Eumenes cyrenaicus Bluethgen , 1938

van Achterberg, Cornelis, Smit, John T. & Ljubomirov, Toshko, 2023, Review of the European Eumenes Latreille (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) using morphology and DNA barcodes, with an illustrated key to species, ZooKeys 1143, pp. 93-163 : 93

Eumenes cyrenaicus Bluethgen, 1938

Figs 55-64 , 65-74

Eumenes dubius cyrenaicus Blüthgen, 1938: 464, 468.

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius cyrenaicus ; van der Vecht and Fischer 1972: 127 (literature before 1972).

Eumenes (Eumenes) cyrenaicus cyrenaicus ; Dal Pos et al. 2022: 15.

Eumenes dubius cyrenaicus var. congruens Blüthgen, 1938: 464; van der Vecht and Fischer 1972: 127 (as synonym of E. cyrenaicus ).

Eumenes dubius dubius var. pseudogermanica Blüthgen, 1938: 464.

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius pseudogermanicus ; van der Vecht and Fischer 1972: 127.

Eumenes cyrenaicus pseudogermanicus ; Giordani Soika and Borsato 1995: 7; Gusenleitner 1999: 571, 2013: 27; Borsato and Turrisi 2004: 144; Borsato 2006: 142.

Eumenes (Eumenes) cyrenaicus pseudogermanicus ; Dal Pos et al. 2022: 15.

Notes.

Eumenes cyrenaicus is similarly coloured as E. dubius f. palaestinensis Blüthgen, 1938 from Asia Minor, but E. cyrenaicus has the yellow stripe of the eye incision narrow or absent (wide in E. dubius f. palaestinensis ) and the clypeus sparser setose (densely silvery setose in E. dubius f. palaestinensis ). Males can be separated by the shape of the antennal hook (in ventral view normal in E. cyrenaicus and widened in E. dubius f. palaestinensis ) and sculpture of fifth sternite (distinctly punctate in E. cyrenaicus and punctulate in E. dubius f. palaestinensis ). Typical E. dubius f. palaestinensis has the apical lamella of the second tergite yellow and in E. cyrenaicus light brown or yellowish (Fig. 65 ); Sardinia, Spain and Portugal, N Africa) to blackish brown (Italy, N Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, but sometimes also pale brown (Fig. 55 ); Gusenleitner (1972) already mentioned the variability of this character for E. dubius in Asia. The separation of E. cyrenaicus from E. sareptanus is mostly based on colour differences and, therefore, may be problematic. In general, females of E. cyrenaicus have a more robust first tergite, including the petiolate part and males have the antennal hook more curved than in E. sareptanus .

Distribution.

North Africa, South Europe (*Spain, *Portugal, Italy (Sardinia, Sicily), *N Macedonia, *Bulgaria, *Greece) and *Turkey.

Figures

Figures 55 - 64. Eumenes cyrenaicus Bluethgen, Italy (Sardinia), female 55 metasoma lateral 56 first metasomal tergite dorsal 57 first tergite ventral 58 mesosoma dorsal 59 mesoscutum and scutellum lateral 60 head anterior 61 head and propleuron lateral 62 hind tarsal claw 63 antenna 64 second metasomal tergite dorso-lateral.

Figures 65 - 74. Eumenes cyrenaicus Bluethgen, Morocco, male 65 metasoma lateral 66 first metasomal tergite dorsal 67 first tergite ventral 68 head and mesosoma dorsal 69 head posteriorly and propleuron lateral 70 mesoscutum and scutellum lateral 71 head anterior 72 head and mesosoma lateral 73 antenna 74 apical hook of antenna lateral.