It is a large, colorful, fast-flying wasp, one of 28 species in the genus Stictia (which occur throughout North and South America), all of which have similar biology.

Nests are simple burrows some 15 cm deep, with a single enlarged chamber at the bottom.

[1] Nonetheless, these beneficial wasps are sometimes eliminated by horse owners unfamiliar with them, thus exacerbating their problems with horse-flies.

This makes it important to the economies of those areas where horses are reared; in the words of Bohart and Menke, it "fully lives up to its name".

[1] The generic name "Stictia" may be related to Ancient Greek "stictis" which means "spotted"; the specific name "carolina" is a reference to the eastern American state to which this species is native.