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

The Thread-waisted Wasp, Ammophila hevans Menke, 2004, is reported from the Brazilian Cerrado, collected in a transitional area between Savannah and Semidecidual Forest formations in Dourados municipality, Mato Grosso Sul state, Brazil. The species is illustrated for the first time, and a distribution map is provided.

record; biogeographical crossroads; Mato Grosso do Sul Ammophila Kirby, 1798 is a genus of caterpillarhunting solitary wasps, worldwide distributed (Bohart and Menke 1976), which has been subject of classical behavioral studies (e.g., Peckham and Peckham 1898;Baerends 1941;Evans 1959Evans , 1965;;Brockmann 1985).Although there are 234 described species in this genus (Pulawski 2016), only eight Ammophila spp.are recorded from South America (Amarante 2002(Amarante , 2005;;Menke 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.
Specimens of Ammophila hevans were collected in the Lagoa Grande rural settlement (21°59ʹ37ʺ S, 055°19ʹ25ʺ W; 429 m above sea level), in Itahum district of Dourados municipality, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.According to Morrone (2014), this area is located on a transition border between the Cerrado and Parana Forest provinces (Chacoan and Parana dominion).Accord ing to Köppen's (1936) classification, the climate of this region is transitional between the Tropical monsoon zone (Am) and the Humid subtropical zone, with hot summer (Cfa) (Alvares et al. 2013).In the study area, the predominant soil type is dystrophic red latosol and quartzarenic neosol (Daniel et al. 2008).
On 6 February 2014, around noon, on edge of an unpaved road, a female was captured while digging her nest in bare sandy soil, and a male was caught on flowers.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.
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.
Ammophila hevans was described from Bolivia and recorded from Argentina and Paraguay (Menke 2004).We now add Brazil to the distribution.The species is distributed in the Rondonian and Chacoan provinces (sensu Morrone 2014).The geographical distribution of this species is now expanded to the Cerrado province in the Brazilian Midwest (Figure 8).
The presence of A. hevans in this biotic transitional area has fundamental importance for elucidate the evolutionary history of the group, and emphasize the need for the conservation of natural habitats in Dourados region.According to Pott and Pott (2003) there are no protected conservation areas in Dourados region.Spector (2002) commented about the importance of conservation of biogeographical crossroads, a factor barely considered and usually set aside when choosing areas for conservation.