Mickelomyrme kinguri Williams, 2019

Williams, Kevin A., Lelej, Arkady S., Okayasu, Juriya, Borkent, Christopher J., Malee, Rufeah, Thoawan, Kodeeyah & Thaochan, Narit, 2019, The female velvet ants (aka modkhong) of southern Thailand (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), with a key to the genera of southeast Asia, Zootaxa 4602 (1), pp. 1-69 : 21-22

9e. Mickelomyrme kinguri Williams , sp. nov.

( Figs 92–94 )

Diagnosis. FEMALE. This species can be separated from other Mickelomyrme by the unique coloration: the head is uniform orange-brown and the T2 disc has a large oval medial spot composed of golden setae over orange cuticle. The following traits are also useful for diagnosis: the pronotum has an anteromedial black patch dorsally; the mesonotum has anterolateral patches of dense white setae; the mesosoma has a transverse sulcus anterior and posterior to the wide arcuate scutellar scale; the T2 apex has black setae only; T4 has lateral patches of dense whitish setae; and the pygidium is elongate oval with many striae reaching the apical margin. Body length 4.0 mm. MALE. Unknown.

Description. FEMALE. Body length 4.0 mm. Coloration. Head orange-brown, except mandible apex and flagellum largely blackish. Mesosoma and legs orange-brown, except pronotum dorsomedially, lateral pronotal face, mesopleuron, posterior propodeal face, femoral and tibial apices, and tarsi brown to black. Metasoma black, except S1, T1, S2, T2 medial ovate patch, and T2 laterally reddened. Body setae generally sparse and silvery, except frons and mesosomal dorsum with scattered golden and erect blackish setae; T2 disc, T2 apex, and T3–5 medially setae dense black; anterolateral patch on mesonotum, T2 disc lateral ovate spot, and T3–5 laterally with dense whitish silver setae; and T2 basomedial spot orange-golden. Head. Width behind eye subequal to mesosoma width. Frons, vertex, and gena punctures large, mostly separated. Mandible apex apparently unidentate. Clypeus with transverse entire carina; basomedial portion with narrow u-shaped tooth-like carina. Antennal scrobe with weak dorsal carina basally, obliterated laterally. Antennal tubercle smooth. Genal carina obliterated. F1 1.7 × pedicel length, F2 1.4 × pedicel length. Mesosoma. Length 1.15 × width. Dorsum of mesosoma with coarse confluent punctures. Side of mesosoma with scattered micropunctures with short setae, ventral portion of meso- and metapleuron obscured by dense setae, propodeal side mostly smooth. Mesopleural lamella absent. Humeral carina obliterated dorsally. Ratio of width of humeral angle, anterior spiracle, narrowest point of mesonotum, propodeal spiracle, and widest point of propodeum 55:60:53:55:55. Scutellar scale transverse arcuate, ~7 punctures wide, with transverse wavy carina anterior and posterior to scale. Posterior propodeal face reticulate, with many interspaces obliterated leaving scattered apparent lateral carinae. Lateral and posterior propodeal faces not separated by carina. Metatibio-tarsal ratio 50:25:15:12:9:8. Metasoma. Terga 1–5 with small dense punctures, sparser on T1. S1 with simple longitudinal carina. T2 felt line 0.45 × T2 total length. T6 with long oval pygidium; with sub-parallel striae (~17 near midpoint), some reaching posterior margin. S6 posterior margin narrow emarginate.

Material examined. Holotype ♀, THAILAND, Kanchanaburi, Sai Yok, Prasat Mueang Sing Park , 14.040 o N 99.243 o E, 50 m, 19.V.2018, MKT (1♀ CSCA).

Distribution. Thailand (Kanchanaburi).

Etymology. This specific epithet comes from the Japanese “ kinguri ”, golden chestnut. Named in part for the golden-orange oval-shaped mark on T2. KAW also names this cute red-headed species for his lovely wife, Kristy Leigh Williams, whose Japanese nickname was Kinguri, because of her beautiful red hair.

Remarks. This is apparently the only eastern Oriental Smicromyrmini to have its T2 spot composed of orange cuticle. In the Palaearctic region, this occurs in Nuristanilla Lelej in Lelej & Kabakov, 1980 , and in the Afrotropical region, a few species currently placed in Smicromyrme have this trait. The overall morphology of M. kinguri , however, is consistent with Mickelomyrme and especially similar to M. puttasoki . Because the sole representative of M. kinguri was collected alongside two females of M. puttasoki , and that species shows variation in color, we initially thought they were conspecific. In addition to color differences, however, the pygidium of these species is significantly different ( Figs 91, 94 ).

Figures

FIGURES 86–94. Mutillinae: Smicromyrmini females IV. 86–91. Mickelomyrme puttasoki, sp. nov.; 92–94. M. kinguri, sp. nov. 86, 89, 90, 92. Habitus, dorsal view; 87, 91, 93. Habitus, lateral view; 88, 94. T6.