Odontophotopsis acmaea Viereck

Pitts, James P., Wilson, Joseph S., Williams, Kevin A. & Boehme, Nicole F., 2010, Nocturnal velvet ant males (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) of Deep Canyon, California including four new species and a fifth new species from Owens Lake Valley, California, Zootaxa 2553, pp. 1-34 : 6

Odontophotopsis acmaea Viereck

Odontophotopsis acmaeus Viereck, 1904 . Amer. Ent. Soc., Trans. 30: 84. Male. Holotype data: Arizona, type no. 2304 (NMNH).

Odontophotopsis (Odontophotopsis) adonis acmaeus Schuster, 1958 . Ent. Amer. 37: 54. Male. Odontophotopsis (Odontophotopsis) grata Schuster (nec Melander, nec Schuster 1958 p. 53, 57, 58), 1958. Ent. Amer. 37: 55. Male.

Diagnosis of male. This species is recognized by having the following combination of characters: the mandible is excised ventrally forming an angle ( Fig. 3 ), but does not taper towards the apex; the apex of the mandible is slightly dilated; the mesosternum has only one pair of large distinct spines that have a posterior face that is longitudinally sulcate and have an apex that is bifid; the metasternum is bidentate; and the pygidium is granulate, but not defined laterally by carinae. The genitalia of this species are similar to those of O. aufidia (see Fig. 9 of Pitts et al. 2009).

Female. Unknown.

Material examined. California, Riverside Co.: Deep Canyon, 2 males, 13.Apr.1968, coll. P. Rauch, 1 male, 16.May.1963.

Distribution. The Sonoran Desert of southern California and southwestern Arizona.

Remarks. This species is rare, but is found throughout southern California and extends into southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Schuster (1958) created some problems with this species in combination with O. grata (Pitts et al. 2009) .

Schuster (1958) placed this species as a subspecies of O. adonis . Mickel ( Krombein 1979) established this was not conspecific with O. adonis . This species clearly belongs in the O. parva species-group due to the weak ventral mandibular tooth, overall mandibular shape, the bidentate metasternum, the well developed sternal felt line, and the granulate pygidium. This species differs from all other species of the O. parva species-group due to the shape of the mesosternal processes, which are high, oblique, anteroposteriorly compressed, rectangular in outline, bidentate at the apex and separated by a ‘U’ shaped sinus. Only three other species, O. bellona , O. parva and an undescribed species, have similar, but not identical mesosternal processes. Of these, only O. bellona has been collected at Deep Canyon thus far; it has a large, rounded, ventral tooth on the mandible ( Fig. 6 ; see Fig. 17 in Mickel & Clausen 1983). Odontophotopsis parva has the apex of the mandibles parallel, the pygidium distinctly margined, while O. acmaea has the apex of the mandibles dilated, the pygidium not margined. Furthermore the mesosternal processes are rounded at the apex and are separated by a ‘V’ shaped sinus. The undescribed species also has a margined pygidium, but the shape of the mandible, which could be described as dilated, is unique in having a dorsally directed lamella at the apex of the tridentate mandible that is similar in shape and size to normal tooth.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 12. Head, anterior view. 1. Acanthophotopsis falciformis; 2. Acrophotopsis campylognatha; 3. Odontophotopsis acmaea; 4. O. armata; 5. O. aufidia; 6. O. bellona; 7. O. biramosa; 8. O. clypeata; 9. O. inconspicua; 10. O. mamata; 11. O. melicausa; and 12. O. quadrispinosa.

FIGURES 13 – 24. Head, anterior view; except ventral view 17. 13. Odontophotopsis serca; 14. O. setifera; 15. Sphaeropthalma. amphion; 16. S. angulifera; 17. S. angulifera; 18. S. arota; 19. S. becki; 20. S. blakeii; 21. S. difficilis; 22. S. ferruginea; 23. S. ignacio; and 24. S. macswaini.