Bug FAQAnoplius americanus
Anoplius americanus · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Pompilidae
Anoplius americanus is about 2 cm long. Adults visit flowers of the carrot, daisy, mint and knotweed families for nectar, and they mainly hunt wolf spiders.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
It measures roughly 20 mm in length.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Adults have been seen nectaring on flowers belonging to Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Polygonaceae.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Like other Anoplius species, it mainly preys on wolf spiders (Lycosidae).
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 23 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Florida, Utah, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Texas.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What flowers do they visit?
Adults feed on nectar from plants in the carrot, daisy, mint and knotweed families.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Pompilidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoplius_americanus
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-27 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-27.