Promecidia saturnia (Mickel, 1935) Mickel, 1935

Lelej, Arkady S., Zhou, Hu-ting, Loktionov, Valery M. & Xu, Zai-fu, 2016, Review of the genus Promecidia Lelej, 1996, with description of two new species from China (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae, Trogaspidiini), ZooKeys 641, pp. 103-120 : 117

Promecidia saturnia (Mickel, 1935) stat. n.

Mutilla urania Smith, 1857: 83, ♂, nec ♀, "Borneo (Sarawak)".

Timulla (Trogaspidia) saturnia saturnia Mickel, 1935: 256, ♂, holotype, ♂: "Malay Peninsula, Mt. Ophir (labelled as ♂ of Mutilla urania Smith)" (Malaysia: Malacca) (Museum of Natural History, Oxford University).

Promecidia saturnia saturnia: Lelej 2005: 81, ♂.

Material examined.

SINGAPORE: 1 ♂ & 1 ♀ (USNM), "Singapore, Coll. Baker" // “K”. MALAYSIA: 1 ♂ (IBSS), "Pasoh Forest Res.[erve] / Negri S.[embilan] Malaysia / x.3.[19]79 sec.[ondary] for.[est] / P. & M. Becker"; 1 ♀ (IBSS), Selangor, Ulu Gombak, VII.1998, F. Ito; 1 ♀ (IBSS), Sabah, Danum Valley, 9.XI.1996, K. Eguchi.

Diagnosis.

Male. Body length 10.6-11.7 mm. Mandible beneath basally slightly widened, without small subbasal denticle beneath. Penial valves shortened, slightly longer than digitus, apically capitate. Metasoma black. Metasomal terga 3-4 with pale band. Mesosoma almost entirely ferruginous with black sterna. Female. Body length 5.6-7.6 mm. Metasoma black. Metasomal tergum 2 without apical pale fringe. Humeral angle of mesosoma angulate but not prominent. Mesosoma dorsally with long yellowish setae.

Distribution.

Malaysia (Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Sabah), Singapore.

Comments.

Possibly the specimens from Singapore are taken in copula because they are with the same labels and marked by additional label “K”. The specimens have been collected by C.F. Baker presumably during 1917-1918 when he was Director of Singapore Botanic Gardens ( Ascher et al. 2016). The female of Promecidia saturnia is related with that of Promecidia mamblia (Cameron, 1902). The original description of the both sexes of Mutilla urania by Smith (1857) cited Sarawak, Borneo as the type locality. Mickel (1935) examined the syntypes in the Saunders Collection (Museum of Natural History, Oxford University) and found that both syntypes were labelled "Mt. Ophir", which is located in the Malay Peninsula. The material covered in Smith (1857 - 1858) paper came from Borneo, Mt. Ophir and Singapore. Possibly, the citation of the type locality as “Borneo” was an error and the correct type locality is Mt. Ophir, Malacca ( Mickel 1935). According to Mickel (1935) both sexes of Mutilla urania belong to different genera. The female was designated by Mickel as lectotype (holotype sensu Mickel 1935) of urania which currently belongs to the genus Odontomutilla Ashmead, 1899. For the male of Mutilla urania (sensu Smith 1857) Mickel (1935) proposed a new name Timulla (Trogaspidia) saturnia , but really it was actually a new species based on the paralectotype of Mutilla urania , which became the holotype of Timulla (Trogaspidia) saturnia which was later transferred to Promecidia Lelej, 1996 by Lelej (2005).