Timulla dubitata ( Smith, 1855 )

Waldren, George C., 2024, Taxonomic notes on velvet ants of the genus Timulla Ashmead, 1899 (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) in the United States of America and Canada, Insecta Mundi 2024 (55), pp. 1-10 : 7-9

Timulla dubitata ( Smith, 1855)

( Fig. 3 and 4 )

Mutilla dubitata Smith 1855: 60 . Type ♀ (NHMUK).

Mutilla dubiatta [sic]: Blake 1886: 201. Misspelling.

Timulla (Timulla) dubitata fugitiva Mickel 1937a: 39 , pl. I, fig. 6. Holotype ♂ (UMSP). New synonym.

Timulla (Timulla) murcia Mickel 1938: 653 , pl. 4, fig. 61. Holotype ♀ (CUIC). New synonym.

Remarks. Mickel (1937a) described Timulla dubitata fugitiva Mickel, 1937 as follows: “Male.—Exactly like the subsp. dubitata except the head and thorax entirely black; emargination of mandibles, form of clypeus, elongate, glabrous area and Y-shaped carina of last tergite, tubercles of fifth and sixth sternites, and carinae of seventh sternite and hypopygium, all the same as in subsp. dubitata . Length, 17 mm.” Regarding the females of T. dubitata fugitiva , in his remarks for T. dubitata dubitata, Mickel (1937a) noted: “I have attempted to find some morphological character in the females which would separate them into groups having the same geographical distribution as the two subspecies of male, but have been unsuccessful. The females appear to me to be uniform throughout the entire geographic range.” The two subspecies of T. dubitata are represented in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 .

Additionally, there was no geographic distinction between the subspecies in Mickel (1937a), as he reported specimens of both subspecies from Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia ( Mickel 1937a). After Mickel’s revision, both subspecies and intergrade specimens were collected in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina during the same collecting event in 1959 by D. G. Shappirio; one intergrade specimen of T. dubitata fugitiva has the pronotum laterally with red cuticle (pronotum elsewhere entirely black), another specimen with the vertex transversely with red cuticle (head elsewhere entirely black) and the mesoscutum with both black and red cuticle, and another specimen with the vertex transversely with red cuticle (head elsewhere entirely black) and the scutellum entirely with black cuticle. Further, both subspecies were also collected in Latimer County, Oklahoma in apparently the same flight-intercept trap in 2002. Based on the subspecies being structurally identical in both sexes, the existence of intergrade specimens, and having an overlap in distribution, Timulla dubitata fugitiva Mickel, 1937 is here considered a new synonym of Timulla dubitata ( Smith, 1855) .

Another taxon described by Mickel (1938), Timulla murcia Mickel, 1938 , was based on a single female specimen collected in Santa Rosa, Mexico by the dipterist C. H. T. Townsend. Only the city and country were provided on the collection label, and there are numerous cities in Mexico named Santa Rosa. Townsend arrived in south Texas in November of 1894 and spent a month of fieldwork in northern Mexico to gather information on the boll weevil; the holotype of T. murcia was collected on December 7, 1894 ( Townsend 1895; Evenhuis et al. 2015). Townsend did some of his fieldwork in the city of San Juan Allende in Coahuila ( Townsend 1895), and there is a city 100 km southwest of it named Santa Rosa [de Múzquiz] in which Townsend possibly collected the holotype (Neal Evenhuis pers. comm.). Mickel (1938) considered T. murcia to be related to Timulla dubitata and he differentiated the two species in T. murcia having “the abdominal tergites for the most part black and black pubescent, the anterior margin of the posterior marginal band on the second tergite sinuate instead of angulately dilated at the middle, and the head and dorsum of thorax less strongly punctate.” I consider these diagnostic characters of T. murcia to fall within the range of variation of T. dubitata which is widely distributed throughout the eastern United States, although no records of T. dubitata have been found from Mexico.

Specimens of T. dubitata from south Texas were unknown to Mickel (1937a), which may have factored into his decision to treat T. murcia as a distinct species. I have found several T. dubitata among collections from Atascosa, Bexar, Kenedy, and Willacy Counties in south Texas; the type locality of Santa Rosa [de Múzquiz], Coahuila is consequently within reason for T. dubitata although perhaps at the edge of its distribution. The Nearctic species Timulla leona was also collected by C.H.T. Townsend at the same date and locality of Santa Rosa as the holotype of T. murcia ; Timulla leona shares much of its distribution in the United States with T. dubitata ( Mickel 1937a) (Mickel identified this lone T. leona specimen, housed at OSEC, as Timulla tyro Mickel, 1937 in Mickel (1938)). Based on shared morphology and close geographic distribution, Timulla murcia Mickel, 1938 is here considered a new synonym of Timulla dubitata ( Smith, 1855) .

