Ammatomus mesostenus (Handlirsch, 1888)

Schmid-Egger, Christian, 2019, Review oI the genus Ammatomus A. COSTA, 1859 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) Irom the Palearctic region with description oI Iour new species, Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (1), pp. 437-457 : 443-444

Ammatomus mesostenus (HANDLIRSCH, 1888) (figs 14-18)

Gorytes mesostenus HANDLIRSCH, 1888: 345 , male. Holotype: male, Egypt: no specific locality (Lausanne, Marquet coll.).

Gorytes rhopalocerus HANDLIRSCH, 1895: 855 , male, female. Lectotype: female, Algeria: Biskra, designated by Pulawski 1973: 280.

S p e c i m e n s e x a m i n e d: Egypt male, female 25.ix.1992 Oasis Al Fayum, Birkat Karun; Egypt, 2 males 11.8.1929 Gizeh ( OLL) ; Tunisia male 18.vi.1994 Gafsa, Oasengärten ; Tunisia, female 22.vi.1994 11 km s Jendouba, Mell ẻgue-Flussufer, (all leg. et coll. CSE) ; Morocco male 16.v.1997 100 km S of Zagora, Mahmid ( OLL) .

R e m a r k: A detailed examination of several A. mesostenus specimens (identified with the key of PULAWSKI 1973) results in four different species. Three of them had not been recognized until today and will be described here. The most important recognition characters are colour pattern and form of T1. Already PULAWSKI (1973) mentioned the difference in length of T1 and different colour, but he treated all different taxa as ̎geografic variation̎. A. rhopalocerus HANDLIRSCH, 1895, described from Algeria, and A. mesostenus s.str., described from Egypt, are conspecific in my opinion. Examined material from Egypt and Tunisia agree, and there are no differences in the description of PULAWSKI (1973). The author mentions under ̎variation̎ different specimens from Israel, Iraq and Iran with red T1. These specimens agree with the here described A. vanharteni . Two specimens from Yemen / Aden mentioned in PULAWSKI (1973) also may belong to A. vanharteni .

D i a g n o s i s: A. mesostenus is characterized by distinctly lemon yellow coloured body marks, and by lack of red marks on tergites. T1 has a continuous yellow band, and it is comparatively short in female.

D i s t r i b u t i o n: North Africa. PULAWSKI (1973) mentions specimens from many countries between Morocco in the west and Kazakhstan in the east. Because of the newly described species from Arabia and Asia, only records from North Africa can be confirmed to be A. mesostenus . Specimens from southwest Asia ( Israel, Iraq etc.) and from Central Asia have to be examined for their true identity and probably belong to other species.