Liris anticus (F. Smith 1856)

Liris (Motes) anticus (Smith)

Larrada antica Smith, 1856:287–288 [; Brazil; unique type in British Museum (Natural History), London].

Larra antica (Smith).—Kohl, 1884:241 [listed].—Dalla Torre, 1897:663 [listed].

?Tachysphex rufo-geniculata Cameron, 1912:435 [; British Guiana; type in Georgetown Museum?].

Liris (Motes) antica (Smith).—Bohart and Menke, 1976:244 [Brazil, Trinidad; T. rufogeniculata Cameron listed as a questionable synonym].

This is the only species in the subgenus Motes that occurs in the Nearctic Region. Both sexes can be readily distinguished from species in the subgenus Leptolarra by the simple mandibles. The females have a toothed tarsal claw and lack the transverse apical spatulate spines on the pygidium.

COLOR.—Black; mandibles, apices of femora, ventral half of tibiae, and entire tarsi dark reddish brown; front half of wings infumated, posterior half clear or slightly yellowish, veins reddish brown.

VESTITURE.—Most areas of head and thorax sparsely pubescent, often tinged with golden; lateral areas of scutellum, subalar area, and posterior face of propodeum with dense appressed golden vestiture; terga I–IV with apical bands of golden pubescence.

MAP 1.—Known range in North America for Liris anticus (Smith) and L. mescalero mescalero (Pate).

STRUCTURE.—Female: Length, 11.0–11.2 mm; clypeus somewhat tumid along midline, clypeal punctures dense above, becoming larger and more widely scattered below; mandible without teeth on inner edge; flagellomeres IV–X with oval placoids, those on apical segments one-half to two-thirds length of flagellomere; notauli, parapsidal lines, and admedian line barely visible; scutal, meso- and metapleural punctures somewhat large, coarse, and contiguous, those on propodeum coarser; scrobal sulcus distinctly impressed; hind tibia lacking a carina; sterna I–II dull, with close, fine punctures, III–VI shiny, with larger punctures scattered among the smaller, denser ones; pygidium slightly convex on dorsal surface, with fine, short, appressed vestiture and a few interspersed, longer, erect setae.

Male: Length, 10.1–10.3 mm; similar to female except most areas of face below middle with dense patches of golden pubescence; thorax with denser golden vestiture on scutum adjacent to pronotal lobes, hypoepimeral area, basalar area, and anterior edge of propodeum; flagellomeres II–XI with broad placoids, that on XI extending over basal one-half; genitalia as in Figure 16.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.—MEXICO. Guerrero, 1, 3 mi N Chilpancingo, 4000′, 19 Mar, H.E. Evans (USNM).

Oaxaca. 1, Palomares, 5–21 Sep, R., K. Dreisbach (UCD); 1, Temascal, 26 Oct 1967, K.H. Janzen (UCD).

Veracruz. 1, Cordoba, 13 Jul, J.S. Buckett, M.R., R.C. Gardner (UCD). (Description of male based on a specimen from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the USNM.)