Material examined ( Timulla dubitata dubitata ) (5 ♂ and 8 ♀). Non-type (s): USA: North Carolina: Dare Co.: Kill Devil Hills , 01–10.Sep.1959, D.G. Shappirio (4♂ – UMMZ). Oklahoma: Latimer Co. : Aug. 2002, K. Stephan, “FIT” (1♂ – TAMU –TAMU-ENTO X1074853). Texas: Atascosa Co. : Poteet, 8 mi. N, 14.Oct.1994, A.W. Hook, J.L. Neff, & O. Hernandez (1♀ – UTIC) ; Poteet , 12 mi. N, 14.Oct.1994, A.W. Hook, J.L. Neff, & O. Hernandez (2♀ – UTIC) ; Somerset , 7 mi. S, 27.Jun.1995, J.E. Wappes (1♀ – TAMU –TAMU-ENTO X1087280). Bexar Co.: 30.Aug.1931, H.B. Parks (1♀ – TAMU –TAMU-ENTO X1042949) ; 04.Oct.1931, H.B. Parks (1♀ – TAMU –TAMU-ENTO X1041251). Kenedy Co.: Sarita , 19.Sep.1974, Gillaspy & Party (1♀ – UAIC) ; 30.Aug.1975, Gillaspy & Party (1♀ – UAIC) .

Material examined ( Timulla dubitata fugitiva ) (16 ♂ and 1 ♀). Non-type (s): USA: North Carolina: Dare Co.: Kill Devil Hills , 01–10.Sep.1959, D.G. Shappirio (2♂ – UMMZ). Oklahoma: Latimer Co. : Aug.1986, K. Stephan (3♂ – FSCA) ; Sep.1986, K. Stephan (1♂ – FSCA) ; Aug.1987, K. Stephan (2♂ – FSCA) ; Aug.1988, K. Stephan (2♂ – FSCA) ; Sep.1988 (1♂ 1♀ [in copula]– FSCA; 1♂ – FSCA) ; Aug.1989, K. Stephan (1♂ – FSCA) ; Jul. 2002, K. Stephan,

“ FIT” (1♂ – OMNH – OMNH-84696 ) ; Aug. 2002, K. Stephan, “FIT” (1♂ – TAMU –TAMU-ENTO X1086410). Texas: Willacy Co.: Raymondville, 17.Apr.1952, Michener, Beamers, Wille, & LaBerge, “taken on Monarda citriodora ” (1♂ – SEMC) .

Material examined ( Timulla dubitata dubitata / fugitiva intermediate) (3 ♂). Non-type(s): USA: North Carolina: Dare Co.: Kill Devil Hills, 01–10.Sep.1959, D.G. Shappirio (3♂ – UMMZ).

Material examined ( Timulla murcia ) ( 1 ♀). Holotype: MEXICO: [Coahuila]: Santa Rosa [de Múzquiz], 07.Dec.1894, C.H.T. Townsend (1♀ – CUIC – HOLOTYPE Cornell U. no. 1810).

In total, 558♂ and 851♀ of Timulla dubitata ( Smith, 1855) were examined ( AMNH, AUEM, BPBM, CASC, CMNH, CNC, CSCA, CSUC, CUIC, DEBU, DGMC, EMUS, ENMU, FMNH, FSCA, GCWC, INHS, KSUC, LSAM, MCZ, MEM, MSUC, NCSM, NMNH, OMNH, OSAC, OSEC, OSUC, PCYU, PMAE, ROME, SDMC, SEMC, SFAC, SHSU, TAMU, UAAM, UAIC, UCDC, UCFC, UCRC, UGCA, UMMZ, UMRM, UNSM, UTIC, VTEC, WIRC).

Figures

Figures 1–8. Lateral habitus of Timulla males. 1) Timulla barbata (Fox, 1899). 2) Timulla ornatipennis (Bradley, 1916). 3) Timulla dubitata dubitata (Smith, 1855). 4) Timulla dubitata fugitiva Mickel, 1937. 5) Timulla euterpe (Blake, 1879). 6) Timulla euterpe (Blake, 1879). 7) Timulla vagans rufinota Mickel, 1937. 8) Timulla vagans vagans (Fabricius, 1798). Scale line = 2.0 mm.