Australian Journal of
Taxonomy
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Neuralacinus vespiformis Kieffer 1911: 217, 218.
Aulacus vespiformis (Kieffer)—Smith 2001: 276, comb. nov.; Jennings 2010 [on-line checklist]; Turrisi 2017: 933; Jennings et al. 2018: 90.
Figure 83. Aulacus vespiformis (Kieffer), female. A, lateral habitus; B, ovipositor sheath. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Figure 84. Aulacus vespiformis (Kieffer), female, A, lateral head; B, frontal face; C, dorsal head; D, lateral mesosoma; E, dorsal mesosoma; F, ovipositor guide; G, fore wing. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Diagnostic description.
Aulacus vespiformis is one of three species with general orange and black colouration, resembling the general aposematic colouration typical of many other aculeate hymenoptera (e.g. Vespidae).
Female. Body size (13.3) mm, ovipositor length (14.6) mm, fore wing length (11.5) mm (Fig. 83); colouration body orange or light brown, with variable amounts of black on head, mesosoma, coxae, trochanter and femur, metasoma T1 orange, T1 to tip black with golden setae; wings faint brown tint, fore wing 1st marginal, 1st submarginal, basal cell with brown infuscation, costal cell and pterostigma yellow (Fig. 84G), hind wing veins spectral; head shape quadrate, width (1.4) × length, postocular space (1.1) × eye length in dorsal view (Fig. 84C), raised transverse carina above toruli absent (one specimen with two indistict projections), malar space (0.2) × height of eye (Fig. 84A); length of scape (1.3) × length of pedicel, 1st flagellomere (1.3) × length of scape, (1.0) × 2nd flagellomere; mesosoma length (1.5) × height, mesoscutum in lateral view rounded antero-dorsally (Fig. 84D); mesoscutum length (0.8) × width in dorsal view (Fig. 84E); medial lobe coarse areolate-rugose; ovipositor guide transverse, positioned medially (Fig. 84F); ovipositor sheath length (1.3) × fore wing length (Fig. 83); 2-Rs+M (0.6) × 1-Rs+M, three hamuli, equidistant (Fig. 84G); metasoma pyriform,T1+T2 length (1.6) × width in dorsal view.
Males. Body size 13.3 mm, similar to females.
This species is superficially similar to A. douglasi and A. festivus in general appearance and distinctive infuscation of the fore wing, but can be separated by indistinct projections above toruli (A. douglasi and A. festivus with distinctive raised transverse carina above toruli), ovipositor length 1.5 × fore wing length (longer in A. douglasi, 1.5–1.8 × fore wing length, shorter in A. festivus, 0.9–1.0 × fore wing length) and mesosoma colouration mainly black with variable patches of orange (Mesosoma colouration mainly orange with small variable patches of black in A. douglasi).
Material examined.
Holotype. AUSTRALIA – Queensland • ♂, "Townsville, Feb. 1903. F.P. Dodd" (NHMUK: 011507536). Right hind wing glued to card. Right fore leg and mid tarsomere 5 and claw missing (examined from photographs).
Other material examined.
AUSTRALIA – Queensland • 1 ♀, Bundaberg Creek, Bundaberg (ANIC), (determined as Aulacus festivus in Jennings et al. 2018).
Figure 83. Aulacus vespiformis (Kieffer), female. A, lateral habitus; B, ovipositor sheath. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Figure 84. Aulacus vespiformis (Kieffer), female, A, lateral head; B, frontal face; C, dorsal head; D, lateral mesosoma; E, dorsal mesosoma; F, ovipositor guide; G, fore wing. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Distribution.
This species is known from Townsville in northern Queensland and Bundaberg in Southern Queensland (Fig. 91).
Biology.
Unknown.
Notes.
The specimen of A. festivus examined in Jennings et al. (2018) and depicted in Figure 33A–H, was initially misidentified; upon re-examination, it has been correctly identified as a female specimen of A. vespiformis.