Ephuta scrupea ( Say, 1836 )

Ephuta scrupea ( Say, 1836)

Mutilla ( Ephuta) scrupea Say, 1836: 297 , ♁.

Ephuta tentativa Schuster, 1951: 29 , ♀. New synonym.

Ephuta pauxilla Bradley : Pitts & Manley, 2007: 342, ♁. Misidentification.

Material examined. USA., Oklahoma, Latimer County, VII.1990, K. Stephen (1 mating pair, EMUS). I examined over 200 additional specimens of E. scrupea (CASC, CSCA, EMUS, FSCA, TAMU, UCDC, UMMZ, UMSP) and 24 females of E. tentativa (EMUS, UMMZ, UMSP) .

Distribution. USA ( Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin).

Remarks. Pitts and Manley (2007) associated E. tentativa , known from females only, with E. pauxilla , known from males only, based on a mating pair from Oklahoma. Males of E. pauxilla and E. scrupea are similar in sculpture, coloration and distribution and can only be reliably separated by clypeal morphology ( Schuster 1951). On first observation, the male in the mating pair from Oklahoma ( Pitts & Manley 2007) was grasping the female’s head in its mandibles and the clypeus was not observable. The mating pair was then re-hydrated and separated for observation of the clypeus, which revealed that the male was actually E. scrupea . Ephuta tentativa is transferred from its previous synonymy under E. pauxilla to E. scrupea . It differs from the previously recognized females of E. scrupea by eye size only ( Schuster 1951), revealing that this feature is subject to intraspecific variation in Ephuta . The true female of E. pauxilla remains unknown.