Taxonomic studies on the family mutillidae hymenoptera vespoidea of central and southern western ghats and its adjacent areas

Abstract

Family Mutillidae is commonly called “Velvet ants”. This family is represented by 216 genera with about 4,300 species worldwide (Noort & Broad, 2024). The males of mutillids are either macropterous, brachypterous, or apterous and females are apterous. Females are brightly colored with patterns of yellow/golden, orange, red, or white on black and often metallic colored. They also have very painful and potent stings and use bright colors as aposematic colorations. Sexual dimorphism is extreme in mutillids, gender association is only possible when caught in copulation pairs or by rearing. Mutillids are external parasitoids of enclosed larvae or pupae of other Hymenopterans, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Blattodea. Mutillidae have tough cuticles, this attribute helps them to escape from the stings of other wasps (Noort & Broad, 2024). The present study attempts to uncover the mutillid fauna of the Central and Southern Western Ghats. The study resulted in documenting a total of 46 species belonging to 19 genera in 6 subfamilies of the family Mutillidae. Eight new species namely, Andreimyrme paniya Terine, Lelej & Girish Kumar, 2021; Cephalotilla (Cephalotilla) manikandani Terine, Lelej & Girish Kumar, 2024; Eosmicromyrmilla balakrishnani Terine, Lelej & Girish Kumar, 2021 ; Eosmicromyrmilla subbuka Terine, Lelej & Girish Kumar, 2021; Odontomutilla sairandhriensis Terine, Girish Kumar & Lelej, 2020; Odontomutilla vishwanathi Terine & Girish Kumar, 2024; Smicromyrme (Eremotilla) williamsi Terine & Girish Kumar, 2023 & Strangulotilla sureshani Terine, Lelej & Girish Kumar, 2021 were described and published from the study area. One species, Pherotilla subterranea sp. nov. is described as new in the thesis. Two genera, Strangulotilla Nonveiller, 1979 & Andreimyrme Lelej, 1995 were recorded for the first time from India. Two species namely, Krombeinidia albopunctata (André, 1907) & Spilomutilla eltola (Cameron, 1898) were newly recorded from India. 13 species namely, Bischoffitilla serratula (Cameron, 1892); Bischoffitilla smithi Lelej, 2005; Krombeinidia lilliputiana (André, 1894); Kurzenkotilla cicatricifera (André, 1894); Promecilla pulchriventris (Cameron, 1892); Promecilla yerburghi (Cameron, 1892); Smicromyrme nigrigena (André, 1894); Spilomutilla cotesii (Cameron, 1897); Storozhenkotilla binghami (Lelej, 2005); Trogaspidia agelia (Cameron, 1900); Trogaspidia intermedia (Saussure, 1867); Trogaspidia ruficrus (Magretti, 1892) & Zeugomutilla bainbriggei (Turner, 1911) were newly recorded from the Kerala state. Three species namely, Bischoffitilla veda (Cameron, 1892); Smicromyrme durga (Bingham, 1897) & Trogaspidia kolabensis (André, 1894) were newly recorded from the Karnataka state. One species namely, Promecilla pulchriventris (Cameron, 1892) was newly recorded from the Tamil Nadu state. A dichotomous key to Indian subfamilies, genera, and species under each genus was provided. Diagnosis of species with distributional records was provided. Plates of photographs of all the examined species were prepared and provided. Coordinates using accurate GPS were noted for the collection site of mutillid specimens, and distribution maps were prepared using QGIS online software. The present study led to the publication of 10 international papers, two national papers, one book chapters and one online publication