Dasymutilla zelaya (Blake)

MANLEY, DONALD G. & PITTS, JAMES P., 2007, Tropical and Subtropical Velvet Ants of the Genus Dasymutilla Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) with Descriptions of 45 New Species, Zootaxa 1487 (1), pp. 1-128 : 105

Dasymutilla zelaya (Blake)

Mutilla (Sphaeropthalma) Zelaya Blake, 1871 . Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 3:234. Holotype male, Texas [ANSP] (examined). Female description: Fox (1899:244).

Diagnosis of Female (Plate C10B). This species is differentiated from others by the following combination of characters. The head is distinctly narrower than the mesosoma. The antennal scrobe is strongly carinate dorsally. The mesosoma is as broad as long and lacks a scutellar scale. Sternum II is merely punctate, not scabrous, and the integument is entirely black. The head and mesosoma are clothed entirely with black setae, while the metasoma is clothed with bright red setae.

Diagnosis of Male. This male is differentiated from others by the following combination of characters. It has the antennal scrobe carinate dorsally. It lacks a median pit on sternum II. Like the female, the male has the head and mesosoma clothed entirely with black setae. The apical fringe of tergum II, and terga III through VI entirely, are clothed with bright red setae. The integument is entirely black.

Distribution. USA (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas); Mexico (Coahuila).

Remarks. This species is known from both sexes. The female is relatively common, and approximately 50 specimens have been examined, including the specimen from which the female description was made. The male is less commonly collected and only several dozen specimens have been examined.