Ampulex denticollis (Cameron 1910)

Pronotal collar with transversely placed small, low and blunt teeth at about or a little behind middle; body black, without metallic lustre. Forewing with two cubital cells. Legs with coxae and femora fusco-ferruginous and tibiae and tarsi ferruginous (occasionally legs are entirely ferruginous); abdomen dull, microscopically reticulate-punctate.

Distribution: Cape, KZN, eSwatini, NE South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Original description (Dolichurus denticollis) in:
Cameron, P. 1910. On the Aculeate Hymenoptera collected by Mr A.J.T. Janse, Normal College, Pretoria, in the Transvaal. Annals of the Transvaal Museum, vol 2.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/50494904#page/201/mode/1up
Black; the apex and centre of clypeus, mandibles, the antennae and tarsi, rufo-testaceous; the apical joints of the antennae darker-coloured than the others; wings hyaline ; the nervures and stigma black; a fuscous cloud behind the submedian nervure, and a narrower one, narrowed in front, behind the posterior part of the transverse basal, one filling the radial cellule, one, obliquely narrowed behind, beyond the middle of the first cubital cellule, one almost filling the second, and a semicircular one in front of the second recurrent along its anterior three-fourths; tegulae fuscous; the head, thorax, and legs covered with white down. Female.
Length, 6 mm.
Head opaque, finely, closely punctured, the inner orbits with a narrow, irregularly striated band; hind ocelli separated from each other by half the distance they are from the eyes; pronotum alutaceous, the depressed sides thickly covered with depressed silvery pubescence; the centre from the teeth furrowed, and bearing large, round, clearly separated punctures; the apex transverse, furrowed; the centre of mesonotum with a large, strongly punctured band, nearer the base than the apex; the furrows are complete; metanotum irregularly, transversely striated, with a central and three lateral longitudinal keels; the central straight, the second converging towards its middle, the outer two more irregular; pro- and mesopleurae opaque, alutaceous, densely covered with white pubescence; the metapleurae smooth, shining, bare, with a stout oblique keel above the middle on the basal half; metanotal spines almost as long as they are wide at the base ; abdominal petiole almost twice longer than wide.

Redescription and figures in:
Arnold, G. 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/286730#page/98/mode/1up
Figure 6: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/286730#page/171/mode/1up

Arnold (1928) published a key to southern African species of Ampulex, and Gess (1984) updated (added 5 species) the section dealing with those species in which the pronotum is not posteriorly raised into a conical tubercle - this includes Ampulex denticollis.

Arnold, G. (1928). The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part 9. Ann. Transv. Mus. 12 (3): 191-279.
Gess, F. W. (1984). Contribution to the taxonomy of the southern African species of Ampulex Jurine (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae: Ampulicinae). Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums. Natural history, 16(1). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52273737

iNat observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171010777
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/179506797

Posted on April 18, 2024 01:45 PM by traianbertau