Ablautus rufotibialis

Recognition characters: Grayish species; length 10 – 12 mm; mystax straw white; thorax brown and gray pollinose with straw white to brown bristles; scutellar bristles 24 – 30, brown; wings hyaline, in certain light milky, veins black with greenish and purplish reflections; legs black, setae and setae numerous and conspicuously white; claws without pulvilli. Distribution: FREMONT: Shoshoni, 16 km S, 16 April 1965 (RJL). PLATTE: Guernsey, 13 – 27 April 1964, 30 April 1964, 5 May 1966 (RJL); Wheatland, 30 April 1964, 3 May 1965 (RJL). SWEETWATER: Rock Springs, 26.9 km NE (Thayer Jct.), 1 – 2 Aug. 1979 (RJL); Point of Rocks, 14.5 km W, 24 July 1979 (RJL). WASHAKIE: Worland, 17 April 1965 (RJL). Recorded from Wyoming by: Fisher & Wilcox (1997); Geller-Grimm (2018). Habitat: Sagebrush steppe shrub and grassland, and grama-needlegrass-wheatgrass grassland vegetation types. Wind-sheltered gullies on open short-mid grass rangeland. Ethology: Rests on and forages from sand in open areas; courtship (see Lavigne 1972). Prey: DIPTERA, HEMIPTERA [Heteroptera (as Hemiptera), Homoptera], HYMENOPTERA (see Lavigne 1972; Rogers & Lavigne 1972).