Pareumenes (Pareumenes) occidentalis Giordani Soika. A 1944, stat. nov.
Creators: name: Selis, Marco
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Vespidae
Pareumenes
Pareumenes occidentalis

description: Pareumenes (Pareumenes) occidentalis Giordani Soika, 1944 stat. nov.
(Fig. 11)
Pareumenes sansibaricus occidentalis Giordani Soika, 1944: 157 (key), 158, ♀, ♂
— “ Africa del sud-ovest: Hoarusib Otshu ” (MSNVE).
Diagnosis. Placed in the subgenus Pareumenes due to the lateral carina of propodeum forming a sharp triangular lobe, the propodeal valvula forming a long lobe strongly exceeding the apex of the propodeum, and the elongate and petiolate T1 with a basal angle, it is recognized from the other species of the subgenus by the mostly impunctate and velvety body, the narrow and deep apical emargination of clypeus, the entirely striate posterior depression of propodeum, the long, flattened and acute lateral projections of propodeum, the less elongate T1 (2.05–2.15× as long as apically wide) with a longitudinal furrow on the convex posterior part, and the pale brownish pubescence.
Material examined. LECTOTYPE OF PAREUMENES SANSIBARICUS OCCIDENTALIS: ♀ labeled “Hoarusib Otshu / S.W.A. / Mus. Exped. / Mar. 1926. [last two lines on underside] // South African Museum, / Cape Town. No 104. // HOLOTYPUS / Pareumenes / sansibaricus / v. occidentalis v.n. / A Giordani Soika [red label]” (MSNVE). NAMIBIA: S.W.A., Kaross, 1♂ (MSNVE, paralectotype). SOUTH AFRICA: Suid Afrika, Natal, Ndumu Game Reserve, 20–24.II.1967, leg. D. Gillissen & L. Blommers, 1♀ (MSNVE).
Distribution. Namibia, South Africa * (Giordani Soika 1944, 1973) (Fig. 13H).
Notes. Giordani Soika labelled the two type specimens as holotype and paratype, however he (Giordani Soika 1944) described this taxon without selecting a holotype and later (Giordani Soika 1973: 36) designated the female from Hoarusib Otshu as “Lecto-olotipo” (= lecto-holotype) and the male from Kaross as “Lecto-allotipo” (= lectoallotype). They are therefore to be regarded as lectotype and paralectotype. The genitalia of the male paralectotype were already dissected by Giordani Soika, with the aedeagus missing (Fig. 13E).
Giordani Soika (1944, 1979, 1981) used a broad concept of Pareumenes sansibaricus and divided this species into six subspecies differentiated only by pattern. Examination of some specimens of P. sansibaricus occidentalis, including the type series, however revealed several morphological characters that allow to consider P. occidentalis a distinct species: wider gena, entirely striate propodeal depression, T1 more robust, longitudinally furrowed and without translucent apical margin, and pubescence of head and mesosoma brownish and less evident. These characters are shared with P. laterorufofasciatus, from which P. occidentalis is readily distinguished by the long and acute lateral projections of propodeum and the dorsal faces of propodeum with large yellow markings.
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 219-220, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5584.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/14830818