Ammoplanellus (Ammoplanus) biscopula, Boucïek, 2001

Boucïek, Zdenek, 2001, Palaearctic species of Ammoplanus (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 849-929 : 872-874

A. (Ammoplanus) biscopula sp. n.

Description

Male. Body length 2.4 mm. Black; face with white pattern on sides of clypeus, triangles at lower inner orbits, mandibles and front side of scapes; posterior side of scape and ¯agellum dorsally fuscous, ¯agellum ventrally pale. Labrum reddish as well as knees and most of tarsi (except tips). Pterostigma very pale, its margins slightly darker.

Head fully 1.1 times as broad as long, broadest slightly below middle, upper corners broadly rounded. Frons regularly convex, rather dull due to very ®ne, slightly longitudinal, engraved reticulation which at middle orbit merges with shallower striation. Front eye orbit only slightly emarginate, above not deepened, lower end wide-angular, not projecting mesad. Toruli nearer to each other than to orbits, outside of each torulus a shallow broad pit which includes tentorial pit; area between toruli ¯at, shiny, slightly convex below but not produced into median tooth; side of clypeus on mesal side with small, subrectangular tooth. Labrum (in holotype turned down and inwards) transverse, short, about twice as broad as long, on sides very close to toruli and almost as broad as distance between outer margins of toruli, broader than width of clypeal side. Mandibles not long, in middle almost parallelsided, widening part at base short. Underside of head without concavities, convex, with ¯at median part ®nely striate, slightly depressed anteriorly between outer eye orbit and oral fossa; latter broadly V-shaped, as long as distance of fossa from foramen magnum. Palpi short. Antennae rather short; scapus slender, about 3.5 times as long as broad, slightly widened at apex; ¯agellum with short pilosity and dense sensillar pits; its segments subquadrate, 5±9 slightly oblong, the last as long as two preceding combined.

Mesosoma . Pronotum with extremely short non-carinate collar, neck part as long as the steep part. Mosescutum dull, dense punctures small but distinct in ®ne engraved reticulation. Scutellum with similar but shallower sculpture, hence shinier, almost half as long as mesoscutum (20 5 42), its anterior cross-groove very ®ne, hardly broader than hind marginal groove of mesoscutum. Metanotum not raised in middle. Prodeum with broadly rounded hind corners, dorsally sculpture extremely ®nely shallowly rugulose but with ®ne transverse carinulae about at 80ss from median line which bears irregular median carina in anterior half.

Metasoma. Sternite 3 only slightly diOEerent from the preceding one, hardly transversely depressed in middle, with several weak hairs in posterior corners. Sternites 4 and 5 (®gure 78) each with broad, increasingly distinct transverse semilunate depression, sternite 4 almost bare, only with minute adpressed sparse hairs in middle, but its hind margin on either side of weak semilunate depression with a loose tuft of hairs including about six strong longer setae; on sternite 5 sides of lunate depression end postero-laterally at distinct tubercles with cup-like arrangement of strong setae which are curved inwards at tips, longest on outside; thin hind margin of ®fth sternite slightly broadly emarginate. Sixth sternite depressed on either side, outside of median line with numerous subdecumbent short hairs pointing laterad, hind margin with long hairs. Sternite 7 truncate, hairy terminal part of sternite 8 narrow.

Female. Not known.

Comments. This species is very similar to freidbergi and diOEers from the latter mainly by the features of the face and the distal sternites. In the holotype the lateral white spots above sides of clypeus are smaller than in freidbergi . The so far unknown females may be very similar in the two species.

Materials examined. Israel (Negev): Route 90 N of Zin, HOLOTYPE male, 11 April 1994 (A. Freidberg; TAUI, Tel Aviv).

Distribution. Israel.

Etymology. From Latin scopa, diminutive scopula, meaning a small brush (on either side of the sixth sternite).