Synopsis of the Neotropical Sclerodermus Latreille (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) with description of a new species attacking human beings
Author
Azevedo, Celso O.
0000-0002-2423-9388
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Depto Ciências Biológicas, Vitória, ES (Brazil) & bethylidae @ gmail. com; http: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 2423 - 9388
bethylidae@gmail.com
Author
Colombo, Wesley D.
0000-0001-8729-4635
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Depto Ciências Biológicas, Vitória, ES (Brazil) & wesleycolombo @ gmail. com; http: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 8729 - 4635
wesleycolombo@gmail.com
text
Zootaxa
2022
2022-04-06
5124
5
501
519
journal article
53625
10.11646/zootaxa.5124.5.1
06814fbf-9458-410e-8a6f-64d0845c8094
1175-5326
6416940
B0DABD41-5DC2-499B-B593-D58192C4D240
Sclerodermus formicarius
Kieffer, 1921
The
type
series of this species is lost. It was deposited in the private Bruch collection, which was supposed to be incorporated in the
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales
“Bernardino Rivadavia” and
Museo de la Plata
(
Lanteri & Martínez 2012
). However, the first author was not able to find any material in his visit to the former, and the curator of the latter neither
.
The original description of this species by
Kieffer (1921)
was mostly based on colouration and did not provide enough reliable taxonomic information to get a precise identification. The main characters that are possible to extract from the original description are: head quadrate, slightly longer than wide, and wider than thorax; eye subcircular, very close to mandible, and length less than 0.5 × distance to vertex crest; dorsal pronotal area long, metapectal-propodeal disc longer than mesoscutellum; wings absent; metasoma slightly longer than the rest of body, and as wide as head.
Evans (1968)
tentatively identified five Brazilian specimens. Nevertheless, this act lacks confidence.
Given the scenario aforementioned, we have not keyed this species in order to avoid any future unprecise identification, since it is unidentifiable in the present time.