Sphex lucae

{{Speciesbox

| image = Sphex lucae imported from iNaturalist photo 165511399 on 27 July 2024.jpg

| genus = Sphex

| species = lucae

| authority = de Saussure, 1867

| display_parents = 2

| synonyms = {{Species list

| Sphex belfragei | Cresson, 1873 | Fernaldina lucae | Bohart & Menke, 1963

}}

| synonyms_ref =

}}

Sphex lucae is a species of thread-waisted wasp in the family Sphecidae. Sphex lucae is predominantly found in western North America,{{Cite web |title=Observations |url=https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=121956 |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=iNaturalist |language=en}} but specimens have also been collected in Georgia and Florida.{{Rp|page=34}}Entomologist Henry T. Fernald described this wasp as: "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."{{Cite web |title=The digger wasps of North America and the West Indies belonging to the subfamily Chlorioninae |year=1906 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. National Museum |id=No. 1487

|first=Henry T. |last=Fernald |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076000786447?urlappend=%3Bseq=81 |via=HathiTrust |pages=365–367 |hdl=2027/mdp.39076000786447?urlappend=%3Bseq=81 |language=en}} {{PD-inline}} Richard M. Bohart and Arnold S. Menke proposed moving this wasp to the monotypic genus Fernaldina.{{Cite journal |last1=Cazier |first1=Mont A. |last2=Mortenson |first2=Martin A. |date=January 1965 |others=California Academy of Sciences |title=Studies on the Bionomics of Sphecoid Wasps. VI. Fernaldina lucae (Hymenoptera : Sphecidae) |url=http://archive.org/details/panpacificentom41vand |journal=The Pan-Pacific Entomologist |location=San Francisco |publisher=Pacific Coast Entomological Society |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=34–43 |via=Internet Archive}} The main body of research on this wasp prior to 1965 regarded its propensity for communal roosting on plants.{{Rp|page=34}}