Dasymutilla gloriosa (Saussure)

MANLEY, DONALD G. & PITTS, JAMES P., 2007, Tropical and Subtropical Velvet Ants of the Genus Dasymutilla Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) with Descriptions of 45 New Species, Zootaxa 1487 (1), pp. 1-128 : 54-55

Dasymutilla gloriosa (Saussure)

Mutilla gloriosa Saussure, 1868 (1867) . Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 7:359. Holotype female, Baja California (Saunders) (green tag number 438, see note below) [MNHN] (examined).

Mutilla tecta Cresson, 1875 . Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 5:119. Holotype female, California (Harry Edwards) (No. 1861) [ANSP] (examined). Synonymy: Mickel (1936a:56).

Dasymutilla reperticia Mickel, 1928 . U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 143:287. Holotype male, Empire Mountains, Arizona, July 3, 1924 (A. A. Nichol) [UMSP] (examined). Synonymy: Mickel (1936a:56).

Diagnosis of Female (Plate C4O). The female of this species is easily recognized by the long white setae clothing the entire body, while the underlying integument is reddish. Also of use in identifying this species is that the antennal scrobe is carinate dorsally, there is a weak genal carina (although it is hidden by dense setae), the mesosoma is longer than broad, a scutellar scale is present, and the pygidium is rugose.

Diagnosis of Male (Plate C4P). The male of this species is defined by the following unique combination of characters. The antennal scrobe is weakly carinate on the male of this species. Sternum II has a median pit filled with setae. The pygidium lacks an apical fringe of setae. The integument is entirely black. The setae of the head, mesosoma, and metasoma, from the posterior margin of tergum II, are red.

Host Identity. Microbembex nigrifrons (Provancher) ( Hymenoptera : Sphecidae ) ( Haddock 1967).

Distribution. USA (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah); Mexico (Baja California Norte and Sur, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Remarks. This is a very conspicuous and “glorious” species in both sexes. Because of its extreme sexual dimorphism, it was not until the discovery of a gynandromorph that the two sexes were correlated ( Mickel 1936a).

Mickel (1928) stated that the holotype of D. gloriosa supposedly was in the Paris Museum, but that he was unable to find it. He subsequently (1936a) designated a lectotype (so labeled) in the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Geneva. We have located and examined both of these specimens and found them to be identical. The holotype is in the Paris Museum .