Love is in the air and beyond the ocean: Taxonomic review ofNeotrogaspidiaLelej (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae: Trogaspidiini) in Northeast Asia highlights its unique distributional pattern

Abstract

AbstractThe genusNeotrogaspidiaLelej, 1996 is a small group of velvet ants with five species from the Australasian, Oriental and Palearctic Regions. The type species,N. pustulata(Smith, 1873) (♂♀), is the only Northeast Asian species known at present. In this paper,N. elpinice(Mickel, 1933),stat. resurr. et comb. nov.(♂♀) is resurrected from the junior synonym ofN. pustulata. Two new combinations are proposed forN. circumcincta(André, 1896),comb. nov.(♂♀) fromOrientidiaLelej, 1996 andN. recticarinata(Chen, 1957),comb. nov.(♂) fromTrogaspidiaAshmead, 1899. New synonymies are proposed forN. elpinicewithT.aestivalisHammer, 1949,syn. nov.andT.maritimaChen, 1957,syn. nov., andN. circumcinctawithT.yuliensisTsuneki, 1972,syn. nov.andKrombeinidia agricolaWilliams, 2019,syn. nov.An updated genus diagnosis and a key to all described species are provided. New records includeN. circumcinctafrom Laos and Vietnam,N. pustulatafrom North Korea, andN. recticarinatafrom Taiwan. The inflated endophallus of the male genitalia ofN. pustulatais illustrated. A potential host record, habitat records and mating observations ofNeotrogaspidiaare presented. The historical process of formation of the distributional patterns of this genus in Northeast Asia is discussed.