Philanthus rutilus Spinola, 1839

Malash, Alyaa A., Edmardash, Yusuf A. & Gadallah, Neveen S., 2023, The genera Philanthus Fabricius, 1790 and Philanthinus de Beaumont, 1949 (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae: Philanthinae) in Egypt, with a new record and the description of a new species, Zootaxa 5249 (2), pp. 151-189 : 172

Philanthus rutilus Spinola, 1839

Figs 13A–C , 14A–C .

Philanthus rutilus Spinola, 1839: 488 , ♀, ♁.

Diagnosis. Body length: 12.4 mm (female); 12.5 mm (male).

Body relatively large, with body in female predominantly black, with tegula, scutellum, posterior margins of T 3–5 and legs ferruginous; clypeus and lower face yellow not reaching middle ocellus ( Figs 13A , 14A ). Male with clypeus and face whitish, whitish extending to middle ocellus; thorax entirely black (tegula yellow), gaster with T 1 ferruginous, while T 2 and T 3 yellow, with intersegments and base of T 1 black; T 4 &T 5 almost black (with very thin, hardly seen yellow streaks postero-laterally), F3–11 black; face and clypeus ivory white ( Figs 13B , 14B, C ).

Face and clypeus with dense, fine and long pilosity ( Fig. 14A–C ), male clypeal moustache dense, ending very close to each other but not, or hardly joining medially ( Fig. 14B ); malar space insignificant ( Fig. 14C ); mandible coarsely longitudinally ridged ( Fig. 14A ); thorax with dense pilosity but shorter than on head ( Fig. 14C ); thoracic sterna with dense and longer fine pilosity; upper mesopleuron (mesepimeron) densely punctate, sculpture on lower mesopleuron (mesepisternum) greatly masked by long and dense pilosity ( Fig. 14C ); propodeum with median, somewhat broad median groove, lateral surface shiny but with some points ( Fig. 13C ).

Material examined: 1♁, Wadi Al Awsag , 16.12.1930, det. Mochi ( PPDD) ; 1♁, Mataria , 1.iv.1917 ( AUCE) ; 1♁, Wadi Morrah , 7.iv.1925 ( AUCE) ; 1♁, Kafr Hakim , 20.iii.1926 ( AUCE) ; 1♁, Kafr Farouk , 12.ii.1929 ( AUCE) ; 1♀, Pyramids , 4.iii.1931 ( AUCE) ; 1♁, Kafr Gammus , 17.ii.1935 ( AUCE) ; 2♁, El Gabal El Asfar , 7.ii.1937 ( AUCE) ; 3♁, 1♀, Kafr Farouk , 26.ii.1939 ( AUCE) ; 1♁, Kafr Farouk , 20.ii.1939 ( AUCE)

Previous Egyptian Records: No specific locality ( Spinola 1839, 1843 as P. byssinus ; Dalla Torre 1897; Mellor 1928 as P. rutilans ; Mochi 1939; de Beaumont 1949, 1956, 1960, 1961 all as P. rutilus rutilus ; Bohart & Menke 1976 as P. rutilus rutilus ), near Giza (Pyramids) (A. Costa 1875), Maadi ( Storey 1916 as P. rutilans ), El Gabal El Asfar, Kafr Farouk ( Honoré 1942; Roche 2007), Abu Rawash, Ameriah, Dahshour, El Marg, Wadi Awsag ( Gadallah 1996 as P. rutilus rutilus ), Gebel Elba ( Gadallah 1996; Dollfuss 2017), Beni Yussef ( Roche 2007).

Extralimital distribution: Algeria, Chad, Israel-Palestine, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

Remarks. The characters of our specimens agree with the North African specimens of de Beaumont (1949: 178, couplet 3), and with the Arabian specimens of Guichard (1994: 208, couplet 2).

Figures

FIGURE 13. Philanthus rutilus Spinola, 1839: A, dorsal habitus (♀); B, dorsal habitus (♁); dorsal view of thorax (part) and base of gaster (arrow indicates propodeal dorsum).

FIGURE 14. Philanthus rutilus Spinola, 1839:A, frontal view of head (♀); B, frontal view of head (♁); C, lateral view of head and thorax (♁).