Philanthus variegatus ecoronatus Dufour, 1854

Malash, Alyaa A., Edmardash, Yusuf A. & Gadallah, Neveen S., 2023, The genera Philanthus Fabricius, 1790 and Philanthinus de Beaumont, 1949 (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae: Philanthinae) in Egypt, with a new record and the description of a new species, Zootaxa 5249 (2), pp. 151-189 : 179-182

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5249.2.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:52C66599-6FC8-4A2D-BEA4-8D1CAC33EEE6
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7688507
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03F95931-630E-426D-288F-FA71FEE0F83B
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Philanthus variegatus ecoronatus Dufour, 1854
status

Treatment

Philanthus variegatus ecoronatus Dufour, 1854 View in CoL

Figs 20A–C View FIGURE 20 , 21A–C View FIGURE 21

Philanthus ecoronatus Dufour, 1854: 380 View in CoL , ♁.

Diagnosis. Body length: 14 mm (female); 11.6 mm (male).

Philanthus variegatus ecoronatus differs from the nominotypical subspecies in the following: mesonotum shiny black ( Fig. 21B View FIGURE 21 ) (shiny ferruginous in P. variegatus variegatus ( Fig. 19D View FIGURE 19 )); scutellum and postscutellum ferruginous ( Fig. 21B View FIGURE 21 ), propodeum black with two lateral yellow patches ( Fig. 21B View FIGURE 21 ) (rest of thorax yellow in P. variegatus variegatus , except black median sulcus ( Fig. 19C–E View FIGURE 19 )); mesoscutum sparsely punctate, punctures becoming dense posteriorly ( Fig. 21B View FIGURE 21 ) (nearly smooth, impunctate in P. variegatus variegatus , densely punctate at junction with scutellum ( Fig. 19D View FIGURE 19 )); gastral T 2 densely punctate ( Fig. 21C View FIGURE 21 ) (sparsely punctate in P. variegatus variegatus ( Fig. 19E View FIGURE 19 )).

Material examined: 1♀, Wadi El-Natroun , 12.v.1990, Neveen Gadallah collector ( EFC) ; 1♀, Wadi El Natroun (Beo Ar Ashra), (18/94?) ( EFC) ; 1♁, Marsa Matruh, 28.ix.1954, Aly collector ( ASUE) .

Previous Egyptian records: Wadi El-Natroun ( Gadallah 1996); Marsa Matruh (present study).

Extralimital distribution: Algeria, Armenia, Chad, Italy, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia,

Comment: This subspecies was recorded for the first time from Egypt by Gadallah (1996). The characters agree with de Beaumont’s key (1949: 179, couplet 6) in having mesopleuron and propodeum greatly marked with yellow ( Fig. 21A, B View FIGURE 21 ); upper mesopleuron densely punctate ( Fig. 21A View FIGURE 21 ); gaster mostly yellow, narrowly black medially on T 1–4, with terminal depressions ferruginous ( Fig. 21C View FIGURE 21 ); T 2 more or less densely, finely punctate ( Fig. 21C View FIGURE 21 ); face entirely pale up to level of inner eye emargination in female ( Fig. 20B View FIGURE 20 ), and dark reddish brown to ferruginous in male ( Fig. 20C View FIGURE 20 ); scutellum and postscutellum ferruginous ( Fig. 21B View FIGURE 21 ). It differs from de Beaumont description in having the pale colour of the face ivory white and extending very close to the middle ocellus (in de Beaumont’s specimens, 1949: 178, the pale colour of the face is yellow, and touching the middle ocellus, see fig. 1). The Tunisian specimen ( Ben Khedher et al. 2021: 8, fig. 3J) is identical to de Beaumont’s. This may be a sexual difference (the Egyptian specimen is a female, while de Beaumont’s 1949 and Ben Khedher et al. 2021, specimens are males).

The specimen of Wadi El Natroun, 12.v.1990 (EFC) was misidentified by Giles Roche as P. dufouri Lucas. However , it differs from P. dufouri in having the scutellum ferruginous ( Fig. 21B View FIGURE 21 ) (clearly black in P. dufouri ); gastral terga predominantly yellow, narrowly black medially ( Fig. 21C View FIGURE 21 ) (black in P. dufouri , with yellow markings clearly delimited).