Physetopoda fresnoi Romano & Parejo-Pulido 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Parejo-Pulido, Daniel
name: Romano, Marcello
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Mutillidae
Physetopoda
Physetopoda fresnoi

description: Physetopoda fresnoi Romano & Parejo-Pulido, sp. nov.
https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: BE6E273D-1DB6-4A2B-941A-EC2952D64BE9
(Figs 2–6)
Diagnosis. Males of Ph. fresnoi can be recognized by the following combination of characters: slender appearance; apical fringes of silvery pubescence on T2–3; felt line on lateral T2; mandibles tridentate with an external tooth beneath; clypeus almost shiny (with sparse punctuation limited to basal parts), with two well-developed tubercles on the anterior border; a basal external lobe of volsella with long and curly ventral hairs longer than the length of the volsella; and inner side of volsella covered with short setae that progressively lengthen towards apex, where some long curved hairs are present. Female is unknown.
Description. Holotype, ♂. Body length 9.0 mm.
Colouration. Body entirely black except for tegulae which are reddish-yellow, the preapical part of mandibles which are reddish-brown and flagellomeres which are castaneous beneath. Legs dark brown (Fig. 2A–B).
Pubescence. Long, erect and suberect, white-silvery setae covering head including mandibles and scape, pronotum, scutellum, metanotum and metasoma. Mesonotum and disc of T2 with short, appressed and backward brown pubescence (Fig. 2A–B). Tegulae with sparse long recumbent black setae (Fig. 6D). T2–3 with apical fringes of white-silvery setae (Fig. 2A). Felt line yellowish, long, 0.5 times lateral length of T2 (Fig. 4D).
Shape, punctuation and structure. Head 1.3 times wider than long, equal to pronotal width, with more or less parallel sides and with occipital margin slightly rounded. Frons, vertex and gena with large, dense and confluent punctures. Vertex posteriorly to interocellar area with sparser punctures. (Fig. 3A). GOI = 1.1. Mandibles tridentate (Fig. 3B), with a large tooth beneath near the base (Fig. 3D), its height (lateral view) less than the minimum distance between emargination and upper mandibular carina (Fig. 3C). Clypeus flat with two clearly visible tubercles on the anterior border and basal medial carina; clypeal surface impunctate and shiny (Fig. 3B). Eyes slightly projecting from the head profile. Inner eye margin with a deep notch. Distance between posterior eye line and posterior headline equal to eye length. Ocelli small (Fig. 3A), diameter of anterior ocellus much smaller than the distance between it and posterior one. POL/OOL = 1.1; OL:MOD:LOD = 1.0:0.6:0.6. First flagellomere length 0.8 times flagellomere 2. F2–11 almost the same in width. Ratio of mesosoma to metasoma length is 0.8. Pronotum with large deep dense punctures, anteriorly almost straight, with divergent posteriorly lateral sides, slightly wider than mesonotum (Fig. 6C). Mesoscutum densely punctate, with notauli developed and not touching anterior bord. Tegulae rounded posteriorly, 1.4 times longer than wide, protruding beyond mesoscuto-scutellar suture with uniform and large punctures except the outer margin of posterior 3/4 glabrous and smooth (Fig. 6D). Wings infuscate, veins brown (Fig. 6E). Propodeum elongate (Fig. 6A–B), reticulate with large cells, with small median dorsal longitudinal cells (Fig. 6B). T1 campanuliform, apical width 1.8 times its medial length, with distinct dorsal surface, densely punctate (Fig. 4D). T2 evenly convex; dorsal T2 1.4 times wider than long. Disc of T2 with distance between punctures two or more times puncture diameter (Fig. 4A). S2 strongly and coarsely punctate (Fig. 4B). S3–7 subapically punctate, S8 densely punctate (Fig. 4C). Genitalia is shown in Fig. 5. Basal external lobe of volsella with long and curly ventral hairs.
Female. Unknown.
