Dasymutilla ocydrome Mickel

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 : 78

Dasymutilla ocydrome Mickel

Dasymutilla ocydrome Mickel, 1928 . U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 143:292. Holotype male, Phoenix , Arizona, July 25, 1917 (W. D. Pierce) (No. 40754) [USNM] (examined).

Diagnosis of Male (Plate C7G). This species can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters, including coloration. It lacks a pit filled with setae on sternum II but has, instead, an area of fine, close punctures, each bearing a fine seta. The pygidium lacks an apical fringe of setae. It has red to yellow concolorous setae on the head, mesosoma, and metasoma. Usually, the integument of the dorsum of the metasoma is ferruginous, while the remainder of the integument is black. In a few specimens where the integument is entirely black, they key out to the D. californica / coccineohirta couplet. This species is easily distinguished from the others on the basis of the fine punctures on sternum II.

Distribution. USA (Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Utah); Mexico (Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Remarks. This species is known only from the male. The synonymy of D. atrifulva with D. nogalensis raises the question of whether D. connectens and D. ocydrome might also represent the two sexes of the same species. The two females share the unusual characters of the squared/sulcate femora along with the presence of a scutellar scale and dense shaggy setae. The males share the unusual character of sternum II having fine, close punctures, each bearing a fine seta. Although D. connectens and D. ocydrome do not share the same color pattern (which is not uncommon among Dasymutilla species ), they do share a similar distribution. This is a relatively uncommon species. Only about 20 specimens have been examined.