About Sphex lucae de Saussure, 1867
Sphex lucae is a species of thread-waisted wasp belonging to the family Sphecidae. It is predominantly found in western North America, though specimens have also been collected in Georgia and Florida. Entomologist Henry T. Fernald described the wasp with the following characteristics: "Body rather slender; the head and thorax black; the abdomen black to red, the two colors variously mingled in different examples, the males being generally much darker than the females; wings varying from yellowish hyaline with a fuliginous tinge to deep fuliginous with a violet reflection; legs dark ferruginous to black." Richard M. Bohart and Arnold S. Menke proposed reclassifying this wasp into the monotypic genus Fernaldina. Almost all existing research on this wasp published before 1965 focuses on its tendency to engage in communal roosting on plants.
