Lomachaeta argenta Pitts & Manley

Pitts, James P. & Manley, Donald G., 2004, A Revision of Lomachaeta Mickel, with a new species of Smicromutilla Mickel (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), Zootaxa 474, pp. 1-27 : 5-6

1. Lomachaeta argenta Pitts & Manley , New Species

Diagnosis. This species is distinguished from all others congeneric species by the yellow mesosoma, which is lighter in coloration than the head and metasoma, and is covered with dense decumbent stout orange white setae that obscures the dorsum.

Holotype Female. Head. Width 0.78 mm, orange. Antenna orange. Front brown. Head clothed with very sparse, erect, black setae, except additional short pale white setae on clypeus and gena. Occipital region clothed with sparse silver decumbent setae. Antenna, maxillary and labial palps covered with very short pale silvery setae. Mandible edentate, not emarginate nor toothed beneath. Front and vertex broadly reticulate. Posterior margin of gena defined by carina, gena broadly reticulate to carina. Compound eye maximum diameter 0.36 mm. Malar space 0.26 mm in length. Length of scape, pedicel and first three flagellomeres: 0.39, 0.13, 0.13, 0.11 and 0.08 mm, respectively. Width of first flagellomeres 0.07 mm.

Mesosoma. Dorsum yellow, noticeable lighter in coloration than head and metasoma, pleural region orange, propodeum brown laterally. Clothed with very dense, erect and decumbent orangish white setae that obscure disk. Dorsum of mesosoma narrowly reticulate, posterior face of propodeum more shallowly so than elsewhere. Humeral angles slightly angulate. Posterior 0.75 of mesopleuron reticulate. Metapleuron and propodeal side glabrous. Legs orange, sparsely clothed with pale white setae. Tarsus with black brown spines. Tibial spurs pale.

Metasoma. T1 and segments 3–5 orange, T2 orange with subapical transverse band brown, S2 brown basally. T1 clothed with pale white setae and with small, sparse punctures. T2 disk with stout pale white setae, erect laterally, decumbent medially. T2 with marginal fringe of dense pale white setae. T3 clothed with sparse pale white setae. T3–T5 indistinctly punctate. T4–5 with apical fringe of brown setae. Pygidium black brown, glabrous, pygidial area undefined. S1 with median longitudinal carina. S3–S5 indistinctly, finely punctate at posterior margins. S2–S4 clothed with pale white setae. S5 with black brown setae.

Length. Approximately 3.5 mm.

Male. Unknown.

Type material. Holotype Ψ, USA, Utah, Washington Co., 3 m W Hurricane, reared by F.D. Parker ( BBSL). Paratype Ψ, same data as holotype.

Variation. Size range between specimens is 3.5–4.3 mm. There are no other discernable differences.

Hosts. Solierella blaisdelli (Bridwell) and S. plenoculoides similis (Bridwell) .

Etymology. From the Latin argenteus “silvery” in reference to the stout whitish orange setae that cover the mesosomal dorsum, which appear silvery at certain angles.