Dasymutilla satanas Mickel, 1928

Boehme, Nicole F., Tanner, David A., Williams, Kevin A. & Pitts, James P., 2012, Faunal study of velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) and their activity patterns and habitat preference at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nye County, Nevada, USA, Zootaxa 3587, pp. 1-45 : 12

Dasymutilla satanas Mickel, 1928

Dasymutilla satanas Mickel, 1928: 239 ,

♀. Holotype: Arizona, Bill Williams Fork (SEMC).

Dasymutilla mimula Mickel, 1928: 255 ,

3. Holotype: California (NMNH).

Diagnosis. MALE. The females of D. satanas are clothed dorsally with pale yellow to orange setae, the ventral mesosomal setae are black and the setae of S2–5 are concolorous with the dorsal setae, the antennal scrobe is carinate dorsally, the gena is ecarinate and weakly punctate, the mesosoma is longer than broad, the scutellar scale is well defined, and the pygidium is irregularly rugose. FEMALE. The females of D. satanas are clothed dorsally with pale yellow to orange setae, the ventral mesosomal setae are black and the setae of S2–5 are concolorous with the dorsal setae, the antennal scrobe is carinate dorsally, the gena is ecarinate and weakly punctate, the mesosoma is longer than broad, the scutellar scale is well defined, and the pygidium is irregularly rugose.

Material examined. Type material. Holotype of D. satanas : Arizona, Bill Williams Fork , August, F.H. Snow ( SEMC) . Other material. Nevada, Nye Co., AMNWR: Non-dune site 4: 1 ♀, hand collected, 7.VII.2009, NFB ; Non-dune site 5: 2 ♀, PT, 2–3.IX.2008, NFB, 1 ♀, PT, 17–18.X.2008, NFB & SDB.

Distribution. USA (Arizona, California and Nevada), Mexico (Baja California).

Activity. No males were collected. Females were found in mid to late summer (September–October 2008, and early July 2009).

Remarks. Dasymutilla satanas were too rarely encountered to determine their habitat preference. Four Dasymutilla satanas females were collected from July through October in pitfall traps and one specimen via hand collection. Forty-six D. satanas specimens were found at the NTS from June through September via hand collecting, ultraviolet light trapping, and pitfall trapping ( Ferguson 1967, Allred 1973). Only two of the 46 specimens were male.