Ammoplanellus (Ammoplanellus) rhodesianus, Arnold

Boucïek, Zdenek, 2001, Palaearctic species of Ammoplanus (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 849-929 : 919-921

A. (Ammoplanellus) rhodesianus Arnold

Ammoplanu s rhodesianus Arnold, 1924: 41 ±42. Zimbabwe: Sawmills and Bulawayo. Syntypes of both sexes; Lectotype male from Sawmills, here designated; in SAMC (examined).

Ammoplanellus rhodesianus (Arnold) ; Bohart and Grissell, 1976: 199.

5 Ammoplanellu s angelae Gayubo, 1981: 116 ±117. Spain (CaÂdiz): Zahora. Holotype male, by original designation; in UZUS, Salamanca (examined). Syn. n. Female of angelae described by Gayubo (1991: 144).

The identity of rhodesianus was recognized only after Mrs B. Cook (of SAMC) kindly hand-carried the types for examination to England. A. rhodesianus is very close to A. consobrinus Arnold but the latter diOEers mainly by the unicolourous pale pterostigma.

Additional diagnostic notes

Male. Mask of lower face very pale yellow to rusty yellow. Eye orbits weakly emarginate in middle, at toruli not strongly produced mesad, here fully 0.70 apart compared with distance between deepest points of emargination. Toruli placed hardly above lower ocular line. Clypeus in middle moderately convex, its margin rather shallowly emarginate between the small triangular submedian teeth which are as far apart as centres of toruli; margin between teeth with six or seven setae. Side of clypeus broadly bordering on eye; upper condyle of mandible almost touching the eye margin; lower edge of mandible distinctly widened at base (®gure 58), then subangularly narrowed and upper margin shortly emarginate; in distal half mandible broad, parallel-sided, upper margin with upper tooth broad, truncate or even double; lower tooth usually darker than part before and turned distinctly downward. Labrum short, distinctly more than twice as broad as high, rather deeply emarginate in middle third, sublaterally mostly with darker spots but without shallow pits. Scapus slightly widened; ¯agellum plus pedicel combined fully as long as breadth of head (up to 1.15 times), its segments at least slightly moniliform (®gures 60, 61), in proximal half of ¯agellum oblong to elongate.

Neck of pronotum and collar more or less transversely striate, collar impressed in median line. Mesoscutum with ®ne dense engraved reticulation which is usually very weak in specimens from Egypt and Arabia; some of them may have on shiny parts a faint metallic green tinge. Scutellum anteriorly with broad coarsely crenulate groove (in both sexes). Epimeral (vertical) groove on mesopleuron coarsely areolate or rugose in`masculine’ (African) males. For marginal cell see ®gure 59, pterostigma bicolourous.

Female. Mandibles normal, strongly bent (®gure 57), narrowing towards apex, not widened at base below, not shortly emarginate on upper margin which has a normal, subacute upper tooth. Metasoma on quadrate petiole.

Variation. The lobe at base of the lower edge of mandible in males, as mentioned above (®gure 58), is present in specimens of middle to large size, but weak to absent in those of smallest size. In extreme strong`masculine’ forms (two males from Homeb , Namibia) the lobe is large, the margin beyond it is wavy, the middle margin of clypeus is uneven, as if bearing four low tubercles .

Comment. A. rhodesianus seems to be nearer to simplex than to chorasmius , despite the diOEerence in the marginal cell which is closed in simplex , but open distally in rhodesianus (®gure 59). Before knowing about the range of the intraspeci®c variation I regarded also chorasmius as a close species. In the male of the latter the mandibles are, however, rather stout and short, the male antennae and lower face in the two species are quite diOEerent, the mandibles in chorasmius are normal, narrowing to apex and two-toothed, only the white face mask makes it similar to that of rhodesianus .

Material examined. Spain (Avila): La Angostula , 1 land 1m, 13 July 1995 (Gayubo); (Madrid): El Pardo, 1, 29 June 1973 (BoucÏek; BMNH); (CaÂdiz) : Zahora , 1, holotype of A. angelae , 28 June 1980 (N. A. Gayubo; UZUS); (Albacete) : Casas de Ves , 2m, 28 July 1989 (F. Luna) . Morocco: Oukaimedin , 1m, 26 July 1985 (K. Guichard; BMNH) . Algeria (Aures): Ain Zaatout , 1, 1± 4 June 1971 (HoOEer and HoraÂk; NMP) . Israel: Zomet, Oron , 1 land 4m, 11 November 1995 (A. Freidberg; TAUI) ; Zofar , 1m, 30 August 1995 (Freidberg; TAUI) ; ’ Iddan , 1m, 16 August 1995 (Freidberg) ; 135 km N of Elat Iddan , 1m, 8 May 1996 (Schmid- Egger) . United Arab Emirates: Ramal, 1m, 2 April 1987 (I. L. Hamer); Schweib , 5, 1 April 1997 (I. L. Hamer; BMNH) . Kazakhstan (Almaty Region): R. Ili Valley nr Bakanas , 1 land 1m, 4 and 7 August 1989 (V. Kazenas; BMNH) . Mali: Mourdiah , 1 land 1m, 25 August 1986 (M. Matthews); Yanfolila, 1m, November 1986 (J. Durham; both BMNH) . Sudan: Khartoum, 1m, 3 July 1915 (A. Corram; BMNH) . Zimbabwe: Chishawasha nr Harare, 1 land 1m, June 1980 (A. Watsham; BMNH) . Namibia: Homeb, 10 km ESE of Gobabeb, 5 land 5m, January 1972 ( Southern Afr. Exped. ; BMNH) ; Aus , 3m, November 1927 (R. E. Turner; BMNH) . South Africa (Cape Province): Matiesfontejn , 1m, November 1928; Montagu, 1, October 1924 (both R. Turner; BMNH) ; Grahamstown , 1m, 9 February 1961 (E. McC. Callan; all BMNH) .

Distribution. Portugal ( Gayubo, 1991: 144; Algarve), Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan; also in Africa ( Mali, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa).