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Ammophila urnaria Dahlbom, 1843
Life   Insecta   Hymenoptera   Apoidea   Sphecidae   Ammophila
Subgenus: None

Ammophila urnaria, male, penis valve
Arnold S. E. Menke, 1965 · 1
Ammophila urnaria, male, penis valve

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Ammophila urnaria, male, penis valve
Arnold S. E. Menke, 1965 · 1
Ammophila urnaria, male, penis valve
Ammophila urnaria, and others, map
Arnold S. E. Menke, 1965 · 1
Ammophila urnaria, and others, map
Overview
Taken from: A Revision of the North American Ammophila (hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Arnold S. E. Menke, 1965.


Ammophila (Ammophila) urnaria Dahlbom
(Figs. 128-129, 146)
Ammophila urnaria Dahlbom, 1843. Hymen. Europaea 1 (fasc. 1): 14. Lectotype male, South Carolina (Universitets Zoologiska Institution, Lund), present designation.
Ammophila inepta Cresson, 1872. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 4:209. Holotype female, Texas (Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia).
Sphex floridensis Fernald, 1934. North American West Indian digger wasps genus Sphex, p. 126. Holotype female, Orlando, Florida (United States National Museum, Washington).

Male. Average length 17.5 mm., range: 16-23.5 mm.

Color. Black; tegula often brownish posteriorly; petiole tergite infrequently red (Florida); gastral segment I red but with a longitudinal black stripe dorsally (stripe poorly defined or lacking in some New Jersey and Florida specimens); wings clear but grading to moderately infumate southeastward, veins black.

Vestiture. Clypeus sparsely covered by appressed hair, often glabrous anteromedially, sculpture discernable; gena sometimes with sparse appressed silver hair; mesopleuron with a band of appressed silver hair along mesopleural suture from base of midcoxa to bottom of hypoepimeral area; metapleural sulcus near hing coxa sometimes with a email patch of appressed silver hair which may extend partially onto adjacent metapleural and propodeal areas.

Structures labrum acuminate or only rounded; clypeal disk densely micropunctate, sparsely to moderately macropunctate, rather dull; clypeal emargination narrow; collar densely micropunctate, moderately macropunctate; scutal surface shining, densely micropunctate, moderately to densely nacropunctate, sometimes partially transversely punctatostriate especially in Georgia and Florida, furrows with transverse ridges or rugae; scutellum coarsely punctatostriate; mesopleuron shining, densely micropunctate, moderately to densely macropunctate or punctatostriate, especially anteriorly; inferior metapleural area and propodeal side shining, densely micropunctate, densely macropunctate, often feebly rugose or punctatostriate; right penis valve as in figures 128-129.

Female. Average length 20 mm., range: 12-25 mm.

Color. As in male except petiole tergite frequently partially red; gastral tergite I completely red.

Vestiture. Clypeus, frons, gena and collar with sparse appressed brownish hair; pronotal lobe with sparse appressed silver hair anteriorly, denser posteriorly; psammophore and erect head hair varying from pale to brown, mesosomal erect hair sometimes brownish.

Structure. Labrum acuminate; clypeal disk moderately to strongly bulging, densely micropunctate, moderately macropunctate, median free margin produced, teeth well developed; inner orbits parallel to slightly converging below; collar densely micropunctate, moderately finely macropunctate; scutum subshining, densely micropunctate, densely macropunctate usually becoming transversely punctatostriate towards furrows.

Range. (fig. 146). Ammophila urnaria occurs from the eastern Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Coast. It is one of the commonest species in the eastern part of the United States.

Variation. There is a tendency in this species for Increase in body size, coarser mesosomal sculpture and darker wings in the southeastern part of its range. These changes become most pronounced in Florida where body length averages several millimeters more than the norm for urnaria. This type of variation is not peculiar to urnaria but also is present in kennedyi and juncea. Some Floridian male urnaria have no black dorsal stripe on gastral tergite I.

Systematics. A. urnaria is similar to kennedyi and the two species are sympatric. The dark face and partially silver pronotal lobe are distinctive in female urnaria. Females of kennedyi have a uniformly silver pronotal lobe and the wing veins are usually more brownish than in urnaria. A. kennedyi females sometimes have a weakly lamellate metapleural flange. Males of urnaria differ primarily from kennedyi males in having a black stripe on gastral tergite I. The genitalia of the two species are diagnostic also. For differences between urnaria and dysmica see the latter species.

