Je vais expliquer en anglais, parcque c'est trop compliqé pour mon francais:
1. I cannot explain with detailled characters, why I think that it is A. mystaceus and not annother species. I may say: mainly black body color, thin tergal bands, etc. but these characters also agree for some other species. My knowledge comes from my experience with Sphecid wasps over 20 years now.
2. Normally, someone learns to identify insects by dead specimens and by keys. For France, there is a very good key for Sphecid wasps in the Fauna de France, Sphecidae, vol. 1-3 (I am an author of some genera). In the key, Argogorytes is characterized by characters in wing venation (not visible here) and by a deep furrow or edge between
sternum I and II (not visible here).
So a beginner cannot identify this Argogorytes because key characters are not visible. But Argogorytes has a special shape and a special color pattern, what distinguishes it from other related Crabronidae as Gorytes and Nysson. So I could recognize the species, because I have seen may relates specimens in my life. But I cannot explain it in detail, because it exists in form of a picture in my head only. Its the same with other IDs, I did here and in other places.
3. What to do for Photograhers: It is often difficult to recognize species when only taking photos and not having a full collections with most species for comparisation. My only recommondation is to look in galleries in the www or in forums to learn the full variablity of wasps and bees. But to get a detailed knowlege in recognizing species, it is necessary to have a collection and to can examine species with a microscope to learn the detailed characters. Most key characters are not visible on photos, and even specialists are often unable to recognize a species.
And in Central Europa, there are about 1500 species of aculeate wasps and bees, and together with France, we have more than 2000 different species. Taking into accout, that males and females often look different, we have about 4000 different forms to learn...
But, to give an optimistic idea too: it is possible to recognize most genera and some species within some time. In our German forums, we hava some amateur entomologists and photographers, which did a very good progress in the last years and which will recognize more and more species each year. I saw this progress over the years, and it is a good sign.
Regards, Christian
P.s. On
www.galerie.hymis.de, we have Argogorytes, some Gorytes and Nysson species for comparisation.
