Sphex flammeus, Doerfel, Thorleif H. & Ohl, Michael, 2015

Doerfel, Thorleif H. & Ohl, Michael, 2015, A revision of the Australian digger wasps in the genus Sphex (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae), ZooKeys 521, pp. 1-104 : 56-57

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Sphecidae

Sphex flammeus sp. n.

Material examined.

Holotype. ♀, AUSTRALIA:NT: 50 km E of Three Ways, 11.04.1995, L. Packer (ZMB). Paratypes. AUSTRALIA:SA: Hermannsburg, 2♀, Leonhardi (ZMB).

Diagnosis.

Females of Sphex flammeus (the male is unknown) differ from other Australian Sphex by the following combination of features: appressed pubescence on clypeus silvery-white, scape, legs and metasoma largely orange, and wing membrane without a yellow tinge. Sphex decoratus , Sphex sericeus , Sphex darwiniensis and Sphex rhodosoma are also largely orange, but they are members of different species groups. Sphex staudingeri differs in having golden pubescence on clypeus and scutum instead of silvery-white one and moderately fuscous wings instead of hyaline ones, while also being considerably larger.

Description.

Female: Body length 19.6-20.2 mm. Body orange, but the following are black: mandible and claws distally, head excluding clypeus, antenna from the pedicel onward, scutum, sometimes scutellum and metanotum. Wing membrane hyaline, forewing with faint fuscous band at apex. Wing veins range from orange to dark brown. Forebasitarsal rake with 11 long spines. Free clypeal margin straight. Appressed pubescence and erect setae on clypeus and frons silvery-white. Clypeus with medial glabrous stripe. Distance between hind- ocelli 0.9 × their shortest distance to compound eyes. Pubescence on mesosoma partly golden, partly silvery, on scutum denser laterally and posteriorly. Scutellum convex, with distinct medial impression. Pubescence on propodeal enclosure short; mostly concealing sculpture. Length of petiole approximately 1.2 × length of flagellomere II. Tomentum moderately dense on metasomal tergum I, sparse on tergum II.

Male: Unknown.

Variation.

One of the three examined specimens has a median impression on the metanotum; this trait is also distinctive for species of the Sphex argentatus group. However, it is there accompanied by a conspicuous raising of the metanotum, which Sphex flammeus lacks. Therefore, this species is tentatively placed in the Sphex subtruncatus group.

Discussion.

The character combination of the available females makes it clear that this species has not yet been described. Based on species group membership, there are eight species of which females are yet unknown or where matching of males and females was first proposed in this study. Sphex flammeus can theoretically be the female of one of them. However, only one of them, Sphex semifossulatus , is also colored bright orange. Still, both differ in the color of scapes and propodeum, as well as in the orientation of the mesosomal pubescence, which is denser and more appressed in Sphex flammeus .

Etymology.

Flammeus is a Latin adjective, meaning “flame-colored”. It refers to the color of this species.