Acrophotopsis campylognatha Schuster

Pitts, James P., Wilson, Joseph S., Williams, Kevin A. & Boehme, Nicole F., 2010, Nocturnal velvet ant males (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) of Deep Canyon, California including four new species and a fifth new species from Owens Lake Valley, California, Zootaxa 2553, pp. 1-34 : 4

Acrophotopsis campylognatha Schuster

Acrophotopsis campylognathus Schuster, 1958 . Ent. Amer. 37: 69. Male. Holotype data, MEXICO, Baja California, Arroyo Rosarito, 29.III. 1935, C.M. Brown ( CASC).

Diagnosis of male. The male of A. campylognatha has greatly dilated mandibles that are deeply excised ventrally ( Fig. 2), lacks mesosternal processes, has a flattened hypopygidium that is carinate anterolaterally and has genitalia that are distinctive in having the paramere and cuspis dorsoventrally flattened and the cuspis straight ( Figs 47, 48).

Female. Described in Pitts and Wilson (2009).

Material examined. California, Riverside Co.: Deep Canyon, 1 male, 16.May. 1973, coll. J. Pinto, 1 male, 19–21.Jul. 1969.

Distribution. southern regions of the Mojave Desert of California and south into the Sonoran Desert of Baja California.

Remarks. Pitts and McHugh (2002) reviewed this genus. Recent morphological studies ( Pitts & McHugh 2002; Pitts 2003; Wilson & Pitts 2008; Pitts & Wilson 2009) all concurred in suggesting that Acrophotopsis is closely related to Dilophotopsis based on morphology; this conclusion has been confirmed by Pitts et al. (2010). Along with many characters shared by the males ( Pitts 2003; Pitts & McHugh 2002), the females of Acrophotopsis and Dilophotopsis are morphologically very similar, sharing several notable characters of the mandibles and pygidium. In addition, the females of these genera share many characteristics with females of the Sphaeropthalma orestes species-group (Pitts & Wilson 2009), a relationship also confirmed by Pitts et al. (2010).