancestral Bahamas Banks, especially during the Pleistocene, are discussed. Tachypompilus larssoni, sp. nov., the only endemic species in the study, is described and figured.
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