Darditilla Casal, 1965

Luz, David R. & Williams, Kevin A., 2014, The first sexual associations in the genus Darditilla Casal, 1965 (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae), ZooKeys 454, pp. 41-68 : 43-44

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Mutillidae

Darditilla Casal, 1965

Darditilla Casal, 1965. Eos, Madrid 41: 9-18.

Type species.

Darditilla botija Casal, 1965, by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Male. Males of Darditilla can be separated from other South American mutillid genera by the apical row of parallel bristles on T2-4 or T2-5 (e.g. Fig. 1E) and by the ventral margin of the clypeus that is preceded by a transverse furrow (e.g. Figs 3D, 7D) and is sometimes expanded into a broad fig-like structure over the mandibles (Fig. 1D). Additionally, Darditilla males have the scape bicarinate with a relatively flat or concave anterior surface between the carinae (although the dorsal carina is often obscure or obliterated); the axillae unarmed posteriorly; T1 broadly rounded into T2; the paramere downcurved apically; and the cuspis short and pad-like (e.g. Fig. 12).

Female. Females of Darditilla are most readily recognized by their granulate pygidium (e.g. Fig. 6E) and also have a unique combination of characters, wherein the clypeus is bidentate with the teeth slightly farther apart than the antennal tubercles (e.g. Fig. 8C); the mandible is acuminate apically and has its largest tooth situated in the basal half of the internal margin; the mesosoma is constricted anterior to the propodeal spiracles, lacks a scutellar scale, lacks a sharp dorsal tubercle directly anterior to the propodeal spiracle, and has the lateral mesonotal teeth small (e.g. Fig. 6A); T1 is broadly rounded into T2; and the metasomal setae are simple.

Species included.

There are 36 species in Darditilla ( Nonveiller 1990, Quintero and Cambra 2001).

Distribution.

Darditilla species are known from throughout South America, putative members of Darditilla are known throughout Central America as well.

Remarks.

Casal (1965) described the genus from a single male specimen and used some synapomorphies of that species and its relatives in his generic description. The newly associated males described here match the diagnostic features listed by Casal and other authors in keys (e.g. Brothers 2006), but in two of the species: Darditilla bejaranoi and Darditilla debilis , the clypeus is less strongly modified. Rather than expanding forward to cover the mandibles, the ventral clypeal margin of these species is short, yet still has the ventral margin angled anteriorly.

Darditilla is apparently closely related to Pseudomethoca and could be nested within that genus. Males of some Nearctic and Central American Pseudomethoca species have thickened setae on T2-4 that resemble the bristles of Darditilla and some females currently placed in Pseudomethoca have a granulate pygidium. Further complicating this situation, Casal’s treatments of Darditilla focused on southern South America and the types of northern Neotropical Pseudomethoca species consistent with Darditilla were not available to him ( Casal 1965, 1968a). Without phylogenetic analysis or careful study of both sexes of these species, we cannot determine which of these northern Neotropical Pseudomethoca should be transferred to Darditilla , or whether Darditilla is even a valid genus. We, therefore, maintain Darditilla using the aforementioned diagnoses and hope that this paper will facilitate the future studies needed to clarify the validity and limits of this genus.