Didineis lunicornis ( Fabricius 1798 )

Nemkov, Pavel G., 2015, The digger wasps of the genus Didineis Wesmael (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae: Bembicinae) of Russia and adjacent territories, with a key to species and new synonymies, Zootaxa 3941 (3), pp. 391-400 : 396-397

Didineis lunicornis ( Fabricius 1798)

Pompilus lunicornis Fabricius 1798: 241 , sex not indicated. Holotype or syntypes: France, no specific locality (lost).

Alyson kennedii Curtis 1836 : pl. 584, ♀. Holotype or syntypes: ♀, Great Britain, no specific locality (depository unknown). Synonymized with Didineis lunicornis by F. Smith 1853: 65.

Didineis lunicornis: Handlirsch 1895: 837 ; de Dalla Torre 1897: 565; Mosolov 1905: 19; Kokujev 1906: 217, 218; Gussakovskij 1937: 608; Dovnar-Zapolskiy 1940: 304; Yasumatsu 1942: 111; Romanova 1969: 134; Bohart & Menke 1976: 459; Elligsen 1998: 70; Shkuratov 2002: 140, 2004: 76; Gorobchishin 2006: 135; Shcherbakov 2008: 211; Mokrousov 2010: 61; Shlyakhtenok 2011: 95; Nemkov 2012: 119; Prisniy 2012: 50; Mokrousov, Ruchin & Egorov 2013: 199.

Didineis ruthenica Gussakovskij 1937: 611 , ♂. Lectotype, designated here: ♂, Ukraine, Donetskaya Oblast, Svyatye Gory (ZIN), examined. New synonymy.

Alysson lunicornis: Tsuneki 1971: 12 ; Pulawski 1978: 213; Rudoiskatel 2010: 152.

Didineis ruthenica: Bohart & Menke 1976: 459 .

Alysson ruthenicus: Pulawski 1978: 213 .

Material examined. Lectotype of Didineis ruthenica Gussakovskij— 1♂, Ukraine, Donetskaya Oblast, Svyatye Gory (now National Natural Park "Svyatye Gory" near Svyatogorsk), 22.VII 1884 (coll. F. Morawitz) ( ZIN); paralectotype— 1♂, Ukraine, Kharkovskaya Oblast, Kuryazh, 16.VIII 1884 (Yaroshevski) ( ZIN). Germany: 2♀, Bavaria (= Bayern], no specific locality, 1860 (A. Morawitz) ( ZIN); 1♂, Thuringia (= Thüringen), no specific locality (Schmiedeknecht) ( ZIN); 1♀, 1♂, Sachsen-Anhalt, Weissenfels (coll. F. Morawitz) ( ZIN); 1♂, Baden- Wurttemberg, Hohenhaslach, 3.VIII 1993 (Schmid-Egger) ( IBSS). Ukraine: 1♂, Khersonskaya Oblast, Nerubayevskaya dacha, 3–11.VII 1900 (Pomerantsev) ( ZIN); 1♂, Kievskaya Oblast, Borshchov, 8.VII 1910 ( ZIN); 1♀, Odesskaya Oblast, near Balta, 8.VIII 1917 (Pyatakova) ( ZIN); 1♂, Kievskaya Oblast, Kiev, 12.VIII 1918 (Dobrzhanski) ( ZIN); 1♂, Kievskaya Oblast, Kiev, 29.VII 1923 (Kerkis) ( ZIN); 1♀, Kharkovskaya Oblast, Zmiev, VIII 1926 (Arnoldi) ( ZIN). Russia: 1♂, Ryazanskaya Oblast, Gremyachka, 28.VI 1890 (Semenov) ( ZIN); 1♂, Yaroslavskaya Oblast, Yaroslavl (Kokujev) ( ZIN); 1♀, Kurskaya Oblast, Kursk, 27.V 1907 (Malyshev) ( ZIN); 1♂, Kurskaya Oblast, Borisovka, 10.VII 1916 (Malyshev) ( ZIN); 1♂, Kurskaya Oblast, Borisovka, 7.VII 1917 (Sokolov) ( ZIN); 1♂, Belgorodskaya Oblast, Borisovka, 1.VII 1917 (Sokolov) ( ZIN).

Recognition. Didineis lunicornis can be recognized by the following character combination: mesosoma black, legs red, flagellomeres VI–IX twice as long as wide in female and slightly longer than wide in male, scutum with well-defined, dense punctures.

Description. Body black with red metasomal base. Female clypeus dark with large yellow or reddish apicomedian spot, scape yellow or reddish ventrally, flagellum entirely black or brownish ventrally. Male clypeus black or brownish, scape black (sometimes reddish or brownish ventrally), flagellum black (basal flagellomeres sometimes reddish or brownish ventrally). Legs red. Frons densely punctate (punctures less than one diameter apart). Scutum well-definedly, densely punctate (punctures less than one diameter apart). Lateral surface of mesopleuron finely rugose, mat. Metasomal tergum II finely, somewhat densely punctate (punctures about one diameter apart). Female flagellomeres VI–IX twice as long as wide. Male flagellomeres I–III not concave ventrally, flagellomeres VI–IX longer than wide, foretibia not modified.

Distribution. Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (including Sardinia), Denmark, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia (Yaroslavskaya Oblast, Kostromskaya Oblast, Moskovskaya Oblast, Ryazanskaya Oblast, Kurskaya Oblast, Belgorodskaya Oblast, Rostovskaya Oblast, North Caucasus, Tambovskaya Oblast, Mordoviya, Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, Mariy El, Bashkiriya), China (Inner Mongolia), Algeria, Egypt.

Justification of New Synonymy. In the original description of Didineis ruthenica Gussakovskij (1937) indicated that the male (the female was still unknown) differs from D. lunicornis in having a partly reddish scape and basal flagellomeres (entirely black in lunicornis ) and a shining scutum with finer punctures (instead of somewhat dull scutum with well-defined punctures in lunicornis ). The comparison of the syntypes of D. ruthenica with numerous specimens of D. lunicornis demonstrated that the diagnostic characters of this species are clearly within the limits of the individual variation of the latter. I regard D. ruthenica as a junior subjective synonym of D. lunicornis (Fabricius) .