Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870

Lelej, Arkady S. & Williams, Kevin A., 2023, Review of the tribe Smicromyrmini Bischoff, 1920 (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), Zootaxa 5231 (2), pp. 101-140 : 128-129

24. Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870

Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870: 208 , ♁, ♀; Lelej & Brothers 2008: 56; Brothers & Lelej 2017: 96, ♁, ♀; Okayasu 2018: 480, ♀, ♁; Williams et al. 2019: 26, ♀; Pagliano et al. 2020: 187; Okayasu 2020: 8, ♁, ♀; Thaochan et al. 2022: 160, ♀.

Type species. Mutilla rufipes Fabricius, 1787 , ♀, by monotypy.

Diagnosis. MALE. Head not enlarged; vertex elevated posteriorly; frons and vertex punctate; clypeus flattened or concave; prementum without dome-like tubercle. Mandible narrowed to apex, bidentate or tridentate; subapical inner denticle smaller than apical; ventral margin excised into large subbasal tooth or not excised at most with small subbasal tooth. F1 as long as wide. Mesopleuron without precoxal denticles or tubercles; propodeum without a pair of dorsal median teeth. Wings fully developed. Metasomal segment 2 with lateral felt line on T2 and shorter on S2; S8 without tubercles or carinae; volsella without basal external lobe; gonostylus with small inner protuberance. FEMALE. Minimum distance between eyes more than 1.4 × eye height; distance between posterior angle of eye and posterior margin of head 1.5–2.0 × eye height; genal carina and hypostomal tooth absent; clypeus with subapical transverse ridge; prementum without dome-like tubercle. Mandible slender. Pronotum without projecting humeral angle; scutellar scale distinct, slightly wider than long. T1 without pale setal spots; T2 with one or three subbasal spots and apical band of pale setae; if T2 with three spots, then lateral ones disposed behind the median one; distance between median spot and apical band of T2 larger than spot diameter; pygidial plate elongate, distinctly carinate laterally, surface usually striated or with smooth apical part.

Diversity and distribution. Two hundred seventy-two species are recognized from the Palaearctic (113), Afrotropical (90), and Oriental (70) Regions ( Bischoff 1920 –1921; Lelej 2002, 2005; Pagliano et al. 2020; Thaochan et al. 2022).

Remarks. Five subgenera are in use for the Palaearctic species: nominotypical (10 species), Astomyrme Schwartz, 1984 (16), Eremotilla Lelej, 1985 (24), Erimyrme Lelej, 1985 (13), and Rhombotilla Nagy, 1966 (1), but 206 species are still retained in Smicromyrme incertae sedis ( Pagliano et al. 2020). In the Afrotropical region, and to a lesser extent the Oriental region, this is a placeholder for species of Smicromyrmini that do not fit readily into newer genus concepts. Even in the Palaearctic region, nearly half of the Smicromyrme species fit this incertae sedis status, in that they are not placed into one of the subgenera below, but they are real members of the genus Smicromyrme .