Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870

Matias, Rafael, 2024, Undescribed diversity in Iberian Mutillidae (Hymenoptera): a new species of Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870 from Portugal, Zootaxa 5446 (3), pp. 301-330 : 303-304

Genus Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870

Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870: 208 , ♂, ♀; Bischoff 1921: 556; Invrea 1964: 153; Lelej 1985: 211; Pagliano & Strumia 2007: 83; Lelej & Brothers 2008: 56; Brothers & Lelej 2017: 96, ♂, ♀; Williams et al. 2019: 26, ♀; Pagliano et al. 2020: 187; Okayasu 2020: 8, ♂, ♀.

Type species. Mutilla rufipes Fabricius, 1787 , ♀, by monotypy.

Diagnosis. FEMALE. Pygidium basally broad (basally widened or parallel sided), laterally carinate, covered with pattern of well marked linear grooves (striae); apex may be smooth. Scutellar scale typically transverse, broader than long (may be small and inconspicuous on some species and subgenera). All species predominantly black, generally with red mesosoma (on some forms black). One or three roundish spots of pale silvery to golden pubescence basally on T2, and bands of similar pubescence apically on T2 and complete over T3.

MALE. Felt-line present both on T2 and S2. Mesosoma with no significant white pubescence over pronotum (if present, pubescence sparse, not forming dense band). Metasoma dorsally with all black integument. Segment of subcosta between basal vein and pterostigma 0.7–1.1 × pterostigma length. Wings sub-hyaline to moderately infuscate. Not covered in this paper (see further details in Lelej & Williams 2023).

Distribution and diversity. The genus Smicromyrme includes hitherto 273 species, 90 of which on the Afrotropical Region, 113 on the Palaearctic Region and 71 on the Oriental Region; at least 90 species are found around the Mediterranean, of which ca. 45 in Europe; in the Iberian Peninsula 13 species were known previous to this paper, six of them only from the male sex and one only from the female sex; three additional subspecies have been described from Iberia ( Pagliano & Strumia 2019; Pagliano et al. 2020; Schmid-Egger & Schmidt 2021; Lelej & Williams 2023, Terine & Kumar 2023; Matias 2023b); another species, S. pardoi Suárez, 1953 , is mentioned from Spain in Pagliano et al. (2020), but it has been recorded only from the African Spanish enclave of Melilla ( Suárez 1953) and does not occur in the Iberian Peninsula. Five subgenera are presently recognized for Palaearctic species: Astomyrme Schwartz, 1984 , Eremotilla Lelej, 1985, Erimyrme Lelej, 1985, Rhombotilla Nagy, 1966 , and Smicromyrme s.s. ( Lelej & Williams 2023).