Ammoplanus

Boucïek, Zdenek, 2001, Palaearctic species of Ammoplanus (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 849-929 : 855-856

Subgenus Ammoplanus

The marginal cell of fore wing distally sharp-angula r (®gures 3, 9), in its anterior half distinctly delimited and longer than in the lower part, with the enclosing vein always pigmented. The vein RS-a is rarely indicated by hairs and / or by a slight fold of the wing membrane, but in this case it is very close to the anterior margin of wing. In the female the subtriangular pygidial area bearing distinct piliferous punctures is well delimited on either side by a carina; the lower ends of eyes are usually strongly curved towards the toruli and the tentorial pits are then nearer to the orbits than to the toruli. The males of many species have various speci®c modi®cations at least on some of sternites 4±7, mostly on 5 and / or 6; the ¯agellum ®liform or very slightly clavate, often with distinct suberect pilosity. The ¯agellar pilosity in the female is short, subdecumbent. The clypeus often has a median tooth, in some species a longitudinal fovea is present along the upper inner eye orbit. The oral fossa is more or less U-shaped, with anterior parts of the hypostoma l carina diverging at a slightly less than 90ss angle; the hypostome itself has the sides steep, not or barely visible from the underside. The pterostigma is either unicolorous, or often pale, rarely predominantly dark, or bicolorous, when its proximal quarter to more than half is whitish and the distal part dark.

Most Palaearctic species belong to Ammoplanus s. str., but in the Afrotropical region only one, A. mandibularis Cameron.