Ammoplanellus (Ammoplanus) gegen, Tsuneki

Boucïek, Zdenek, 2001, Palaearctic species of Ammoplanus (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 849-929 : 882-885

A. (Ammoplanus) gegen Tsuneki

Ammoplanus gegen Tsuneki, 1972: 219 . Mongolia ( Central Aimak ): Zuun-Khara. Holotype female, by original designation; in TMB (examined).

5 Ammoplanus subcompressus Marshakov, 1976: 680 , 676, 677. Tajikistan: Kondara Canyon N of Dushanbe. Holotype male, by original designation; in ZMAS (examined). Syn. n.

The holotype male of subcompressus is without head but the other secondary sexual characters and the relatively good description make the species safely recognizable.

The conspeci®city of subcompressus and gegen , the latter species described from a female, could be recognized after studying both sexes of the species collected together in the Czech Republic by Mr P. Tyrner.

Additional diagnostic characters

Male. Face mask slightly yellowish white but often reduced, then only mandibles and scapes more or less pale, or clypeus pale only on sides in holotype of subcompressus ( Marshakov, 1976: 680) , or completely dark (in a male from Bohemia, northernmost locality in Europe ). Pterostigma pale to brown, at base and in middle paler than along parallel margins; not bicolorous .

Head rather stout, in frontal view more than 1.1 times as broad as high (®gure 17), in lateral view (®gure 16) fully 1.5 times as high as stout, stoutest in middle. Frons (and mesoscutum) with microscopical engrave d reticulation, punctures hardly visible. Frons strongly convex but without transverse swelling, in lower part with slight median depression. Clypeus in median part horizontally produced as a plate which is slightly sculptured and on margin bearing three subequal triangular teeth (®gure 17), not emarginate for labrum; latter hardly shorter than torular diameter, about twice as broad as long, with rounded lobes subequal to median emargination. Upper margin of mandible without additional tooth but in basal third strongly emarginate. Palpi short. Occipital carina dorsally distinct. Middle ¯agellar segments distinctly elongate, the longest about 1.7 times as long as broad (®gure 17). Frons (and mesoscutum) distinctly engraved reticulate, moderately shiny (slightly shinier in Mongolian type).

Mesosoma . Pronotal collar rather long, rectangular on sides, its margin carinate though often the carina irregular and interrupted in middle. Propodeum: median carina irregular, outside of it irregular network of broad shallow alveolae slightly rugulose on bottom; hind margin of dorsal surface often weakly carinate. For the shape of hind basitarsus see ®gure 18. Length of marginal cell anteriorly about 0.45 of its maximum length between enclosing veins.

Metasoma. Sternite 3 submedially at apex with a group of short suberect hairs; sternite 4 in apical half with large patch of whitish slightly longer suberect setae; middle part of sternite 5 with much shorter but not thin, erect setae before the conical spine (®gure 94) apparently formed by a group of closely united setae, often appearing as a solid spine; sternite 6 shiny, somewhat elevated, with ordinary hairs.

Female. (see also Tsuneki, 1972: 219). Head subquadrangular, in lateral view 0.62±0.65 as stout as long. Lower inner orbits only very slightly curved towards toruli, distance between lower ends of eyes slightly greater than between upper ends. In both sexes occipital carina distinct and dorsally situated slightly more than two ocellar diameters behind ocelli (in male hardly so). Propodeum dorsally dull, rather coarsely densely rugulose, rugulae high but not forming broad areolae; hind margin more or less carinate. Metasoma relatively convex, broader but not longer than mesosoma. Last sternite on margin extremely ®nely serrate.

Comment. A distinctive species, in particular by the presence of a narrow erect spine on the ®fth sternite of the male. This spine is otherwise present only in A. dusmeti , a west Mediterranean species which has only simple slender basitarsi. In male of gegen the hind basitarsus is slightly sinuate and distinctly widened in proximal half (®gure 18), with longer and dense pilosity on the subconcave mesal side; the expansion seems broader in Asiatic males than in the European ones but it is unusually slender in a specimen from Turkmenistan. The males from the northern border of distribution may have the pale face mask strongly reduced, whole clypeus and scapes black, mandibles yellow brown. The pterostigma is very dark in a Jordanian female.

Biology. On calcareous ground and in similar xerothermic stony habitats.

Material examined. Spain (Zaragoza): Pina de Ebro , 1 land 1m, 9 April 1991 (J. Blasco; UZUS) . Czech Republic (Bohemia): PocÏerady NW of Louny, 2 land 7m, 17 July 1980 (P. Tyrner) ; Praha-ZlõÂchov, 1m, 1 July 1908 (SÏustera; NMP) ; RadotõÂn nr. Prague, 1m, 14 May 1945 (HoOEer; NMP); (Moravia) : KobylõÂ, 1 land 2m, June 1970 (Kocourek; NMP and MZMB) . Austria (Burgenland): Neusiedl , 1, 4 July 1989 and ZuÈrndorf, 1m, 13 July 1989 (Dollfuss) . Cyprus: Limassol, 2 land 2m, 26 May and 2 June 1934 (Mavromoustakis; BMNH) . Jordan: Pella , 1m, 4 May 1995 (Denes; OLML) . Turkmenistan (S): left bank of R. Sudar nr Kara-Kala , 1, 1 May 1991 (Kazenas; BMNH) . Tajikistan: Kondara Valley N of Dushanbe, 1100 m, holotype lof subcompressus , 24 June 1939 (Gussakovskij; ZMAS) . Mongolia ( Central Aimak ): holotype m of gegen , 8 July 1964 (Kaszab; TMB) .

Distribution. Spain, Czech Republic, Austria, Cyprus, Jordan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia.