Brief Summary
provided by Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
In eastern North America the three species of Megarhyssa which are common in hardwood forests--atrata (Linnaeus), macrurus (Linnaeus), and greenei (Viereck)--all show rather marked, more or less clinal, geographic variation in the coloration of the wings, particularly in the females. Specimens from the northern range extremities often have wings which are nearly clear, while the wings of those from the southern range extremities are most deeply or most uniformly infuscate. In macrurus and greenei subspecific distinctions have been made near the southern extremities of the ranges, and in the case of atrata a subspecific distinction has been made near the northern extremity of the range. I do not believe it is meaningful to treat these particular peripheral variants as subspecies.
- bibliographic citation
- Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. 1979. Prepared cooperatively by specialists on the various groups of Hymenoptera under the direction of Karl V. Krombein and Paul D. Hurd, Jr., Smithsonian Institution, and David R. Smith and B. D. Burks, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Insect Identification and Beneficial Insect Introduction Institute. Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture.
