Sphecodes duplex Bluethgen , 1927

Astafurova, Yulia V., Proshchalykin, Maxim Yu. & Schwarz, Maximilian, 2020, New and little-known species of the genus Sphecodes Latreille (Hymenoptera, Halictidae) from Southeast Asia, ZooKeys 937, pp. 31-88 : 31

Sphecodes duplex Bluethgen, 1927 Figures 2 , 4 , 6 , 7

Sphecodes biroi Meyer, 1925 (nom. praeocc., nec S. biroi Friese, 1909): 11, ♀ (syntypes: 2 ♀♀, "Singapure [Singapore], Biró 1898 leg."; HNHM).

Sphecodes duplex Blüthgen, 1927: 78, replacement name for S. biroi Meyer, 1925 (nec S. biroi Friese, 1909).

Diagnosis.

Structurally and sculpturally this species is extremely similar to the female of Sphecodes bakeri Cockerell, 1915, but it differs in the ocello-ocular area (Fig. 4 )having shiny interspaces and T2 basally possessing fine and sparse punctures (versus ocello-ocular area with entirely confluent punctures without interspaces (Fig. 5 ) and T2 impunctate in S. bakeri ).

Descriptive notes.

Wings with yellow-brownish darkening; hind wing with angle between basal (M) and cubital (Cu) veins almost 90°, costal margin with eight hamuli. Lateral preoccipital carina present. Female. Total body length 5-6 mm. Head strongly transverse (Fig. 2 ), ca. 1.35 times as wide as long; vertex weakly elevated with distance from top of head to upper margin of lateral ocellus approximately a lateral ocellar diameter as seen in frontal view; labrum trapezoidal, 0.6 times as long as basal width; face and ocello-ocular area with dense punctures separated by at most a half puncture diameter; paraocular and supraclypeal areas with adpressed white pubescence obscuring integument, gena with sparser pubescence. Mesoscutum and mesoscutellum (Fig. 6 ) areolate-punctate (30-50 μm); propodeal triangle (metapostnotum) with longitudinal wrinkles and deep large shining interspaces between them; lateral parts of propodeum with parallel wrinkles and large shining interspaces; mesepisternum reticulate-rugose. Metasomal terga red, almost impunctate (Fig. 7 ); T2 basally with sparse and minute (ca. 5 μm) punctures; pygidial plate 1.2 times as wide as metabasitarsus. Male unknown.

Material examined.

Indonesia: 1 ♀, Java, Buitzorg [ S. duplex Blüthgen det.] (ZMHB); Malaysia: 1 ♀, Malaya, Kuala Sleh, jungle, 15.III.1936, H.T. Pagden (NHMUK 013380358).

Published records.

Meyer 1925: 11 (Singapore); Blüthgen 1927: 78 (Indonesia); Ascher and Pickering 2019 (Singapore).

Distribution.

Indonesia, *Malaysia, Singapore.

Remarks.

This species is probably the unknown female of S. samarensis.

Figures

Figures 2 - 7. Sphecodes duplex Bluethgen (2, 4, 6, 7), S. bakeri Cockerell (3, 5), females 2, 3 head, frontal view 4, 5 vertex, dorso-lateral view 6 mesosoma, dorsal view 7 T 1 - T 3, dorsal view. Scale bars: 1.0 mm (2, 3, 6, 7), 0.5 mm (4, 5).