Ammatomus nikolajevskii

Schmid-Egger, Christian, 2019, Review oI the genus Ammatomus A. COSTA, 1859 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) Irom the Palearctic region with description oI Iour new species, Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (1), pp. 437-457 : 444-445

Ammatomus nikolajevskii (GUSSAKOVSKIJ, 1928), stat. rest. (figs 47-53)

Gorytes nikolajevskii GUSSAKOVSKIJ, 1928: 17, male Lectotype: male, Uzbekistan: Sayat near Khiva (ZIN), designated by PULAWSKI 1973: 280.

S p e c i m e n s e x a m i n e d: Uzbekistan, female 7.vii 1997 near Karshi city, Khanabad vill., 38.847N, 65.936E, V. Gromenko leg. Uzbekistan, male 16.v 2015 8 km NW Mubarek, 39.341N 65.092E, K. Samartzev leg. Russia, male and female, 13.vii 2015 Kalmykia, 3 km SSE Tzagan- Nur, 47.340N 45.240E M. leg. (all coll Mokrousov ).

R e m a r k: The species was synonymised with A. mesostenus by PULAWSKI (1973). Due to the kindness of Mikhail Mokrousov, I could examine specimens from near the type area in Uzbekistan and from Russia. They belong clearly to a species different from A. mesostenus s.str. (here I could compare with specimens of A. mesostenus from the type area Egypt). The Central Asian und Russian specimens have some similarities with A. vanharteni , new species, but differ clearly by colour pattern, mesonotal punctation and shape of T1 from species from Egypt. Therefore, A. nikolajevskii is restored from synonymy and treated as valid species here. The A. mesostenus lineage includes four species, A. mesostenus in North Africa, A. nikolajevskii in Russia and Central Asia, A. vanharteni in Arabia and Iran, and A. yemenensis in Yemen.

D i a g n o s i s: The female of A. nikolajevskii is characterized by a fine and sparse punctation on mesoscutum, which is distinctly denser and coarser in remaining species of the A. mesostenus lineage. It shares a long T1 with A. vanharteni (1,4x in female from Uzbekistan, 1,3x in female from Russia), which is 1.0x in A. mesostenus and 1.2x in A. yemenensis . It is clearly lemon yellow coloured, and not whitish yellow as in A. vanharteni . The male has the shortest T1 within the A. mesostenus -lineage (1,55 in both examined specimens), and is also characterized by a distinctly lemon yellow body colour and lack of red marks on the body or leg.

V a r i a t i o n: In both examined specimens from Russia yellow colour is more reduced (scutellum black in male, band on T1 interrupted etc., see figs 49 and 52), compared with the specimens from Uzbekistan.

D i s t r i b u t i o n: Russia / Kalmykia, Uzbekistan. PULAWSKI (1973) also mentions Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.