Ammophila hevans Menke, a New Species from Southern South America with Taxonomic Notes on Similar Species (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Sphecidae)

First Brazilian record of Ammophila hevans Menke, 2004 (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)

“…Our material agrees perfectly with the description of A. hevans by Menke (2004), who pointed out the following diagnostic features, illustrated here for the first time (Figures 1-7): (1) extensively red legs in both sexes, (2) absence of erect setae on the female thorax, (3) mesopleura with a broad band of appressed silver setae along mesopleural sulcus from midcoxa to the top of the hypoepimeral area, (4) metapleura with a band of appressed silver-gold setae along the metapleural sulcus, which extends from the base of the hindcoxa up to almost the upper pleural pit, (5) extensive reddish areas on the female thorax, and (6) scutum transversely rugose in both sexes.…”

“…are recorded from South America (Amarante 2002(Amarante , 2005Menke 2004), most from Andean highlands, with just A. gracilis Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1845 as the only species across most of the South American lowlands. Ammophila hevans Menke, 2004, originally described from Chacoan Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, is one of the five South American red-legged species, and the only one found out the Andes (Menke 2004). This paper provides the first record of this species from Brazil and the Cerrado biogeographic province.…”

“…On 23 May 2015, a female was collected visiting flowers on edge of the same road. Specimens were identified using the key provided by Menke (2004). Voucher specimens were pinned and deposited in the Hymenoptera collection in Museu da Biodiversidade from Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (MuBio/ UFGD), with numbers: Hym-000020-S, Hym-000611-S and Hym-000612-S.…”

Sphecidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Rio de Janeiro State (Southeast Brazil): new geographic records and remarks on faunal distribution

“…The identification of the species was based especially on the following papers: Willink (1951), Menke (1964Menke ( , 2004, van der Vecht & van Breugel (1968), Vardy (1978). Specimens that did not perfectly match with the descriptions in the pertinent literature were not included in the paper.…”

Notes on nesting behaviour and larval development of Ammophila gracilis Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)

“…Neotropical region is relatively poor in species of Ammophila (Amarante 2002) compared with others biogeographic regions. Only ten species have been cited in South America, the most common being Ammophila gracilis Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1845, that occurs throughout the eastern region of the continent (Menke 2004). In Brazil, A. gracilis is a very conspicuous and widely distributed species, but even so, it is still little known (but see Gaimari and Martins 1996).…”