Tachytes copiosus Arnold

Pulawski, Wojciech J., 2019, A Review of the Wasp Genus Tachytes Panzer, 1806 of Madagascar (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 66 (7), pp. 117-135 : 122

Tachytes copiosus Arnold

Figures 7 –11.

Tachytes copiosus Arnold, 1945:111 , ♀, ♂ (as copiosa, incorrect original termination). Syntypes: Madagascar: Behara (MNHN). – R. Bohart and Menke, 1976:264 (in checklist of world Sphecidae ); Pulawski,

2003:798 (in checklist of Malagasy Sphecidae ); Madl, 2014:986 (in catalog of Ampulicidae ,

Crabronidae , and Sphecidae of Madagascar, with synonymy and locality records).

RECOGNITION.— The female of Tachytes copiosus lacks unique diagnostic features, therefore it can be recognized only by a long suite of characters that eliminate the other species. So, its galea is shorter than wide and the gaster is all black, with silvery, apical fasciae of setae on the terga. Unlike T. picticornis , the apical depressions of its sterna II-V are impunctate (rather than punctate). Unlike T. indifferens the postocellar punctures are of two distinct sizes (the dense minute punctures are interspersed with larger, sparser punctures) rather than being uniformly small, the flagellum is partly ferruginous (rather than all black), and the femora are largely black (whereas the mid- and hindfemora are ferruginous in T. indifferens ). It differs from T. rufomarginatus in having a well-defined patch of appressed setae anterolaterally on the scutum (rather than the patch ill defined, almost absent), and in having the setae on the hindfemoral venter sparser and less dense. Finally, unlike T. flavocinereus , the clypeal lamella is emarginate mesally, although only inconspicuously so in some specimens (rather than non-emarginate), the admedian scutal line is concealed by the

Figures

FIGURES 7–10. Tachytes copiosus Arnold. (7). Scutal punctures of female; (8) Scutal punctures of male; (9) Gaster of syntype female showing color of pygidial plate, image generated by Madame Claire Villemant (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France); (10) Pygidial plate of female with silvery setae.