Mischocyttarus chanchamayoensis Richards, 1978

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 : 212-213

Mischocyttarus chanchamayoensis Richards, 1978

Mischocyttarus chanchamayoanus Weyrauch, 1943: 68 (nomen nudum).

Mischocyttarus chanchamayoensis Richards, 1978: 414 . Holotype: ♀ Peru, Junín, Vale Chanchamayo , 1939 (W. Weyrauch) (IFML), examined.

Mischocyttarus chanchamayoensis: Cooper, 1998: 91 .

The redescription below is based on examination of the holotype and of non-type material, as well as on information in previous works ( Richards, 1978; Cooper, 1998; Silveira, 2008).

Diagnosis. Ground color black with yellow marks, including distinctive vertical elongate mark on posterior ventral region of mesopleuron; metasomal terga black, unbanded; antennal flagellum reddish brown; clypeus entirely black, with silvery or whitish bristles; clypeus higher than wide, occipital carina low, just visible in dorsal view from side to side; posterior ocelli close, separated by a distance less than or equal to one ocellar diameter; inner hind tarsal claw with tip rounded and expanded; mid and hind tarsi yellow.

FEMALE DESCRIPTION. Length of fore wing: ca. 14 mm; head in frontal view higher than wide (FHH/ INTOW: ca. 1.10); clypeus higher than wide (HCLP/WCLP: around 1.10), apex rounded, distinctly projecting ventrally, upper free portion of lateral margin relatively long and straight; tentorial pit closer to the inner margin of the eye than to the antennal socket; malar space narrow; occipital carina low, just visible in dorsal view from side to side; posterior ocelli close, separated by a distance less than or equal to one ocellar diameter; (POL/OOL: 0.30); pronotum with fovea; anterior margin of pronotum medially with lamella wide and reflexed, without secondary margin immediately behind; pronotal carina continuous from side to side, not lobed on the humeral region, angularly elevated at center; mesoscutum a little longer than wide (LMS/WMS: ca. 1.06), lateral margin adjacent to tegula with well-developed lamella; propodeum with median elongated sulcus, developed on 2/5 of the propodeal dorsum, relatively deep and with a median keel; hind leg inner tarsal claw with tip rounded and expanded; first segment of the metasoma well elongated (LSI/HMP: 1.08 or more), about 2.8 times wider at the apex than at the base, and 0.48X the length of the segment; forewing very elongated (LDIS/HMP: ca. 2.60).

Sculpture. Integument with granulate aspect; clypeus with fine-grained micro punctation, apical region finely reticulated, with sparse punctures; frons finely granulate; mandible with some large punctures; mesopleuron with densely granulate and with sparse small punctures; mesoscutum and propodeum with fine and densely granulate; metapleuron with dense irregularly sized granulation.

Vestiture. Body with brown hairs; clypeus with dense whitish bristles, apical region with elongated and sparse reddish bristles; mandible with elongated and sparse reddish bristles; meso and metasoma with at least two kinds of bristles, one shorter and more decumbent, and other elongated and outstanding, with curved tip, especially evident on mesoscutum and propodeum; those on metasoma and legs with more stiff appearance.

Color. Ground color black; antennal flagellum reddish brown beneath, darker above; clypeus black; mandible black with apical area reddish brown; tegula light brown or darker; fore tarsus, diffuse elongate marks on inner areas of femora and tibiae, light brown; band adjacent to the inner margin of the eye (from the upper free margin of the clypeus to the vertex), narrow band adjacent to the outer margin of the eye; narrow transversal mark along posterior side of pronotal carina (sometimes), small vertical elongate mark on posterior ventral region of mesopleuron; band on the anterior half (or more) of the scutellum, mesoaxilla, anterior half of metanotum and metaxilla, one spot on mid, and one or two spots on hind coxae, apex of the femora, tibiae largely, mid and hind tarsi, paired spots on propodeum, yellow; metasoma black, except for (in holotype) lateral elongate horizontal yellow spot on base of first tergum. Wings hyaline, venation brown.

MALE. Clypeus with numerous silvery bristles; first flagelomere longer than the scape; antennal segment 13 thin, laterally compressed and curved; malar space obsolete; gena very narrow; pronotal carina very high at the center; (unlike the female) head and mesosoma yellow with black marks; ocellar mark as a continuous large spot developed down to the interantennal space (see also Cooper, 1998).

NEST. Pedicel eccentric, 3–4 mm long, comb cell caps covered with carton fragments ( Cooper, 1998).

Examined material. Peru: Junín, Pasco, Pozuzo , 800m, 1 ♀, 7.vii.1990 ; Colombia: Caqueta, Yurayacu, 73k. sw Florencia , 1 ♁, 24.i.1979, (M. Cooper) ( NHM). (photographs)

Distribution. Colombia: Caqueta (Yurayacu), Putumayo (Villa Gárzon); Ecuador: Morona-Santiago, Napo (Panococha); Peru: Junín, Pasco (Pozuzo) ( Fig. 27 ).

Remarks. The holotype was previously examined by O. T. S., and recently with photographs. This species has the clypeal apex quite projecting ventrally, more than any other in the M. heliconius group. The dark ground color is shared with three other species, two of them separable by the shape of the clypeus ( M. ipixuna sp. nov. and M. ticuna sp. nov.), and the third one by distinctive color characteristics ( M. luciliae sp. nov.). Cooper (1998) described the male based on specimens from Colombia (Caqueta and Putumayo), and added several records of females from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. We examined photographs of a female from Peru (Pozuzu; NHM) and it corresponds quite well with the holotype, and we are correspondingly treating the other records by Cooper as valid.

Figures

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