Argogorytes tonkinensis ( Yasumatsu, 1943 )

Kumar, P. Girish & Dubey, Anil Kumar, 2021, Discovery of the digger wasp genus Argogorytes Ashmead, 1899 (Hymenoptera Crabronidae: Bembicinae) in India and description of a new species, Zootaxa 4927 (2), pp. 282-288 : 285-287

Argogorytes tonkinensis ( Yasumatsu, 1943)

( Figs 13–22 )

Gorytes tonkinensis Yasumatsu, 1943: 3 , ♀. Holotype ♀, Vietnam: Hoa-Sinh (Heude Mus., Shanghai).

Argogorytes tonkinensis: Bohart & Menke, 1976: 492 (new combination).

Material examined. India: Kerala, Kozhikode district, Peruvannamuzhi dam site of Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary (11° 35’ 50’’ N & 75° 49’ 26’’ E, altitude 66 m), 1♀, 18.iv.2013, Coll. P. Girish Kumar, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV. 15452 . Chhattisgarh, Raipur district, Kandul (21° 12’ 32’’ N & 81° 36’ 59’’ E, altitude 282 m), 1♀, 16.viii.2011, Coll. S.K. Gupta & Party, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV. 15453 .

Redescription. Female. Body length 13 mm; forewing length 8 mm.

Colour. Black, the following parts yellow: two narrow elongated marks on base of clypeus, pronotal collar, pronotal lobe (except minute black spot at middle), metanotum, subapical bands on Gt 1 –Gt 4, band on Gt 1 wider laterally and narrowed medially, bands on Gt 1, Gt 3 and Gt 4 not reaching lateral margins of terga. The following are reddish brown: mandible at middle; maxillary and labial palpi, all tarsi (brownish black dorsally); antenna ventrally, tegula, apex of Gt 6. Wing membrane brownish hyaline except forewing infumate on marginal cell and its periphery and costal cell; stigma black; veins dark brown.

Vestiture. Short and silvery, some longer silvery setae present on mandible and clypeus, vestiture on labrum pale brownish; pygidial setae short, erect and pale brown.

Head. Head height 0.88 × its maximum width in frontal view ( Fig. 14 ); interocular distance at base of clypeus 0.94 × that at anterior ocellus; clypeus 2.13 × as wide as high, apical margin in middle almost straight, surface with scattered large punctures interspersed among small punctures ( Fig. 15 ); lower half of front with small punctures that are on average, one or less diameter apart, without median carina; upper half of front with somewhat larger punctures, many of them half diameter apart; POL 1.19 × OOL; vertex punctation similar to that on upper front; gena with rather dense small punctures. Antenna as in Figure 16 , length of antennal segments as follows: scape: pedicel: fu 1: fu 2: fu 3: fu 4: fu 5: fu 6: fu 7: fu 8: fu 9: fu 10 = 18: 5: 15: 15: 13: 12.5: 12: 12: 12: 12: 11.5: 17.5.

Mesosoma. Pronotal collar with anterior, transverse, low, erect carina; mesoscutum anterolaterally with contiguous small punctures, elsewhere with large contiguous pits or punctures; scutellum raised, convex, in middle without narrow, transverse, raised smooth area, posteriorly with small circular pubescent pit, elsewhere with contiguous punctures slightly smaller than those on scutum; metanotum similarly punctate, raised in middle; mesopleuron adjacent to pronotal lobe somewhat coarsely, closely pitted, remainder with strong, close, oblique to transverse ridges with fine, interspersed small and large setiferous punctures; metapleuron smooth with moderately dense, fine, setiferous punctures; propodeal enclosure triangular with coarse, slightly irregular longitudinal rugae, margined laterally by short oblique rugae, rest of dorsal surface with longer oblique rugae basally and shorter rugae apically; posterior propodeal surface with rugulae radiating outward and upward from metasomal insertion; lateral propodeal surface mostly smooth but with conspicuous curved posterolateral rugae; plantulae present on tarsal segments I–IV.

Metasoma. Gt 1 – Gt 3 with small punctures mostly 0.5–1.0 × diameter apart, Gt 4 with smaller, evenly spaced punctures, Gt 5 with fine, moderately dense punctures; posterior margin of Gt 2 – Gt 4 double-edged ( Figs 13 & 20 ); pygidium ( Fig. 22 ) narrow, moderately short, sub-parallel sided, with median ridge and lateral grove bearing few setigerous punctures; Gs 1 with conspicuous complete median keel which is curved in basal half and almost triangular in apical half; Gs 2 raised in to median rounded prominence about a third from base.

Variation. Legs are more brownish in specimen from Chhattisgarh than in those from Kerala; all coxae, trochanters and mid and hind femora are brownish black; fore femora, all tibia and tarsi are reddish brown. The holotype female described by Yasumatsu (1943) from Vietnam has the legs black with tibiae and tarsi somewhat brownish, tibial spurs are pale brownish or yellowish brown.

Distribution. India (new record): Chhattisgarh and Kerala States. Elsewhere: China; Vietnam ( Yasumatsu 1943; Wu & Zhou 1996; Wu et al. 2003; Hua 2006; Pham et al. 2016).

Figures

FIGURES 13–22. Argogorytes tonkinensis (Yasumatsu) ♀. 13. Habitus, lateral view. 14. Head, frontal view. 15. Lower half of head, frontal view. 16. Antenna. 17. Head and mesosoma, dorsal view. 18. Forewing. 19. Hindwing. 20. Metasoma, dorsal view. 21. Basal two metasomal sterna. 22. Last metasomal tergum.