Mischocyttarus ticuna, Pinheiro & Silveira, 2023

Pinheiro, Mileudiane O. & Silveira, Orlando T., 2023, Taxonomic notes on the group of Mischocyttarus heliconius Richards 1941, with description of four new species (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Polistinae), Zootaxa 5352 (2), pp. 203-220 : 215-216

Mischocyttarus ticuna sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Ground color black with few yellow or yellowish marks; clypeus black, with whitish bristles; propodeum and whole metasoma black; fore tarsu brwon, mid and hind tarsi light brown; clypeus relatively wide, subquadrate; posterior ocelli close, separated by distance less than or equal to one ocellar diameter; occipital carina hardly developed; inner hind tarsal claw with tip widely rounded, but not expanded;

FEMALE DESCRIPTION. Length of fore wing: about 12.0 mm. head in frontal view higher than wide (FHH/ INTOW: ca. 1.10); clypeus subquadrate, nearly as high as wide (HCLP/WCLP: 1.04), apex narrowly rounded; tentorial pit closer to the eye than to the antennal socket; malar space narrow; marginal lamella of hypostomal cavity very elevated; occipital carina hardly developed; posterior ocelli close, separated by distance less than or equal to one ocellar diameter; (POL/OOL: ca. 0.33); anterior margin of pronotum medially with lamella wide and reflexed, without secondary margin immediately behind; pronotum with lateral fovea; pronotal carina continuous from side to side, not lobed on humeral region; mesoscutum slightly longer than wide, lateral margin adjacent to tegula with well-developed lamella; hind leg inner tarsal claw with tip widely rounded but not expanded; first metasomal segment relatively short (LSI/HMP: ca. 1.00), approximately 2.6 times wider at the apex than at the base; forewing not noticeably elongate.

Sculpture. Integument finely granulate; clypeus with apical region reticulate and shining, with few large punctures; mandible reticulate and shining, with few large punctures.

Vestiture. Clypeus with conspicous whitish bristles, and with more erect longer brown bristles; similar brown bristles occuring on mandibles and other areas of head; mesosoma with outstanding longer pales bristles with curved tips, and also with shorter more appressed pubescence; especially longer bristles on propodeum.

Color. Ground color black; antennal flagellum reddish brown, darker above, scape yellowish beneath; clypeus yellow; mandible very dark brown to black; tegula, faint lateral marks and posterior margin of pronotum, narrowly, weak mark on extremity of pronotal carina, faint spot on dorsal mesepisternal plate, mark around base of femora, extensive areas on femora and tibiae, tarsi, brown to light brown; band adjacent to the inner margin of the eye (from the upper free margin of the clypeus to the vertex), narrow faint band adjacent to the outer margin of the eye, faint narrow anterior band on metanotum, small mark on mid and elongate lateral stripe on hind coxae, weak marks on apex of femora and tibia, yellow; propodeum black, without pale spots; metasoma entirely black. Wings hyaline, venation brown.

MALE. Unknown.

NEST. Unknown.

Distribution. Colombia: Amazonas ( Fig. 27 ).

Type material. Holotype, ♀, Colombia, Leticia , 16.viii.1974 (M. Cooper) ( NHM). examined.

Photographs of the holotype can be examined through the following internet link (site of the NHM; accessed in september 27, 2022): https://data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/56e711e6-c847-4f99-915a-6894bb5c5dea/resource/05ff2255- c38a-40c9-b657-4ccb55ab2feb/record/9133992

Etymology. The specific epithet is a reference to the Ticuna, an indigenous people inhabiting the region of the “Alto Solimıes” (Upper Amazon River) in Brazil, Colombia and Perú.

Remarks. The holotype was identified by Richards (unpublished) as M. piger , based on the predominantly dark color pattern, with very few yellow marks. Richards also mentioned two other females from Ecuador, Napo, Tena 500m 11–28.iv.1976 (M. Cooper) (NHM) as “close to piger …” but that “… can hardly be the same”, also noting that with one of them there is … a small nest of three cells. These females and the holotype were examined by OTS in a visit to the NHM, and no special notes have been made on significant differences between the Colombian and Ecuatorian specimens. However, because recently we only examined photographs of the holotype, we prefer to leave the Ecuadorian specimens out of the new species.

Figures

FIGURE 27. Partial map of South America with known distributions of the species of the Mischocyttarus heliconius species group.