Zootaxa 4754 (1): 141–152 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2020 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4754.1.15 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1E4D1D40-1B89-4941-BC6C-17EBCDF98EA0
Biodiversity of the aculeate wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) of the Arabian Peninsula: Vespoidea, Mutillidae
NEVEEN S. GADALLAH1, ARKADY S. LELEJ2 & DENIS J. BROTHERS3 1Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. E-mail: [email protected] 2Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivo- stok-22, 690022, Russia. E-mail: [email protected] 3School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg), Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209 South Africa. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
An updated checklist of the Arabian species of Mutillidae is provided here. The list includes 64 identified species in 21 genera and five subfamilies: Dasylabrinae (2 genera, 16 species), Mutillinae (14 genera, 37 species), Myrmillinae (3 genera, 6 species), Pseudophotopsidinae (1 genus, 4 species), and Ticoplinae (1 genus, 1 species). Distributions, both on the Peninsula and extra-limital, are provided for each species; 31 species (50%) are endemic to the Arabian Peninsula.
Key words: Dasylabrinae, Mutillinae, Myrmillinae, Pseudophotopsidinae, Ticoplinae, distribution
Mutillidae Latreille, 1802
The monophyletic family Mutillidae, or velvet ants (in reference to the wingless, hairy ant-like females), is a rela- tively large family, worldwide in distribution, with currently 4603 described species (13 fossil) in 222 genera (of which Protomutilla Bischoff and Cretavus Sharov are fossil), placed in 13 tribes and eight subfamilies (Lelej 2007, 2017; Lelej & Brothers 2008; Aguiar et al. 2013; Brothers & Lelej 2017; Brothers et al. 2019; Pagliano et al. in press). Members of the family Mutillidae are mainly tropical in distribution (Brothers & Finnamore 1993). They can be identified by their extremely thick and hard integument, the usually densely pubescent covering of the adult bod- ies (Brothers & Finnamore 1993), and the powerful sting of their females (Schmidt 1990). They are predominantly black, brown, scarlet or orange, often marked with bright white (silver or gold), yellow or red spots or bands. Black- and-white specimens are sometimes called panda ants, as they resemble the giant panda; the wings of males are often dark (Brothers & Finnamore 1993). Some Australasian species are brilliantly metallic, with shades of bronze, green, purple or blue (Brothers & Finnamore 1993; Brothers 2018). Mutillids exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism. The females are always apterous with their mesosoma forming a fused box-like structure (except for a few cases where the pronotum is articulated); most of the males are fully winged but various degrees of wing reduction with mesosomal modification may be observed (Brothers & Lelej 2017). Many genera and species are known from one sex only, and often the male and female of a single species have been given separate names, which has resulted in many synonyms. In some species, males are comparatively large and carry the smaller female during copulation (Brothers 1989). Most of them are solitary ectoparasitoids of the enclosed larvae or pupae of other insects, mainly ground- or stem-nesting Hymenoptera and those with exposed mud or resin cells, or even oothecae of cockroaches, hard puparia of flies, hard cocoons of Lepidoptera or even beetles (Brothers 1989; Brothers et al. 2000; Sergeev & Lelej 2011; Amini et al. 2014). Regarding the higher classification of Mutillidae and the Aculeata in general, several studies have been carried out over time, based on morphological as well as molecular data (Brothers 1975; Lelej & Nemkov 1997; Brothers 1999; Mitchell & Brothers 2002; Pilgrim et al. 2008; Branstetter et al. 2017; Peters et al. 2017). Brothers (1975) recognized only three superfamilies, Chrysidoidea, Vespoidea and Apoidea, a system which has generally been ad-
Accepted by Kevin A. Williams: 19 Nov. 2019; published: 20 Mar. 2020 141