Orientilla Lelej, 1979

Okayasu, Juriya, 2023, Discovery of the velvet ant genus Orientilla Lelej from Laos (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae, Dasylabrinae), with description of a related new species from India, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 96, pp. 817-834 : 817

Orientilla Lelej, 1979

Orientilla Lelej, 1979: 1066, ♀; Lelej 1996a: 103, ♂♀; Lelej 2002: 101; Lelej 2005: 111; Lelej and Brothers 2008: 42; Pagliano et al. 2020: 131. Type species: Orientilla vietnamica Lelej, 1979 (♀), by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Male. Frons lacking medial longitudinal carina between antennal tubercles; eye oval, slightly projecting from head capsule; wings fully developed; tegula posteriorly reaching mesoscuto-scutellar articulation; mesoscutellum laterally longitudinally carinate; tibial spurs pale; metasomal segment 1 petiolate; T1 with distinct dorsal and anterior faces; lateral felt line present on S2 but absent on T2; S6 flat, lacking medial tubercles; genital paramere with short inner setae. Female. Frons lacking medial process; F1 depressed; F1 length subequal to its width and F2 length; mesopleuron strongly expanded laterally; protarsus with short outer spines; metasomal segment 1 petiolate; T1 with distinct dorsal and anterior faces; lateral felt line present on S2 but absent on T2; pygidial plate convex, lacking lateral carina.

Species included.

This genus includes the following 15 species: O. aureorubra (Sichel & Radoszkowski, 1870), ♂♀ (India, Sri Lanka); O. chinensis (Zavattari, 1922), ♂♀ (China); O. croma (Zavattari, 1914), ♂ (Myanmar); O. desponsa (Smith, 1855), ♂♀ (China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam); O. jabalpurensis Das & Girish Kumar, 2016, ♀ (India); O. kallata (Nurse, 1902), ♂ (India, Sri Lanka); O. krombeini Lelej, 1996, ♂♀ (Vietnam); O. manni (Krombein, 1971), ♀ (Solomon Islands); O. nitens sp. nov., ♀ (India); O. nobilis (Smith, 1855), ♂ (India); O. remota (Cameron, 1897), ♀ (Sri Lanka); O. schmideggeri Lelej, 2005, ♀ (India); O. sejugoides (Magretti, 1892), ♂ (Myanmar); O. tamaderai sp. nov., ♀ (Laos); O. vietnamica Lelej, 1979, ♀ (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam).

Remarks.

This genus was initially established to include East Asian species of the predominantly Afrotropical and western Palaearctic genus Stenomutilla André, 1896 ( Lelej 1979). Later, this genus was recorded from South Asia and the Australasian Region ( Lelej 2005; Das and Girish Kumar 2016a b; Terine et al. 2020; Brothers 2022). The females of Orientilla and Stenomutilla are recognized in Dasylabrinae by having the metasomal segment 1 petiolate and lateral felt line present only on S2. However, the Orientilla females have the F1 depressed, its length subequal to F1 width and F2 length (F1 cylindrical, its length 2.2-2.3 × F1 width and 1.2 × F2 length in Stenomutilla ) ( Lelej 1979, 1996a).