Auplopus carbonarius

I found this wasp in my study. Although I had a pretty good idea that it would be Auplopus carbonarius, or at least some kind of spider-hunting wasp (Pompilidae), I wasn't sure (I'm not very experienced with this family) so used the family key in the Naturalists' Handbooks key to solitary wasps. This failed as it requires the pronotum to reach back to the tegulae which it didn't quite, but the alternative option led to a dead-end. It was very, very close to the tegulae, so I wasn't surprised.

I used the RES key to Pompilidae by M C Day (1988) to get it to species, and this was very straightforward.

Auplopus carbonarius showing pronotum in relation to tegulae, wings, groove on second sternite and bristles on mentum, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 7th September 2023