A review of the Mutillidae (Hymenoptera) of Yemen

Abstract

Forty species in 19 genera are recorded from Yemen. Three new genera are described: Paglianotilla gen. nov. (type species P. hogenesi sp. nov.), Rasnitsynitilla gen. nov. (type species R. brachyptera sp. nov.), and Vanhartenidia gen. nov. (type species V. felix sp. nov.). Ten new species are described: Arnoldtilla achterbergi sp. nov. (Yemen), Dentilla ehrenbergi sp. nov. (Yemen, Saudi Arabia), P. hogenesi sp. nov. (Yemen), R. brachyptera sp. nov. (Yemen), R. invreai sp. nov. (Yemen), R. schmideggeri sp. nov. (Yemen), V. arabica sp. nov. (Yemen), V. felix sp. nov. (Yemen), V. tihama sp. nov. (Yemen), and Spinulomutilla yemenita sp. nov. (Yemen). Hitherto unknown females are recognized for Arnoldtilla Nonveiller, Omotilla Invrea, and Tropidotilla milmili (Magretti). New synonymy is proposed for Omotilla Invrea 1943 = Conjunctotilla Nonveiller 1996, syn. nov.; Pseudophotopsis aurea (Klug 1829) = Mutilla kassalina Magretti 1898, syn. nov., P. continua arabica Hammer 1962, syn. nov. New status is proposed for Arnoldtilla Nonveiller, Myrmilla rubida Magretti, M. parvula Magretti, Glossotilla djiboutiensis Bischoff, V. kassalana (Bischoff), V. pyrrhospilota (Bischoff). New combination is proposed for: A. bischoffi (Arnold), A. silvestris (Arnold), O. conjuncta (Klug), O. conjunctoides (Magretti), O. grazianii (Invrea), Dentilla arabica (Hammer), V. dives (Smith), V. kassalana (Bischoff), V. pyrrhospilota (Bischoff), V. tricolor (Klug), and V. unguiculata (Magretti). Eleven genera are recorded for the first time from Yemen: Arnoldtilla Nonveiller, Omotilla Invrea, Macromyrme Lelej, Ronisia Costa, Strangulotilla Nonveiller, Tropidotilla Bischoff, Dentilla Lelej, Glossotilla Bischoff, Dentotilla Nonveiller, Spinulomutilla Nonveiller, and Dasylabris Radoszkowski. Seventeen species are recorded for the first time from Yemen: Pseudophotopsis maura Bischoff, P. mascatiana Invrea, Myrmilla parvula Magretti, M. rubida Magretti, T. bellii (Magretti), T. carinulifera Bischoff, T. frontalis (Klug), T. milmili (Magretti), Strangulotilla samharica (Magretti), Ronisia idonea (André), Dentilla testacea (Klug), Glossotilla djiboutiensis Bischoff, Dentotilla auricoma (Bischoff), Dasylabris biblica Invrea, Tricholabiodes niloticus Suárez, T. pedunculatoides Bischoff, and T. sudanensis Suárez. Dentilla testacea (Klug) and Tricholabiodes chloroticus (Gribodo) are recorded for the first time from Saudi Arabia. Tricholabiodes sudanensis Suárez is recorded for the first time from Oman. Glossotilla djiboutiensis Bischoff is recorded for the first time from Eritrea. Keys to eight species of Vanhartenidia and three species of Rasnitsynitilla are given.

A preliminary detective survey of hymenopteran insects at Jazan Lake Dam Region, Southwest of Saudi Arabia

“…Remark: A first attempt to split the African members of the genus Trogaspidia Ashmead, 1899 was made by Bischoff, (1920) . Trogaspidia (Trogaspidia) floralis (Klug, 1829) distributed in Saudi Arabia ( Madl, 2018 ), Yemen (as Mutilla divisa or T. divisa klugiana ( Lelej and Van Harten, 2006 ) and as f. moslemita and f. klugiana; ( Madl, 2018 )…”

The velvet ant genus Pseudophotopsis André, 1896 (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae) in the Arabian Peninsula, with the description of two new species

“…The keys and descriptions provided by Bischoff (1920), Lelej (1985) and Lelej and van Harten (2006) were used for comparison of species collected from Saudi Arabia and Oman to the relevant species in the Palaearctic and the Afrotropical regions. Identifications of some species were confirmed with the help of Denis J.…”

“…The genus Pseudophotopsis includes 31 valid species worldwide (Pagliano et al 2020); they are mainly nocturnal and widely spread in arid areas of the Palaearctic, a few penetrate to the Afrotropical and Oriental regions (Brothers 1975;Lelej and van Harten 2006;Lelej 2007). The first focused step to study this group of wasps was by Bischoff (1920), in his monograph of the African mutillids, where he keyed many species and described seven valid ones, placing the males in the true genus, Pseudophotopsis, and assigning the females to the genus Ephutomma.…”

“…reported four Pseudophotopsis species in the Arabian Peninsula: P. aurea (Klug, 1829) (Saudi Arabia and Yemen), P. binghami Bischoff, 1920 (Oman), P. mascatiana Invrea, 1962 (Yemen), and P. maura Bischoff, 1920 (Yemen). P. aurea is known from both sexes, whereas the remaining species are known from males only (Lelej and van Harten 2006). El-Hawagry et al (2016) incorrectly assigned the species P. continua (Fabricius, 1804) to the fauna of Saudi Arabia, via a misidentification of a single female specimen collected from Baljurashi (Al-Baha); however, after reexamination during the present study, it was found that this specimen undoubtedly belongs to P. aegyptiaca (Bischoff, 1920) which is associated and synonymized with P. maura Bischoff, 1920. In the present study, two new species: P. dhofarensis sp.…”

Institute of Biology and Soil Science, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok 690022, Russia; UAE Insect Project, P.O. Box 63799, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

“…The mutillid fauna of neighboring Iran contains 78 species that belong to 22 genera Lelej, Osten, 2004;. Forty species belonging to 19 genera occur in Yemen [Lelej, van Harten, 2006], and only four and seven species are known from Oman and Saudi Arabia respectively. In 20052009 van Harten collected several thousand specimens of Mutillidae at different sites in the United Arab Emirates using different kinds of traps [van Harten, 2008].…”