Pison melanocephalum Turner

Pulawski, Wojciech J., 2018, A Revision of the Wasp Genus Pison Jurine, 1808 of Australia and New Zealand, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 65, pp. 1-584 : 277-279

Pison melanocephalum Turner

Figures 640 -644

Pison melanocephalum Turner, 1908:515 , ♀. Lectotype: ♀, Australia: Queensland: Cairns (BMNH), present designation, examined. – Turner, 1916b:596 (in key to Australian Pison ), 601 (recognition characters); R. Bohart and Menke, 1976:336 (in checklist of world Sphecidae ); Cardale, 1985:260 (in catalog of Australian Sphecidae ).

LECTOTYPE DESIGNATION. – Turner did not specify the number of the specimens examined in the original description of Pison melanocephalum . I have selected as the lectotype of this species the specimen with Turner’s identification label preserved in the Natural History Museum, London.

RECOGNITION.– Like many P. amabile , P. melanocephalum has a ferruginous thorax, propodeum, legs, and gaster, only the head being black, and its tergum I is sloping gently toward the base ( Fig. 642 ), much less than in most other Pison . It differs from P. amabile in having the head globose in dorsal view ( Fig. 641 ) rather than transverse, the antennal socket almost reaching the eye margin (rather than separated by about 1.5 × socket width), the mandibular apex simple (rather than tridentate in the female and bidentate in the male), the tegula punctate throughout (rather than largely impunctate), the first recurrent vein joining the first submarginal cell far away from the first intersubmarginal vein ( Fig. 642 ) rather than next to it, the second recurrent vein joining the second submarginal cell before the latter’s midlength (rather than being interstitial with the second intersubmarginal vein), all body setae appressed (genal setae erect in P. amabile ), the frontal and clypeal setae silvery (rather than conspicuously golden), the wing membrane hyaline (rather than yellow basally, dark brown apically), and the body length is 5.2 mm rather than 11.0- 11.5 mm in the female and 8.0- 8.5 mm in the male. In the female, the middle clypeal lobe is nonprominent in P. melanocephalum , but prominent in P. amabile . The unusually small second submarginal cell of P. melanocephalum is a subsidiary recognition feature (height about one third of that of third submarginal cell), although the males of P. amabile approach this condition. The male of P. melanocephalum is unknown

DESCRIPTION.– Head globose in dorsal view ( Fig. 641 ). Frons swollen, dull, minutely, shallowly punctate, punctures less than one diameter apart (about one diameter apart near midocellus). Antennal socket nearly touching eye margin. Labrum emarginate. Anteromedian pronotal pit transversely elongate, slightly longer than midocellar diameter. Scutum not foveate along flange, with minute, short longitudinal ridges adjacent to posterior margin; scutal punctures minute, less than one diameter apart; interspaces dull. Tegula minutely punctate throughout. Mesopleural punctures minute, several diameters apart. Postspiracular carina absent. Metapleural sulcus not costulate between dorsal and ventral metapleural pits. Propodeum: longitudinal carina separating side from dorsum present only behind spiracle; dorsum punctate, unridged, with irregular middle carina basally; side and posterior surface punctate, without ridges. Second submarginal cell minute, about one third height of third submarginal; first recurrent vein ending well before submarginal cell II; second recurrent vein ending on basal half of submarginal cell II ( Fig. 642 ). Hindcoxal dorsum with outer margin carinate only basally. Tergum I sloping gently toward base, markedly less so than in most other Pison , its punctures minute, on horizontal part more than one diameter apart. Sterna punctate throughout.

RECORDS.– AUSTRALIA: Queensland: Cairns (1 ♀, BMNH, lectotype of Pison melanocephalum ) ,

Kuranda (1 ♀, BMNH) .

Figures

FIGURES 640-643. Pison melanocephalum Turner, female. (640) Clypeus and mandibles; (641) Head in dorsal view; (642) Apical part of forewing; (643) Body of lecto- type in lateral view. FIGURE 644. Collecting localities of Pison melano- cephalum Turner