Dasymutilla sackenii (Cresson)

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 : 85

Dasymutilla sackenii (Cresson)

Mutilla Sackenii Cresson, 1865b . Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. 4:385. Holotype female (No. 1864), allotype male, California [ANSP] (examined). Life history: Bohart and MacSwain (1939:89).

Mutilla erudita Cresson, 1875 . Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 5:120. Holotype female, California (No. 1865) [ANSP] (examined).

Diagnosis of Female. This species can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters, including coloration. The female has the antennal scrobe strongly carinate dorsally. The gena is not carinate. However, in some specimens, the gena may appear to have a slight carina. The posterolateral angle of the head is not tuberculate. The mesosoma is longer than broad, and possesses a scutellar scale. The integument is entirely black. The dorsum is predominantly concolorous, with whitish to yellow to orange setae, long and shaggy. The sterna are clothed with black setae. This species has entirely black setae on the legs.

Diagnosis of Male. The male of this species can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters, including coloration. It has the antennal scrobe strongly carinate dorsally. The head is distinctly narrower than the mesosoma. There is a median pit on sternum II that is densely filled with setae, but an apical fringe of setae on the pygidium is lacking. The integument is entirely black. Setae on the dorsum are predominantly concolorous, whitish to yellow to orange. Specimens from Baja California tend to have the setae on the apical terga black.

Host Identity. Bembix occidentalis beutenmulleri Fox ( Hymenoptera : Sphecidae ) ( Krombein 1979).

Distribution. USA (California, Nevada, Oregon); Mexico (Baja California Sur).

Remarks. This species is known from both sexes. Certain females appear to have the gena carinate. If the gena appears carinate and an error were made at couplet #43, this species would key to D. magna . It is easily distinguished from D. magna in that the latter has a strongly carinate gena and white to yellow setae on the legs. The male keys out easily. However, males from Baja California do tend to have the setae of the apical terga black. This is a very common species. About a hundred specimens of each sex have been examined.