I have not seen the type of urnaria. However, R. M. Bohart took sufficient note on it so that positive identification of Dahlbom’s species is possible. Evidently, Dahlbom described urnaria from more than one specimen since he cited South Carolina and Pennsylvania as type localities. Fernald (1931) saw Dahlbom’s material and found a male with the label “S. Carolina” and another specimen without locality data. Bohart’s notes are on the South Carolina specimen and I am selecting it as lectotype. The types of inepta and floridensis have been seen. Ammophila floridensis is based on the large, dark winged type of unaria found in the southeast. Murray (1938, 1951) recognized floridensis as a subspecies of urnaria but I do not feel this recognition is warranted. The “floridensis” form of urnaria grades into the normal condition of urnaria. At least one of Fernald’s paratypes of floridensis is juncea Cresson.




Ammophila urnaria Group
Diagnosis. Primary characters: Free margin of male clypeus emarginate (except in aberti and bellula) hypostoma in male simple, without a process (fig. 29); collar and scutum usually without strong transverse ridges (except in cleopatra) propodeal enclosure irregularly rugose medially, diagonally ridged laterally, interspaces smooth and/or punctate, subshining to shining, or sometimes minutely etched, dull (fig. 22); preepisternal sulcus short, ending about opposite pronotal lobe; metapleural flange not lamellate (except in leoparda, kennedyi sometimes, and aberti rarely); spine-like process of penis valve head basal, generally directed toward base of penis valve stalk (except in bellula) (rigs. 122-225, 127- 129); base of gonoforceps not dorsoventrally elongate. Secondary characters : Clypeus and frons with appressed silver hair (except kennedyi and urnaria females), male clypeus usually completely covered by appressed hair, obscuring underlying sculpture (except kennedyi, picipes and some urnaria), female clypeus glabrous anteromedially; pronotal lobe and propodeum adjacent to petiole socket covered with appressed silver hair (lobe of female urnaria with dense hair only posteriorly); erect body hair pale; psammophore pale (sometimes partially brownish in dysmica, juncea, kennedyi, picipes and urnaria) length of flagellomere I in male less than least interocular distance and greater than length of flagellomere II; middle tibia with two veil developed apical spurs (except in some aberti and dysmica) forewing with three submarginal cells.
Included North American species. Ammophila aberti Haldeman, bellula Menke, cleopatra Menke, dysmica Menke, hermosa Menke, juncea Cresson, kennedyi (Murray), leoparda (Fernald), mescalero Menke, parkeri Menke, picipes Cameron and urnaria Dahlbom. Other New World species belonging to the urnaria group but not dealt with in this paper are: A. dejecta Cameron (Mexico), gracilis Lepeletier, lampei Strand, rufipes Guérin-Méneville, and suavis Burmeister (all South American).
Discussion. The urnaria group is a difficult one because most of the species are very similar. Also, the male genitalia display specific differences only in a few species, aberti, bellula and kennedyi. The penis valve head of urnaria is quite variable (figs. 128-129) and the following species have aedeagi of the same general configuration: cleopatra, dysmica, hermosa, juncea, leoparda, mescalero, parkeri and picipes. Of prime importance for species discrimination in the urnaria group ii the pattern of appressed hair on the mesosoma, particularly the pleural region. Unfortunately, old or worn specimens make hair patterns difficult to use, and often it is impossible to identify material in this condition without a thorough knowledge of the group. Some species have characteristic markings on the abdomen and a few have bicolored legs or other chromatic peculiarities. Structurally the urnaria group is fairly homogeneous with nearly all species having similar punctation etc. Some differences are found in the shape of the labrum but here also there is variability. Clypeal structure is sometimes distinctive but it is difficult to describe. The possibility of using various head measurements in species diagnosis has not been fully explored in the urnaria group. Comparisons of the lengths of flagellomeres I and II and also of the least interocular distance versus the length of flagellomere I seem to have no value, at least for the distinction of difficult species. Other measurements might be made in search of better species criteria: overall head width, eye width, length of head and degree of eye convergence, for example.
The six species that are the most difficult to identity can be divided into two groups of black-legged species. In one group, the mesopleural band of appressed hair ends at the bottom of the hypoepimeral area (dysmica, kennedyi and urnaria). In the second group the band extends to the top of the hypoepimeral area juncea, and picipes). A few species in the urnaria group seem to have no close allies: Ammophila aberti, bellula, leoparda and mescalero.
The arvensis group proposed by Fernald (1934) contained species belonging to the urnaria group and the azteca group. Fernald’s concept included pilosa (Fernald) (= azteca Cameron), arvensis Dahlbom (an Old World name used in error for mediata Cresson, evansi Menke and possibly other species), floridensis (Fernald) (= urnaria Dahlbom), urnaria Dahlbom (Fernald confused kennedyi and possibly other species with urnaria), and leoparda (Fernald) as variety of urnaria). The similar pleural pubescence pattern exhibited by these species was apparently the only criterion used by Fernald for this unnatural assumblage of species.
The urnaria group is represented throughout the New World, but appears to have no Old World allies.

Names
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