Dasymutilla snoworum (Cockerell)

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 : 91

Dasymutilla snoworum (Cockerell)

Sphaerophthalma [ sic.] snoworum Cockerell, 1897 . In Cockerell and Fox, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. 49:135. Holotype male, Albuquerque, New Mexico, August , 1894 (Snow) [ANSP] (examined).

Mutilla poecilonota Melander, 1903 . Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 29:301. Holotype female, Trans-Pecos region of western Texas [WSUC] (examined).

Diagnosis of Female (Plate C8G). This species has the apices of the iddle and hind femora squarely truncate, with the outer lobe being sulcate. It can be separated from all other species having this character by the following: the posterolateral angle of the head is rounded, although some specimens appear to have a slight carina; a scutellar scale is lacking; the pygidium is granulate; the head and mesosoma are clothed with golden setae; and the apical fringe of tergum II is entirely black.

Diagnosis of Male (Plate C8H). Like the female, the male has the apices of the middle and hind femora squarely truncate, and with the surface of the outer lobe sulcate. The integument of the metasoma is ferruginous. The tibial spurs are dark, and the head is clothed with black setae.

Distribution. USA (Nebraska south to Texas, and west to Montana and Arizona); Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila).

Remarks. This species is known from both sexes. Although the distribution in the United States is said to be rather widespread ( Krombein 1979), we have seen specimens only from Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Some females appear to have a slight carina. If an error were made at couplet #99, this species would go to #104 with D. ferruginea and D. formosa , both of which have a strong, sharp posterolateral carina. The female of D. snoworum is very commonly collected, and more than a hundred specimens have been examined. The male is not nearly as commonly collected, and only about a dozen specimens have been examined.