Paranysson, Guerin-Meneville, 1844

Pulawski, Wojciech J., 2022, A Revision of the Genus Paranysson Guérin-Méneville, 1844 (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 67 (16), pp. 361-393 : 362-364

Genus Paranysson

1976:294), and the Australian genus Sphodrotes in having the occipital carina effaced before reaching the hypostomal carina, the propodeal enclosure setose (setae at least fine, inconspicuous), sternum I with a posteromedian prominence, and the pygidial plate absent in both sexes. In Paranysson , the occipital carina joins the hypostomal carina just before the latter’s apex, the propodeal enclosure is asetose, sternum I has no apicomedian prominence, and the pygidial plate is present in both females and males. The closest to Paranysson is Plenoculus . In the latter genus, however, the propodeal dorsum is finely granulate or finely ridged and the occipital carina is incomplete below ( Bohart and Menke, 1976:294). In Paranysson the propodeal dorsum is areolate or reticulate, and the occipital carina meets the hypostomal carina (other differences given by these authors separate only some, but not all Paranysson ).

Male genitalia are nearly identical in most species ( Fig. 50 ), except that in P. oscari the apical part of penis valve has a spine-like lateral process ( Fig. 43 ).

According to Lomholdt (1985), Paranysson shares with Plenoculus the gonocoxite (as gonostyle) constricted subapically, and penis valves coalesced and expanded apically. This statement is poorly substantiated: in some Plenoculus , e.g., P. cockerellii W. Fox , and P. palmarum F. Williams , the gonocoxite is not constricted subapically (see Figs. 70-72 in Williams, 1960), and at least in P. propinquus W. Fox the penis valves are not expanded apically and not coalesced (Fig. 82 of Williams, 1960).

TAXONOMIC HISTORY. Guérin-Méneville (1844) described Paranysson from Senegal as a subgenus of Nysson , as reflected in its name, obviously because of the petiolate second submarginal cell shared by both. He included only one species, Nysson abdominalis , which thus became the type species of Paranysson by monotypy. F. Smith (1856) was aware of Guérin-Méneville’s description, but did not recognize his species and described a closely related melanopyrus in the new genus Helioryctes . A big confusion followed. Cresson (1882) and Schrottky (1910) described in Paranysson two North American and two Argentinian species, respectively, which are now known to be Zanysson and Metanysson ( Handlirsch, 1887 reported Cresson’s species in the subgenus Paranysson of Nysson ). Ashmead, (1899) believed that his new species foxii from Ethiopia was a female differing from Helioryctes by the absence of a hindcoxal spine or tubercle and thus deserving a new generic name, Pseudohelioryctes ; the unarmed hindcoxa, however, is due to the fact that the specimen is a male (and a junior synonym of Paranysson abdominalis ). In the same paper Cresson transferred from Nysson to Paranysson three North American species (for a total of five), now classified as Zanysson . Handlirsch (1887), Fox (1894), Kohl (1897), and Ashmead (1899) treated abdominalis as a Nysson (subfamily Nyssoninae , now Bembicinae) because they knew it only through the original description. Kohl (1897) and Ashmead (1899), however, recognized the synonymic names Helioryctes and Pseudohelioryctes , respectively, as members of Larrinae. Bingham (1897) transferred Paranysson abdominalis to Helioryctes , assuming the identity of the two genera, but incorrectly used as valid the younger name Helioryctes . R. Turner synonymized Helioryctes with Paranysson in 1912, and Pseudohelioryctes with Paranysson in 1914. Since then, only Paranysson has been used for the genus in the subsequent literature, and no nyssonine has been described in (or transferred to) it.

Kohl (1897:397) thought that Paranysson was just a Nysson with somewhat more developed hindtibial spines. He also thought (1897:388) that Helioryctes (that he knew only through the original description) closely resembled the Australian Sericophorus , whereas Dalla Torre (1897) placed these two genera (and also Sphodrotes ) in the new subfamily Sericophorinae . Turner (1914) accept- ed this concept, but renamed the subfamily Paranyssoninae (correctly: Paranyssontinae), wrongly thinking that “as Paranysson is an older name than Sericophorus , it should be used for the subfamily”. Modern researchers ( Leclercq, 1968; Bohart and Menke, 1976) observed the morphological similarity between Sericophorinae and Miscophini and combined them into one tribe. Bohart and Menke (1976) provided a detailed description of the genus.

R. Turner (1914) was also the first author to review the six species of Paranysson described by that time by Guérin-Méneville, 1844, F. Smith, 1856, Bingham, 1897, Ashmead, 1899, Cameron, 1910, and by himself in 1912, describing in 1914 another new species, and generating a key for the identification of females (the poorly described P. foxii was excluded). Arnold (1923), in his monograph of southern African Sphecidae , dealt with Paranysson , but his key is no more than a slight modification of Turner’s; in particular, he did not add any new characters. Leclercq (1968), on the other hand, greatly expanded his key, providing a number of previously unused characters, and also including the males and describing two new species (one of which is a junior synonym). He had, however, not seen three species ( P. abdominalis , P. foxii , P. helioryctoides ), and relied on existing descriptions for their characteristics. Some of his characters (e.g., sculpture of the propodeal dorsum, lateral propodeal carina with or without tooth) are variable and do not guarantee a correct identification.

Overall, the papers by the three authors suffered from the following: 1. P. foxii was known to them only through the insufficient original description, 2. the male of P. helioryctoides remained unknown, and 3. populations of P. abdominalis with an all-black thorax were not recognized. The authors also missed some excellent diagnostic features such as the structure of the clypeus, the impunctate mandibular base in P. oscari , and the shape of flagellomere I in the male of P. abdominalis .

NESTING BEHAVIOR. Arnold (1923:13) first noticed that Paranysson nest in sandy soil and that “ P. quadridentatus has a most powerful odor of bugs”. Subsequently Bequaert (1933) observed the nesting habits of P. melanopyrus at Kasenga, Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Each nest he studied consisted of a nearly straight, vertical gallery, 6-8 mm wide, sunk in the bare sand to a depth of about 75 cm. The lower end of the gallery branched into a few more or less horizontal cells, placed at about the same level in various directions. Each cell was 10-12 mm long and 4-5 mm in diameter. At the nest entrance there was a mound of loose sand, about 12 cm long, 9 cm wide, and 3 cm high. A curved tunnel ran through the longitudinal axis of the mound; it was slightly wider than the gallery to which it led, and opened at the narrow end of the mound. The sand was more closely packed together and apparently cemented, either by moisture or by saliva, about the tunnel.

The prey found in the cell consisted of various instar larvae of the pentatomid Natalicola pallidus (Westwood) , usually six or seven per cell.

While collecting Paranysson in various African countries, I also noticed this strong odor. Obviously, the source is the pentatomid prey.

Figures

FIGURES 45-50. Paranysson quadridentatus (Cameron). (45) Female clypeus and mandible; (46) Male clypeus and mandible; (47) Female hindcoxa with spine; (48) Pygidial plate of female; (49) Male hindcoxa (arrow shows semicircular carina); (50) Male genitalia in dorsal view.

FIGURES 37-43. Paranysson oscari R. Turner. (37) Female clypeus and mandible; (38) Male clypeus and mandible; (39) Female clypeus and mandibular base in lateral oblique view; (40) Female hindcoxa with spine; (41) Male palpi; (42) Gastral apex of male in dorsal view (arrow shows lateral carina of tergum VI); (43) Male genitalia in dorsal view (arrow shows lateral process of penis valve).