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Some wasp species use spiders as food resources, overcoming several anti-predator barriers that are exerted by spiders. Tromatobia ichneumonid wasps are spider egg predators that usually attack Araneidae species, although there are few records of predation on Clubionidae, Philodromidae, Linyphiidae, Tetragnathidae, and Theridiidae spiders. Here, we describe the interaction between Tromatobia sp. and Chrysso compressa, a subsocial theridiid spider that exhibits extended maternal care, in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. We observed that the larva of Tromatobia sp. develop inside the egg sacs of C. compressa, preying on the entire egg mass and building cocoons that change the color and morphology of the egg sacs. Despite these structural modifications, we registered an adult female of C. compressa guarding and caring for the cocoons (attacked egg sac) of the predators as if they were offspring (non-attacked egg sac). To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first record of Tromatobia preying on Chrysso eggs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epipompilus Kohl comprises 52 species of wasps that are parasitoids of spiders; 16 species occur in the Neotropical region and 36 species occur in the Australian region. The biological knowledge of this genus is limited and its interactions and host spiders are still incipient. Here, we report some behavioural and biological characteristics of E. excelsus, a parasitoid of the tube-dwelling spider Ariadna mollis. We observed an E. excelsus female attacking an adult female of A. mollis in São Paulo, Brazil. We photographed daily the larval development of the wasp, from the egg stage to adult emergence. The entire developmental cycle of the wasp took 24 days. This period was shorter than the developmental periods of wasps belonging to other genera of Pompilidae. Although all species within Pompilidae use spiders as host, they present great behavioural diversity, characterized by different ethological sequences. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the Neotropical species of Epipompilus exhibit biological characteristics similar to the Australian species, acting as a koinobiont ectoparasitoid, but displays differences in larval morphology. Studies on other species could elucidate the extent of these differences and similarities, contributing to our understanding of the evolutionary history of Epipompilus, and consequently of Pompilidae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Paracyphononyx Gribodo, 1884 (Pompilidae) contains species that act as koinobiont parasitoids of cursorial spiders. Here, we record a new parasitism interaction involving the pompilid wasp Paracyphononyx scapulatus (Bréthes) and the hunter spider Trochosa sp. (Lycosidae), and we describe how the wasp develops on the spider. This study contributes new information about the interaction between koinobiont ectoparasitoid wasps and spiders, which probably arose independently in different groups of wasps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]