Synagris (Paragris) rufopicta Tullgren, 1904

Selis, Marco, 2023, Taxonomic revision of the subgenus Synagris (Paragris) de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae), Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 57 (41 - 44), pp. 1949-1962 : 1956-1960

Synagris (Paragris) rufopicta Tullgren, 1904

( Figures 4–6 and 7b )

Synagris rufopicta Tullgren 1904: 448 , pl. XXIV, figs. 10a, 10b, f# – [ Cameroon] ′Kitta̍ (NHRS) Synagris imitator du Buysson 1909: 213 , f# – ′ Congo, rivière San Benito̍ (MNHN)

Synagris rufopicta var. mimetica Bequaert 1918: 226 , f# – ′Medje̍ (AMNH) syn. n.

Synagris parvula von Schulthess 1928: 310 (key), 317, fig. 4, m#, f# (in subgenus Paragris ) – ′Zentralafrika, Belg. Kongo, Urwald Beni̍ (NHMW) syn. n.

Diagnosis. Readily distinguished from other species of the subgenus by the following combination of characters: inferior carina of propodeum strongly developed and lamellar ( Figure 4d ), presence of two longitudinal carinae on the basal half of S2 ( Figures 4e , 5c ); male clypeus short pyriform ( Figure 4b ), similar to the female; female clypeus flattened ( Figure 4c ).

Material examined

LECTOTYPE OF SYNAGRIS PARVULA : m#, labelled ′Urw.Moera/Grauer,1910 // S. parvula Sch /det. Schulthess 928 // Type // Synagris parvula / von Schulthess 1928 / LECTOTYPE /Des. Marco Selis 2022 [red label]̍ ( NHMW). PARALECTOTYPE OF SYNAGRIS PARVULA : f#, labelled ′Urwald-Beni /Okt̍.10.Grauer // S. parvula Sch. /det. Schulthess 928 // Type̍ ( NHMW). CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Lobaye prov., near Grima, 50 km NE Bambio, Ngoto Forest, 450 m, 13-14 June 2009, leg. A. Kudrna Jr., 1 f# ( MSVI); DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Stanleyville, 0.5̊N, 25.1667°1E, April 1915, 1 m # ( AMNH).

Distribution

Cameroon, Central African Republic *, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda ( Tullgren 1904; du Buysson 1909; Maidl 1914b; Bequaert 1918; von Schulthess 1928) ( Figure 8 ).

Notes

Examination of the type series of Synagris parvula von Schulthess, 1928 , comprising two specimens from north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, showed that this taxon is just a colour variation of S . rufopicta, as it completely matches specimens of the latter in both external morphology and male genitalia. This taxon is here synonymised and the male specimen is designated as the lectotype ( Figure 5 ). It should be noted that von Schulthess (1928, p. 317) reports ′Urwald Beni̍ as locality for both specimens, but in reality this is the locality of the female ( Figure 6 ), while the label of the male reports ′Urwald Moera̍.

Synagris rufopicta mimetica Bequaert, 1918 is synonymised for the same reason, as its female holotype shows no morphological differences from the typical form and is differentiated only by the presence of a basal yellow band on T2.

Synagris rufopicta forms a mimetic ring with S. cornuta Linnaeus and its subspecies, with black and red specimens occurring in western parts of their distributional area, and entirely black and/or yellow-marked specimens occurring in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Eastern Africa. It is interesting to note how, in both species, the western populations are very constant in their red and black pattern, while the eastern populations show more variation, with both entirely black and yellow-marked forms. Interestingly, these latter populations seem to cohabitate in the north-eastern forests of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Other species that can be included in this mimetic ring are S. fulva Mocsáry , which shows a black and red pattern in the western part of its distribution ( S. fulva trispinosa Tullgren ); S. similis Maidl , which is known from north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and is entirely black (nominotypical subspecies) or with large yellow spots on T2 ( S. similis maculata Maidl ); and S. huberti , which shows both black and red (former subspecies clypeata ) and yellow-marked (former subspecies bimaculata) specimens.

Genitalia are illustrated in Figure 7b .

Figures

Figure 4. Synagris rufopicta Tullgren. a, habitus in dorsal view. b, male head in frontal view. c, female head in frontal view. d, metanotum and propodeum in posterodorsal view. e, S2 in ventral view.

Figure 5. Synagris rufopicta Tullgren, male lectotype of S. parvula von Schulthess. a, habitus in dorsal view. b, habitus in lateral view. c, S2 in ventral view. d, labels.

Figure 6. Synagris rufopicta Tullgren, female paralectotype of S. parvula von Schulthess. a, habitus in dorsal view. b, habitus in lateral view. c, head in frontal view. d, labels. Credits: Harald Schillhammer and Manuela Vizek, NHMW, 2023.

Figure 7. Male genitalia: aedeagus in ventral and lateral view, digitus+volsella. a, Synagris huberti de Saussure. b, Synagris rufopicta Tullgren.

Figure 8. Distributional map of Synagris (Paragris) species. Produced using the online tool SimpleMappr (Shorthouse 2010).