Euodynerus (Euodynerus) bidentatus bidentatus ( Lepeletier, 1841 )

Selis, Marco, Fateryga, Alexander V. & Cilia, Giovanni, 2024, The genus Euodynerus Dalla Torre in Europe and the Maghreb (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae), Zootaxa 5537 (2), pp. 151-194 : 161-163

Euodynerus (Euodynerus) bidentatus bidentatus ( Lepeletier, 1841)

( Figs 4A, C, D ; 14A )

Odynerus bidentatus Lepeletier, 1841: 623 , ♀, ♂ — [ Algeria] “Oran” (coll. Lepeletier,? destroyed).

Distribution. Northwest Africa, from Morocco to Tunisia ( Gusenleitner 2013). Recorded from Libya (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica) by Giordani Soika (1953), these records could be attributable to E. bidentatus puniceus Blüthgen.

Notes. This taxon and its subspecies puniceus Blüthgen were considered of uncertain subgeneric position ( van der Vecht & Fischer 1972), until Gusenleitner (1977) placed them in subgenus Pareuodynerus . However, this placement does not conform to the diagnostic characters of the subgenus provided by Gusenleitner himself ( Gusenleitner 1997, 2013), as Pareuodynerus is defined by the following characters: dorsal propodeal carina forming a sharp lamellate tooth adjacent to metanotum, female with cephalic foveae placed in a modified area which is at least as wide as the ocellar triangle, and male with last segment of mid and hind tarsi black and at least slightly expanded. These characters are not observed in E. bidentatus , which instead shows the typical characters of the nominotypical subgenus: dorsal carina of propodeum absent and not toothed, female with cephalic foveae placed in a small depression narrower than the ocellar triangle, and male with all segments of tarsi yellow-orange and not expanded. Even the structure of the digitus further confirms this incongruence, as the digitus of E. bidentatus is subtriangular, with converging sides and a pointed apex ( Fig. 14A ); in the subgenus Pareuodynerus the digitus has subparallel sides and a largely rounded apex, which give it a subrectangular appearance, and is proportionally shorter ( Figs 14K–N ). Taking these aspects into consideration, we propose moving E. bidentatus to Euodynerus s. str.

Figures

FIGURE 4. A, C–D, Euodynerus bidentatus bidentatus (Lepeletier). A, D, female from Morocco. C, male from Morocco. B, E, Euodynerus bidentatus puniceus Blüthgen, female from Libya. F–I, Euodynerus caspicus (Morawitz). F, H, male from Astrakhan Province, Russia. G, I, female from Kazakhstan.

FIGURE 14. Male genitalia, from left to right: aedeagus in ventral view, aedeagus in lateral view, digitus+volsella. A, Euodynerus bidentatus (Lepeletier). B, E. caspicus (Morawitz). C, E. curictensis Blüthgen. D, E. dantici (Rossi). E, E. disconotatus (Lichtenstein). F, E. fastidiosus (de Saussure). G, E. hellenicus Blüthgen. H, E. semisaecularis (Dalla Torre). I, E. variegatus (Fabricius). J, E. velutinus Blüthgen. K, E. bidentoides (Giordani Soika). L, E. notatus (Jurine). M, E. posticus (Herrich-Schaeffer). N, E. quadrifasciatus (Fabricius).