Nitela

Nitela sp., copyright Christophe Quintin.

Belongs within: Crabronidae.

Nitela is a widespread genus of very small, mostly black crabronid wasps with markedly reduced wing venation.

Characters (from Bohart & Menke 1976): Inner orbits converging above: inner and/or outer orbits sometimes margined by a carina; eyes sometimes with a fine pubescence; antenna variable, pedicel, and flagellomeres usually longer than broad: antennal socket very low on face, surrounded by a basin which may be carinate above; frontal carina usually weak or absent, sometimes bifurcate dorsad, or lamelliform; clypeus usually very narrow, mesally tumid and usually bearing a vertical carina which may be continuous with frontal carina, clypeal margin usually with a median truncate or sinuate lobe; labrum quadrate to subtriangular, its free margin sometimes visible beyond clypeal margin; inner margin of mandible usually with a subapical tooth in female, apex blunt or weakly bifid in some females, inner margin usually toothless in male (exceptionally subapically dentate or with a large subbasal tooth), externoventral margin without a notch; malar space usually present in both sexes: mouthparts short, labial palpus very short, first segment much longer than remaining three; occipital carina incomplete below, usually ending far short of hypostomal carina; mandibular socket open; pronotal collar moderately long and often with a transverse sulcus which is usually interrupted at midline by a carina or triangular prominence, front margin of collar sometimes carinate, humeral angles rounded or angulate; admedian lines of scutum short and widely separated when present; scutellum simple or with a narrow sulcus along anterior margin; propodeum long, dorsum without enclosure but usually longitudinally ridged, coarsely reticulate or areolate, posterior face nearly vertical, flat, and sometimes margined by a carina; propleuron usually simple; mesopleuron with an episternal sulcus and a hypersternaulus; metapleuron sometimes poorly defined beneath upper metapleural pit; pygidial plate absent, segment VI conical in female and sometimes laterally compressed; legs moderately long, foretarsal rake absent; midcoxae separated, occasionally narrowly so, hindcoxae contiguous; hindtibia spineless; tarsomere V not swollen, arolia small; forewing marginal cell truncate apically (sometimes narrowly so) and appendiculate, forewing with only one submarginal and discoidal cell, and subdiscoidal cell open posteriorly because A₁ is evanescent beyond cu-a, recurrent vein usually received by submarginal I, or received beyond in several exceptional species; hindwing venation greatly reduced and jugal lobe small; male sternum VIII variable; volsella at most weakly differentiated from gonostyle.

<==Nitela Latreille 1809 C85
    |  i. s.: N. apoensis Tsuneki et al. 1992 LL10
    |         N. borealis Valkeila 1974 BM76
    |         N. obliquipropodea Li & Li 2010 LL10
    |         N. philippinica Tsuneki et al. 1992 LL10
    |         N. protuberancis Li & Li 2010 LL10
    |--N. (Nitela) [incl. Rhinonitela Williams 1928] BM76
    |    |--*N. (N.) spinolae Latreille 1809 C85 [=N. spinolai Valkeila 1974 BM76]
    |    |--N. (N.) australiensis Schulz 1908 BM76 [incl. N. nigricans Turner 1910 C85]
    |    |--N. (N.) austrocaledonica Williams 1945 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) bicornis Williams 1928 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) braunsii Arnold 1940 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) capicola Brauns 1911 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) carinifrons Menke 1968 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) cerasicola Pate 1937 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) collaris Turner 1926 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) costaricensis Brauns 1911 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) darwini Turner 1916 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) domestica (Williams 1928) [=*Rhinonitela domestica] BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) fallax Kohl 1884 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) floridana Pate 1934 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) henrici Turner 1926 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) kurandae Turner 1908 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) leoni Krombein 1968 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) lubutuana Arnold 1929 BM76
    |    |    |--N. l. lubutuana BM76
    |    |    `--N. l. nyasae Arnold 1947 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) luzonensis Williams 1928 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) maxima Maidl 1925 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) merceti Brauns 1911 [incl. N. transvaalensis Brauns 1911] BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) mochii Arnold 1940 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) ochripes Arnold 1940 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) ohgushii Tsuneki 1956 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) oxiana Gussakovskij 1945 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) parallela Arnold 1929 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) pendleburyi Turner 1926 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) promontorii Brauns 1911 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) reticulata Ducke 1908 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) retifera Arnold 1940 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) rhodesiae Arnold 1940 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) rufiventris Turner 1916 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) rugosa Williams 1928 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) rugosissima Arnold 1940 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) schmidti Brauns 1911 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) sculpturata Turner 1916 BM76 [=N. reticulata Turner 1908 non Ducke 1908 C85]
    |    |--N. (N.) townesorum Krombein 1950 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) virginiensis Rohwer 1923 BM76
    |    |--N. (N.) williamsi Menke 1968 BM76
    |    `--N. (N.) yasumatsui Tsuneki 1956 BM76
    |         |--N. y. yasumatsui LL10
    |         `--N. y. taiwana Tsuneki 1956 LL10
    `--N. (Tenila Brèthes 1913) BM76
         |--N. (*T.) amazonica Ducke 1903 BM76
         |--N. (T.) bifida Menke 1969 BM76
         `--N. (T.) gulana (Williams 1928) [=Rhinonitela gulana] BM76

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BM76] Bohart, R. M., & A. S. Menke. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World. University of California Press: Berkeley.

[C85] Cardale, J. C. 1985. Vespoidea and Sphecoidea. In: Walton, D. W. (ed.) Zoological Catalogue of Australia vol. 2. Hymenoptera: Formicoidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea pp. 150–303. Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra.

[LL10] Li, T., & Q. Li. 2010. Key to the Oriental species of Nitela Latreille (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), with descriptions of two new species from China. Oriental Insects 44: 337–344.