Dasymutilla gibbosa (Say)

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

Dasymutilla gibbosa (Say)

Mutilla (Ephuta) gibbosa Say, 1836 . Boston Jour. Nat. Hist. 1:298. Neotype male, Middleton, N. Y., July 2-20, 1910 (Ch. Spooner) (No. 2419) [CUIC] (examined).

Mutilla cariniceps Fox, 1899 . Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 25:241. Holotype female, New Jersey (No. 4632) [ANSP] (examined).

Dasymutilla scrobinata Rohwer, 1912 . Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 41:462. Holotype female, Lyme , Connecticut, July 31, 1910 (A. B. Champlain) (No. 14117) [USNM] (examined).

Dasymutilla carniceps [sic.] Fattig, 1943. Emory Univ. Mus. Bull. 1:9, 16. Female.

Diagnosis of Female (Plate C4M). The female of this species can be identified most notably by having the posterolateral angle of the head tuberculate, as well as the antennal scrobe being very weakly carinate, which could be easily overlooked. Also, the gena lacks a carina, the mesosoma is longer than broad, a scutellar scale is present, and the female has sparse appressed setae.

Diagnosis of Male (Plate C4N). The male is easily recognized by the integument that is entirely black, the body that is clothed entirely with inconspicuous, grayish setae, and sternum II, which lacks a pit filled with setae.

Distribution. USA (Massachusetts south to Georgia and Florida, west to Minnesota, Missouri, and Mississippi); Mexico (?).

Remarks. We have included this species because Nonveiller (1990) listed its range as including Mexico. However, we have not examined specimens with collection data from west of Mississippi and Missouri, and doubt its presence in Mexico.

The female keys with relative ease except at couplet #30, as the antennal scrobes are only feebly carinate. The male is very non-descript, but keys out easily. This species is not commonly found in collections, with only about a dozen specimens of each sex being known. All known specimens have been examined.