Dielis plumipes

Dielis plumipes, the feather-legged scoliid wasp, is a species of scoliid wasp in the family Scoliidae.^[1]

Dielis plumipes
Dielis plumipes fossulana in Florida
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Scoliidae
Tribe:	Campsomerini
Genus:	Dielis
Species:	D. plumipes
Binomial name
Dielis plumipes (Drury, 1770)

Description and identification

Females of D. plumipes have a black scutellum and yellow bands on the first three or four tergites.^[2] The setae along the pronotal collar are usually orangish.^[1] Males, as in most species of the genus, have yellow bands on the first four tergites and primarily whitish setae on the body.^[3] They have the pronotum entirely black, or nearly so, and are distinguished chromatically from allied species by the entirely black clypeus and by the entirely black mid and hind legs.^[2]

Distribution

D. plumipes occurs in the eastern and central United States.^[4] The largest populations are the central subspecies, D. p. confluenta, and the southeastern subspecies, D. p. fossulana. A third subspecies, the nominate D. p. plumipes, occurs in a small pocket along the eastern coast within the Carolinian life zone.^[2]

Subspecies

There are three subspecies of D. plumipes:^[5]

• Dielis plumipes confluenta (Say, 1823)
• Dielis plumipes fossulana (Fabricius, 1804)
• Dielis plumipes plumipes (Drury, 1770)

Gallery

• 
  D. plumipes confluenta female in Ontario
• 
  D. plumipes fossulana female in Florida
• 
  D. plumipes fossulana male in Florida
• 
  D. plumipes plumipes female in Maryland.