Type material. SPAIN. Holotype, ♂, Arévalo, Ávila / R-8TMB / 16- 30.06.2006 / Gayubo et al. leg. / ex. Colección F. Fresno [MNCN _ Ent 339494]. Paratypes: 1♂, Arévalo, Ávila / R-8TMB / 16- 30.06.2006 / Gayubo et al. leg. / ex. Colección F. Fresno [MNCN _ Ent 339493]; 1♂, Arévalo, Ávila / Liborio TMB / 16- 30.06.2006 / Gayubo et al. leg. / ex. Colección F. Fresno [MNCN _ Ent 339495]; 1♂, Cilloruelo, Salamanca / 21-VI-2012 / F. Fresno leg. / ex. Colección F. Fresno [MNCN _ Ent 339496]; 1♂, Pozoblanco, Córdoba / 20.VII.1972 / Colección J. Suárez [MNCN _ Ent 338957].
Distribution. Spain.
Iberian distribution. Ávila, Córdoba, Salamanca.
Etymology. The specific name is dedicated to the type collector, Fernando Fresno, who kindly donated his private collections to the MNCN, giving us the opportunity to study very diverse and interesting material and to which most records in this work belong.
Remarks, variability and comparisons.
Variability. Body length ranges from 4.7–9.0 mm (N = 4). Colouration of mesosoma varies from totally black except red tegulae to completely red except postscutellum and apical part of propodeum (Fig. 2C). Head can be more rectangular, varying from 1.3 to 1.5 (N = 4) times wider than long. Ocelli also vary in size: POL/OOL = 0.9–1.2; OL:MOD:LOD = 1.0:0.4–0.7:0.4–0.6; N = 4. Ratio between T2 width and length ranged from 1.3 to 1.4 (N = 4).
Comparisons. See key to males Physetopoda below. Ph. fresnoi differs from other Iberian Physetopoda by having apical fringes of white-silvery pubescence on T2–3 [Ph. punctata (Latreille, 1792), Ph. nuptura (Mercet, 1905)], small-sized ocelli [Ph. halensis (Fabricius, 1787), Ph. lucasii (Smith, 1855), Ph. daghestanica (Radoszkowski, 1885), Ph. mendizabali (Suárez, 1956)] and two well-developed tubercles on the anterior border of the clypeus [Ph. scutellaris (Latreille, 1792), Ph. rufosquamulata (André, 1903)]. The only comparable Iberian species is Ph. ligustica (Invrea, 1951). However, both species can be distinguished by the following characters: 1) Vosella thicker, with almost parallel sides in Ph. ligustica (Fig. 7C–D), while it is thinner, curved and narrower at the apex in Ph. fresnoi (Fig. 5). In addition, whereas in Ph. fresnoi inner side of volsella is completely covered with setae that progressively lengthen towards apex, in Ph. ligustica (Fig. 7C) two distinct, separated zones can be distinguished, one basal with short setae and the other with long setae almost equal in size. 2) Clypeus with basal part striated in Ph. ligustica (Fig. 7B) and with sparse, superficial punctures in Ph. fresnoi (Fig. 3B). 3) Eyes larger in Ph. ligustica (Fig. 7A) than in Ph. fresnoi (Fig. 3A). Ratio between eye length and OOL: 2.1–2.6 (N = 8) Ph. ligustica vs 1.2–1.4 (N = 4) Ph. fresnoi; eye length and eye–anterior ocellus distance: 1.1–1.3 (N = 5) Ph. ligustica vs 1.0 (N = 4) Ph. fresnoi.
In addition, among Mediterranean Physetopoda, Ph. fresnoi can only be confused with Ph. defixa (Invrea, 1953) comb. nov. * (Fig. 8), both sharing very similar genitalia (Figs 6, 8E). However, Ph. defixa can be distinguished by a more robust appearance (Fig. 8A–B), the absence of two prominent tubercles on the anterior border of the clypeus (at least slightly bilobulate), the presence of more elongated punctures on the basal part of the clypeus (Fig. 8C), and a distinct propodeum punctuation, with a visible smooth space between cells (Fig. 8D), whereas in Ph. fresnoi, cells are much deeper and contiguous (Fig. 6B).
description: Published as part of Parejo-Pulido, Daniel & Romano, Marcello, 2024, Notes on Iberian Mutillidae (Hymenoptera) part I: a new species, new records and some taxonomic and faunistic remarks, pp. 501-536 in Zootaxa 5477 (5) on pages 509-515, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5477.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/12733366