Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870

Terine, Joshua B. & Kumar, Girish P., 2023, A new species of the genus Smicromyrme THOMSON, 1870 (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) from India, Zootaxa 5353 (1), pp. 82-88 : 83

Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870

Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870: 208 , ♁, ♀; Lelej & Brothers 2008: 56; Brothers & Lelej 2017: 96, ♁, ♀; Okayasu 2018: 480 , ♀, ♁; Williams et al. 2019: 26, ♀; Pagliano et al. 2020: 187; Okayasu 2020: 8, ♁, ♀; Thaochan et al. 2022: 160, ♀; Lelej & Williams 2023: 128 .

Type species. Mutilla rufipes Fabricius, 1787 , ♀, by monotypy.

Diagnosis. [see Williams et al. (2019), Okayasu (2020) and Lelej & Williams (2023)].

Subgenus Eremotilla Lelej, 1985

Eremotilla Lelej, 1985: 223 , ♁, ♀ (as subgenus of Smicromyme Thomson); Lelej & Brothers 2008: 23 (as subgenus of Smicromyme Thomson); Brothers & Lelej 2017: 95; Pagliano et al. 2020: 188 (as subgenus of Smicromyme Thomson); Lelej & Williams 2023: 129.

Type species. Smicromyrme tekensis Skorikov, 1935 , ♀, by original designation.

Diagnosis. [based on Lelej & Williams, 2023].

Male. Head and metasoma black. Mandible bidentate with a large sub ventral tooth. Clypeus is more or less flattened, with an elevated medial triangle, and has two teeth or tubercles along the anterior border. Volsella without basal external lobe, cuspis touching or protruding over the inner protuberance of the gonostylus. Female. Pygidial plate widened basally (widened medially in S. (E.) williamsi sp. nov.) with divergent striae from middle. T2 with one or three basal spots of pale setae and apical band of pale setae widened medially. T3 usually with band of pale setae (T3 with black setae in S. (E.) williamsi sp. nov.), T4–5 with black setae (T4–5 with band of golden setae in S. (E.) williamsi sp. nov.), rarely T3–4 with medial spot of pale setae and T5 with band of pale setae ( S. nigriceps Nonveiller, 1959 , S. perisii (Sichel et Radoszkowski, 1869) and coromandelica species-group).

Diversity and distribution. The subgenus Eremotilla includes 18 Palaearctic species and 6 Oriental species. All Oriental species belong to the S. coromandelica species-group ( Lelej 2005: 187). The subgenus includes 14 species known from females only, seven from males only, and three known from both sexes ( Lelej & Williams, 2023).

Species included and distribution. The subgenus Eremotilla in the Oriental Region currently includes: S. (E.) coromandelica ( Motschulsky, 1863) , ♀ ( India: South India; Sri Lanka); S. (E.) desiderata ( Turner, 1911) , ♀ ( Sri Lanka); S. (E.) frederici ( André, 1898) , ♀ ( India: Northern India, Rajasthan); S. (E.) neglecta Hammer, 1962 , ♀ ( India: Odisha, Karnataka; Sri Lanka); S. (E.) ocellata ( Saussure, 1867) , ♀ ( India: Karnataka; Sri Lanka); S. (E.) sexmaculata Hammer, 1962 , ♀ ( India: Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu; Sri Lanka).

Remarks. A key to the Oriental species is in Lelej (2005) and most of the species in the Palaearctic fauna are included in Lelej’s (1985) key.