Dasymutilla flammifera Mickel, 1928

Williams, Kevin A., 2023, Taxonomic updates for diurnal velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) in the United States of America, Zootaxa 5301 (1), pp. 105-123 : 108-109

Dasymutilla flammifera Mickel, 1928

( Figs 7–10 )

Dasymutilla flammifera Mickel, 1928: 240 , ♀.

Dasymutilla dorippa Mickel, 1928: 297 , ♁. New synonym.

Material examined. USA: California: Lassen Co.: Mapes Rd. , 3 mi E Rd. A3, 27.VIII.2002; L.R. Bronson (1 female, UCDC) ; Red Rock Rd. at State Line , 8.VII.2008, R.E. Coville (1 male, EMEC) ; Placer Co., [no further locality data], VII.1934, E.R. Leach (1 female, CSCA) ; Plumas Co.: 4 km N Chilcoot, on Frenchman’s Lake , malaise trap, 20–31.VII.2010, M.E. Irwin & F.D. Parker (1 male, CSCA) ; Idaho: Boise Co.: Spring Shore State Park , 20.VIII.1960, N.E. King (7 females, 2 males, EMEC) ; Lucky Pete Dam area, Boise , 26.VII.1959, N.E. King (3 males, EMEC) ; Nevada: Washoe Co.: Palomino Valley , 4.IX.1993, M. Khan (1 female, EMEC) . Fifteen additional males identified as D. dorippa were examined ( CASC, UMSP). An additional 158 specimens of D. flammifera were examined ( CASC, CNCI, CSCA, EMEC, EMUS, FSCA, UCDC, UCRC, UMSP) .

Distribution. USA (Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon).

Remarks. Dasymutilla dorippa was described based on a single male from Ormsby County (presently recognized as Carson City), Nevada. Mickel’s (1928) description and subsequent keys (e.g. Manley et al. 2020) diagnosed D. dorippa based on the large ocelli (though the size was never quantified) and their entirely black sternal fringes (which are only mostly black with a few orange setae at the extreme lateral margin of each sternal fringe). The males in the material examined section from Idaho and Lassen and Plumas Counties in California ( Fig. 10 ) are good matches for the description of D. dorippa , but their ocelli are not extraordinarily large, although they vary slightly in size and have the median ocellus somewhat prominent and larger than the lateral ocelli. These males and the type of D. dorippa all live in western portions of the greater Great Basin ecoregion and can reasonably be treated as conspecific.

Most specimens of D. flammifera are covered with bright scarlet red setae ( Figs 7, 9 ) and were collected in mountainous Pacific areas of California ( Manley et al. 2020). The males of D. flammifera , recently associated by Manley et al. (2020), were based on these scarlet Pacific populations. These males were treated as having the lateral sternal setae reddish, although there are fewer such red setae than the related D. phaon (new synonym of D. pseudopappus , see below). Additionally, the ocelli were described as small, although they vary slightly and have the median ocellus larger and more prominent than the lateral ocelli and they are somewhat larger than those seen in most other Dasymutilla species. Therefore, the only substantive differences between males of D. flammifera and those of D. dorippa discussed above are the dorsal setal color and distribution. Furthermore, the male genitalia of the D. dorippa type, illustrated by Mickel (1928), are identical to those of D. flammifera , illustrated by Manley et al. (2020). Finally, females from Idaho, Nevada and northeastern California were recently examined with pale orange dorsal setae ( Fig. 8 ); these are structurally identical to scarlet D. flammifera females from Pacific areas. For these reasons, D. dorippa is recognized as a junior synonym of D. flammifera .

Figures

FIGURES 7–10. Dasymutilla flammifera Mickel, 1928. 7. Lateral habitus, female, Monterey County, California. 8. Lateral habitus, female, Placer County, California. 9. Lateral habitus, male, San Diego County, California. 10. Lateral habitus, male, Boise County, Idaho, formerly D. dorippa Mickel, 1928.