Ammoplanellus (Ammoplanellus) hissaricus, Gussakovskij

Boucïek, Zdenek, 2001, Palaearctic species of Ammoplanus (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 849-929 : 918

A. (Ammoplanellus) hissaricus Gussakovskij

Ammoplanu s (Ammoplanellus) hissaricus Gussakovskij, 1952: 221 . Tajikistan: Kondara Valley in Hissar (or Gissar) Range N of Dushanbe. Holotype male, by monotypy; in ZMAS (examined).

Diagnostic notes

Male. Fore and mid legs lemon yellow, hind femur and tibia very slightly infuscate. Head transversely oval; toruli placed distinctly above lower ocular line and separated from each other by less than one torular diameter; clypeus laterally narrowed to a point but not nearly reaching eye. Gena distinct (®gures 62, 63). Mandible slender, narrow regularly curved, upper tooth sharp and slightly upturned, lower tooth still sharper and about three times as long as broad at end of upper tooth. Flagellum ®liform, its proximal segments broad, second segment fully as broad as pedicel, separations slightly diagonal in dorsal view, laterally not separated by excisions, ventrally ¯at; distant segments narrower and each longer than broad. Mesoscutum with transverse striation. Fore trochanter and femur ventrally in proximal half with long soft white pilosity, middle femur and trochanter angularly widened in proximal half. Petiole of metasoma almost as long as broad, narrowing caudad.

Female. Not known, but probably may be recognizable on the clypeus not reaching laterally the eye margins.

Comment. A distinctive species but so far known only from one male. In this sex antennae are similar to chorasmius but hissaricus diOEers mainly in having the basal parts of legs modi®ed, the face mask yellow, the genae well developed, the mandibles narrow and curved and the marginal cell closed, almost truncate at apex. The female may be similar to A. simplex , but may be recognizable by the shortened sharp clypeal sides towards eyes (®gure 63), narrow median part of clypeus and the slender mandibles, characters which are probably not sexual.

Material examined. Tajikstan: Kondara Valley , 1100 m, holotype male, 26 July 1938 (Gussakovskij; ZMAS) .

Distribution. Tajikistan.

In India (Delhi, Agra) I collected a species very close to hissaricus , with inner orbits in male also strongly converging upwards but the face extensively white and ¯at, and having widened scapes with parallel sides anteriorly bearing long white diagonal setae. The unknown female of this unnamed species may be very similar to A. simplex , as well as to the African latiscapus Leclercq which lacks the diagonal setae.