Miscophus sauditus Gadallah & Edmardash, 2023

Abu El-Ghiet, Usama M., Gadallah, Neveen S., Gasib, Abdulmajeed M., Al-Fifi, Zarrag I. A. & Edmardash, Yusuf A., 2023, Further addition to the crabronid fauna of Saudi Arabia (Hymenoptera: Apoidea (Spheciformes): Crabronidae), with new genera and species records, and the description of two new species, Zootaxa 5319 (2), pp. 151-177 : 162-166

Miscophus sauditus Gadallah & Edmardash sp. nov.

Figs 8A–E, 9A–D, 10A–E

Type material: SAUDI ARABIA. Holotype (♁), Farasan [16° 41.8’ N; 42° 7.3333’ E], 23–30.ix.2022.

Description of male holotype: body length: 7.0 mm.

Colouration: head and thorax black with cuprous to dark green luster ( Figs 8A, B, 9A, B); red: gaster ( Figs 8A, 9C, D), tegula ( Figs 8A, 9A) and legs (except coxae externally black) ( Fig. 8A); scape and pedicel yellowish, darker above ( Fig. 8B–D); flagellum wholly black ( Fig. 8B–D); apical margin of clypeus ferruginous ( Fig. 8C), mandible ferruginous with black tip; forewing membrane hyaline to subhyaline, with a transverse fumigate area subapically (not reaching wing apex), veins dark brown ( Fig. 10E).

Head ( Fig. 8A–E): face above antennal sockets and clypeus densely clothed with silvery pubescence concealing underlying integument ( Fig. 8C); upper face with less pubescence, not concealing integument, densely punctaterugose ( Fig. 8C); eye orbit slightly concave above, convex below ( Fig. 8C); clypeus medially with apex slightly arcuate ( Fig. 8C); last three flagellomeres depressed dorsally ( Fig. 8E); middle ocellus distinctly larger than lateral ocelli ( Fig. 8B); AS 3 2.5× as long as its apical width ( Fig. 8E), distinctly longer than pedicel.

Thorax ( Fig. 9A, B): pronotum well-developed, with slight longitudinal sulcus medially ( Fig. 9A); mesoscutum densely punctate, with indistinct short sulcus antero-medially ( Fig. 9A); scutellum densely punctate, glabrous ( Fig. 9A); propodeum with dense silvery pubescence especially laterally, densely granulate ( Fig. 9A), transversely punctate posteriorly; propleuron with dense silvery pubescence concealing underlying integument ( Fig. 9B); mesopleuron with such pubescence anteriorly and medially, remainder smooth and shiny ( Fig. 9B); legs ( Figs 8A, 9B): fore coxa with two longitudinal carinae externally, depressed in between; fore basitarsus long and slender, as long as following tarsomeres combined, with four black unequal spines, of which basal one is very short, apical spine is the longest, about as long as following tarsomere; spines of tarsal comb thin (not spatulate); fore femur with wavy silvery pubescence ventrally; mid and hind tibiae irregularly spinose.

Gaster ( Figs 9C, D, 10A–C) impunctate, terga with fine silvery, short pubescence laterally ( Figs 9C, 10A); T 6 conical, broad and convex at base, with numerous short, black spines along lateral margins ( Fig. 10A, B); S 3–6 each with a row of black spines posteriorly, increasing in number toward apex ( Fig. 9D), S 8 with two long spines curved along almost their whole length, parallel-sided at apex ( Fig. 10C); gonoforceps ( Fig. 10D) narrowly rounded apically, with dense, long setae at basal two-thirds, distinctly bent medially ( Fig. 10D).

Female: Unknown.

Etymology: This species is named after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the specimen was collected.

Distribution: Known only from Saudi Arabia (Farasan Archipelago).

Comments. The new species belongs to Miscophus helveticus group based on Schmid-Egger & El-Jahdhami’s key to males species-groups (2022: 324, couplet 3) in having erect whitish pilosity on gena ( Fig. 8D, E), and S 8 bidentate ( Fig. 10C). It greatly resembles the male of M. papyrus de Andrade , but differs from it in the following: clypeus slightly arcuate ( Fig. 8C) (clypeus mesally pointed at apex in M. papyrus, Pulawski 1964: 124 , fig. 62); propodeal dorsum densely granulate (striate in M. papyrus ; Pulawski 1964); gaster entirely red (T 4 and T 5 clearly brownish in M. papyrus ; Pulawski 1964); S 8 with two long spines curved along almost their whole length, parallel-sided at apex ( Fig. 10C) (spines parallel-sided throughout in M. papyrus , see Pulawski 1964: 123, fig. 63); gonoforceps with dense long setae that are distinctly bent medially ( Fig. 10D) (bent at apex in M. papyrus ; see Pulawski 1964: 123, fig. 64). It also resembles M. ctenopus Kohl in having posterior ocelli closer to each other than the distance between each of them and the posterior ocellus ( Fig. 8B); radial cell distinctly larger than the petiolate SMC 2 ( Fig. 10E). However, it differs from M. ctenopus in the following (based on Kohl’s key to males, 1885: 221, couplet 2): mesoscutum dorsally with noticeable side corners in M. ctenopus (side corners gently rounded in M. sauditus , Fig. 9A); fore wing in M. ctenopus light, heavily clouded at tip margin (in M. sauditus fore wing more or less subhyaline, heavily clouded subapically, Fig. 10E); gaster bright red, except brownish medially in M. ctenopus (in M. sauditus gaster entirely red, Figs 8A, 9C, D). Based on de Andrade (1954): M. sauditus differs from the male M. ctenopus in the following aspects: free margin of clypeal lobe normal ( Fig. 8C) (depressed medially and slightly raised at the sides in M. ctenopus ); spines of tarsal comb thin (not spatulate) (spatulate in M. ctenopus ); lower edge of the apical zone of gonoforceps distinctly curved ( Fig. 10D) (not markedly curved in M. ctenopus , see de Andrade (1954: 11, fig. 25)); gonoforceps with dense long setae that are distinctly bent or curved medially ( Fig. 10D) (somewhat irregularly wavy in M. ctenopus ; see de Andrade 1954: 11, fig. 25).