Sphaeropthalma sublobata Schuster

Pitts, James P., Wilson, Joseph S., Williams, Kevin A. & Boehme, Nicole F., 2010, Nocturnal velvet ant males (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) of Deep Canyon, California including four new species and a fifth new species from Owens Lake Valley, California, Zootaxa 2553, pp. 1-34 : 27-28

Sphaeropthalma sublobata Schuster

Sphaeropthalma (Micromutilla) sublobata Schuster, 1958 . Ent. Amer. (n. s.) 37: 16. Male. Holotype data: Mt. Home, Idaho, 7.Jul.1951, J. Nottingham (SEMC).

Diagnosis of male. This small species can be recognized by the weakly excised mandibles that are oblique apically ( Fig. 28 ), a marginal cell that is approximately 0.75X the length of the stigma, the mesosternum lacks processes, the first metasomal segment is sessile with the second, plumose setal fringes are present on the metasoma, the hind coxa has large lobes, the pygidium glabrous, and the cuspis of the genitalia is thickened, densely setose, and long being approximately 0.75X the free length of the paramere (Fig. 62).

Female. Unknown.

Material examined. California, Riverside Co., Deep Canyon: 3 males, 13 Apr.1969, 1 male, 15. May.1969, 3 males, 18. May.1969, 2 males, 21–29. May.1973, 2 males, 27.May–1. Jun.1970, 1 male, 4– 12. Jun.1973, 1 male, 6–13. Jun.1969, 10 males, 13–18. Jun.1969, 1 male, 1–2. Jul.1969, 1 male, 2–3. Jul.1969, 1 male, 10–12. Jul.1969, 1 male, 19–21. Jul.1969, 1 male, 30.Sep–3.Oct.1973.

Distribution. Snake River Valley and Great Basin, Mojave and western Sonoran deserts.

Remarks. Schuster designated a holotype from Mt. Home, Idaho. He also designated a holotype from Ehrenberg, Arizona located in UMSP. This second holotype is not conspecific with the first holotype and does not match the characters Schuster (1958) listed for this species in his key.

This species has been rarely collected and, although no specimens currently exist from these regions, it is presumed to be found in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts, given that it has been found in Idaho and southern California.

This species is placed into the S. noctivaga species-group that also contains S. brachyptera , S. chandleri , S. noctivaga , and S. yumaella .

Figures

FIGURES 25 – 31. Head, anterior view. 25. Sphaeropthalma. megagnathos; 26. S. mendica; 27. S. pallida; 28. S. sublobata; 29. S. tetracuspis; 30. S. triangularis; and 31. S. yumaella.