Cerceris ferox F. Smith

Pulawski, Wojciech J., 2011, Two new synonyms in Oriental Crabronidae (Hymenoptera), Journal of Hymenoptera Research 20, pp. 1-7 : 2-3

Cerceris ferox F. Smith

Cerceris ferox F. Smith 1856:454, ♀. Holotype: ♀, Indonesia: Sumatra: no specific locality (BMNH), examined. - Schletterer 1887: 491 (listed); Cameron 1890: 248 (listed); nec Bingham 1897: 309 and 1905: 46 (= Cerceris binghami R. Turner 1912); Dalla Torre, 1897: 459 (in catalog of world Hymenoptera ); R. Turner 1912:816 (comparison with Cerceris ferocior and shelfordi); R. Bohart and Menke 1976:580 (listed); Hua 2006: 278 (in list of Chinese insects, geographic distribution).

Cerceris annandali Bingham 1903:v, ♂. Holotype or syntypes: ♂, Malaysia: "Biserat, Jalor", now Thailand (BMNH). Synonymized with Cerceris ferox by R. Turner 1912: 816. - Bingham 1905: 47 (Malaysia: Biserat, now Thailand), pl. A Fig. 5 (illustration of habitus and pygidial plate).

Cerceris bantamensis van der Vecht 1964: 367, ♂. Holotype: ♂, Indonesia: Java: Bantam: Malingping (RMNH), examined. - R. Bohart and Menke 1976: 577 (listed). New synonym.

In his description of Cerceris bantamensis , based on a single male, van der Vecht (1964) commented that "This is perhaps the unknown male of Cerceris ferox Smith, described from Sumatra and also known from Malaya, but this must remain uncertain so long as the sexes have not been collected together". I was able to study a series of both males and females collected in West and East Malaysia by Kenneth M. Guichard and C. Giles Roche, several of them in the same locality. The detailed description of bantamensis by van der Vecht leaves no doubt about the identity of the males, and a study of the holotypes of both bantamensis and ferox confirmed that they are indeed conspecific. The main characteristics of ferox are the following: the terga have no apicomedian pits, the hindcoxa is not carinate ventrally, sternum II has no basal plate, and the propodeal enclosure is longitudinally ridged throughout (Fig. 3d). As in some other Southeast Asian species, tergum I has well defined, relatively large punctures (Fig. 4c, d), whereas terga II–V are densely microscopically punctate and have some fine punctures many diameters apart; also, tergum I is elongate (Fig. 4c, d): length about 1.2 × maximum width in the female, 1.6-1.7 × in the male, and the female mesopleuron has a conspicuous, vertical prominence just below the scrobe (Fig. 3e, f). The species can be further recognized by a coarsely punctate scutum (Fig. 3c), punctures being elongate in female, only posteriorly so in male, and puncture bottoms microscopically punctate, and the sides of the propodeal dorsum with coarse, round to oval punctures (Fig. 3d), with puncture bottoms finely punctate. In the female, the head is unusually wide in the ventral half (Fig. 3a), the clypeus has a sharp tooth on each side of the free margin (distance between teeth markedly greater than distance between a tooth and eye margin, Fig. 3b), and the depressed part of the free margin is uniformly, slightly concave between the teeth; the clypeus also has a median transverse prominence next to the foremargin that overhangs the margin (free margin of prominence is evenly arcuate); the inner mandibular margin has one subbasal tooth and is only slightly broad ened preapically (Fig. 3b). In the male, the free margin of the median clypeal lobe is nearly truncate and rounded laterally (Fig. 4a); flagellomeres VI–X or VII–X each has a round, unsculptured concavity on the ventral surface (Fig. 4b), flagellomeres VI–IX are sharply prominent apicoventrally, and flagellomere XI is markedly curved (Fig. 4b), with the ventral surface concave, impunctate, asetose; sternum VII has no particular distinguishing structures.

Records

(Fig. 5).INDONESIA: Sumatra: no specific locality (1 ♀, BMNH, holotype of Cerceris ferox ). Java:Bantam: Malingping (1 ♂, RMNH, holotype of Cerceris bantamensis ). EAST MALAYSIA: Sabah: Kota Kinabalu (1 ♀, CAS, as Jesselton), Poring Springs in Kota Kinabalu (1 ♀, 1 ♂, CAS), Sandakan (1 ♂, CAS), Kampung Ulu Dusun (2 ♀, 1 ♂, CAS). WEST MALAYSIA: Johore: Kota Tinggi (1 ♂, CAS), Sungai Seluyut (1 ♀, 3 ♂, CAS). Perak: Tapah Hills (1 ♀, CAS). Perlis: Kangar (1 ♂, CAS). THAILAND: Yala (= Jalor): Biserat (Bingham, 1903, 1905).