Smicromyrmillini Argaman, 1988

Lelej, Arkady S., Terine, Joshua B. & Kumar, Girish P., 2021, New species of Ticoplinae (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) from India, Zootaxa 5052 (4), pp. 567-578 : 568

Tribe Smicromyrmillini Argaman, 1988

Diagnosis. MALE (alate or apterous). Eye with few short setae visible under high magnification or asetose. Mesoscutellum apex produced and overhanging metanotum. Propodeum dorsally with three very weakly defined anterior fields and many reticulations forming mini fields over posterior half. S2 with well developed lateral felt line; T2 with short lateral felt line. FEMALE. Eye with few short setae visible under high magnification or asetose. S2 with lateral felt line. T2 lacking felt line. Propodeum with disc and declivity smoothly merging, without any lateral transverse carinae and with two or more posterolateral teeth or spines. T6 with distinct glabrous pygidial area.

Remarks. The tribe is Afrotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic in distribution with three valid genera: Eosmicromyrmilla Lelej & Krombein, 2001 , ♂, ♀; Hindustanilla Lelej in Lelej & Krombein, 2001, ♂, ♀ in the Oriental Region, and Smicromyrmilla Suárez, 1965 , ♂, ♀ in the Palaearctic (two species) and Afrotropical (15 species) Regions. A monotypic genus Cameronilla Lelej in Lelej & Krombein, 2001 was previously described in the tribe Smicromyrmillini . Recently ( Brothers et al. 2019), it was discovered that the holotype of Mutilla oedipus Cameron, 1897 , type species of Cameronilla , belongs to the genus Spilomutilla Ashmead, 1903 from the subfamily Myrmillinae . It is distinct from other species of Spilomutilla in that the male has a strong dorsal median sharp spine on the propodeum. This character, and the three posterior setal spots on T2 resemble the apterous male of Hindustanilla indica Lelej in Lelej & Krombein, 2001 ( Ticoplinae ), leading to Cameronilla mistakenly being described in that subfamily. Cameronilla Lelej in Lelej & Krombein, 2001 became a junior subjective synonym of Spilomutilla Ashmead, 1903 and M. oedipus Cameron is a valid species in Spilomutilla.

According to Pagliano et al. (2020) the genus Smicromyrmilla numbers 28 species, 10 of them are nomina nuda, eight were initially described in Nanomutilla André, 1900 ( Bischoff 1920, Arnold 1960), two in Ctenotilla Bischoff, 1920 (Bischoff 1921) , two in Odontotilla Bischoff, 1920 ( Arnold 1956) and two in Mutilla Linnaeus, 1758 ( André 1896, Péringuey 1898).