Pareumenes (Brachyparmenes) mirificus Selis 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Selis, Marco
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Vespidae
Pareumenes
Pareumenes mirificus

description: Pareumenes (Brachyparmenes) mirificus Selis, sp. nov.
(Fig. 1)
Diagnosis. Placed in the subgenus Brachyparmenes due to the short propodeal valvula and the T1 not angled basally, and shares the almost entirely smooth body, the presence of inferior carinae of the propodeum and the short and strongly convex T1 with P. rufoniger, from which it is differentiated by the following characters: clypeus as long as wide, tegula with outer margin weakly concave in posterior half and posterior lobe acute, parategula oblique with expanded apex, T2–T5 with decolorate apical area, S2 barely and evenly convex for whole length and pattern bright red with extensive yellow markings on metasoma.
Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♀ labeled “ Central African Rep. / Nana-Grebizi Pr. / 35 km NNE Mbres / 17- 18.04.2010 550 m. / A. Kudrna Jr. lgt. // Pareumenes mirificus / HOLOTYPUS ♀ / Det. Marco Selis [red label]” (currently in MSVI, will be deposited in OLML).
Description. Female holotype. Body length 12.5 mm; fore wing length 10.5 mm.
Head 1.1× as wide as high in frontal view. Inner eye margins subparallel, interocular distance barely wider at vertex than at clypeus. Clypeus in frontal view about as high as wide; sides of free apical part converging and then subparallel for a short portion, delimiting a narrow apical part; basal margin bisinuate and bordering the antennal insertions; apical margin barely emarginate and 0.2× as wide as clypeus, lateral teeth almost right-angled and bearing blunt but strong carinae delimiting a median depressed area; clypeus in lateral view strongly convex and somewhat bulging in basal half, distinctly depressed in narrow apical part. Interantennal area with blunt but strong longitudinal carina. Gena narrow, 0.7× as wide as eye at level of bottom of ocular sinus; distance from posterior ocellus to occipital carina about 2.6× as distance from posterior ocellus to inner eye margin, vertex slightly bulging posteriorly; cephalic foveae very small and separated by half ocellar diameter, placed in a small very shallow depression which is shallowly margined only posteriorly; occipital carina absent on vertex, sharp and shortly lamellate on gena, distinctly and evenly curved in lower half. Mandible robust and five-toothed, teeth strong and pointed. F1 1.8× as long as wide and 1.5× as long as F2, F2 slightly longer than wide, F3–F5 subquadrate, F6–F9 transverse and becoming progressively shorter. Mesosoma 1.5× as long as wide. Pronotal carina complete and almost evenly rounded on humeri, shortly lamellate dorsally and becoming finer laterally. Mesoscutum 1.1× as long as wide; anterior third with two very fine converging ridges in the middle; notauli complete but barely visible for most of their length, more evident and diverging near the posterior end; mesoscutum in lateral view weakly convex anteriorly, then flattened and smoothly passing into scutellum. Scutellum flattened and with a hint of longitudinal furrow at anterior margin, separated from mesoscutum by a deep but very narrow furrow; posterior margin slightly overhanging anterior margin of metanotum. Metanotum sloping, evenly and weakly convex, weakly but distinctly separated from scutellum and propodeum; lateral longitudinal carinae sharp but very low, slightly higher anteriorly than posteriorly. Tegula elongate and weakly convex on anterior half of outer margin, then sinuate and weakly concave, posterior lobe acute and pointed, almost reaching apex of parategula; parategula oblique and nearly straight, with shallowly depressed and somewhat expanded apex. Epicnemial carina very short and barely visible, only indicated by a shallow fold of the surface of the mesepisternum; mesepisternum low and elongate, mostly oblique lateromedially and forming an even curve with mesosternum. Posterior face of propodeum very shallowly depressed, almost flattened, mid-line with a very small and carinate sclerite at upper extremity, followed by a longitudinal fovea covering about one third of the length, and then a blunt and low longitudinal carina; dorsal faces of propodeum sloping mediolaterally and weakly convex, not meeting behind metanotum, clearly separated from posterior and lateral faces of propodeum but transitions completely rounded; lateral faces more or less flattened, except for shallow depression above valvula; dorsal and lateral carinae completely absent, ventral carina present and sharp but only for a short stretch above valvula. T1 subsessile and slightly narrower than T2, in dorsal view about 0.8× as long as apically wide, sides subparallel and anteriorly smoothly passing into anterior curvature; T 1 in lateral view strongly convex, with an oblique anterior face and horizontal posterior face, transition between faces broadly rounded; horizontal face with a shallow longitudinal furrow for most of its length; posterior margin somewhat decolorate but not sharply distinct from rest of surface. S1 with posterior crescent-shaped part smoothly passing into basal petiole. T 2 in dorsal view 1.1× as long as apically wide, sides distinctly convex and apical margin slightly wider than basal margin; T 2 in lateral view weakly and evenly convex; apical margin clearly decolorate but not separated from rest of the surface. S 2 in lateral view much less convex than T2, almost flattened and barely projecting from lateral margin of tergite; mid-line of S2 with a shallow hint of a longitudinal ridge. T3–T5 with decolorate apical margin as T2, longer on T5. Prestigma slightly shorter than half the length of pterostigma.
Almost entirely impunctate, teguments variably shagreened and ranging from matte to strongly shiny. Clypeus sparsely micropunctate basally and bearing few sparse and shallow punctures apically. Area between upper lobes of eyes sparsely and shallowly punctate, vertex similarly punctate but with deeper punctures behind ocellocular space. Pronotum with very sparse punctures on dorsal faces. Mesoscutum with few hints of punctures anterolaterally. Scutellum and metanotum with extremely fine and sparse micropunctures, metanotum with few barely visible punctures anteriorly. Mesepisternum in dorsal part with few sparse punctures similar to those on pronotum, in ventral part with few extremely scattered shallower punctures. Propodeum with few shallow rounded punctures along borders of dorsal faces; median longitudinal carina with few short transverse ridges bordering it. T1 with sparse oblique punctures along lateral margins.T2 with fine oblique punctures in apical third, somewhat coarser in the middle. T3–T5 punctate similarly to apical third of T2, but punctures becoming progressively finer. T6 with sparse micropunctures. S1 with large shallow punctures in posterior half, interspaces shallowly raised and forming a reticulation. S2–S5 similar to respective tergites but punctures much sparser and coarser. Head and mesosoma with vestiture mainly made by dense and very short yellowish-white setae, whiter and denser on clypeus, gena, sides of mesosoma and propodeum; metasoma with extremely short, dust-like pubescence, sternites with scattered oblique setae.
Entirely bright red except for T2–T6 and parts of the sternites, which are dark reddish-brown; following parts yellow: suffused spots at base of clypeus, interantennal space, small lateral spots on T1, wide lateral bands running from T2 to T5 and narrowly curved inward at apex of each tergite, small spots on apical corners of S2–S3. Wings hyaline with weak yellow tinge, weakly infuscate at apex.
Male. Unknown.
Distribution. Central African Republic (Fig. 13G).
Etymology. The species name is the Latin adjective “ mirificus, - a, - um ” (= marvelous), in reference to the beautiful appearance of this species.
description: Published as part of Selis, Marco, 2025, Revision of the Afrotropical species of Pareumenes de Saussure (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae), pp. 205-227 in Zootaxa 5584 (2) on pages 207-209, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5584.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/14830818