Fateryga A.V.
Two new Nearctic genera in the tribe Odynerini s. str. revealed on the bionomics and morphology, with a comment on the cocoons of the eumenine wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae)
Number: 427, Pages: 1 - 19
Two new genera are described for three species in the “red” group of the North American eumenine wasps from the genus Odynerus Latreille, 1802: Bohartodynerus Fateryga, gen. n. for O. margaretellus Rohwer, 1915 (type species) and O. cinnabarinus Bohart, 1939, and Parkerodynerus Fateryga, gen. n. (type species O. erythrogaster Bohart, 1939). Bohartodynerus cinnabarinus comb. n. is newly recorded from Nevada and New Mexico and B. margaretellus comb. n. from California, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Bionomics of the species included to these genera are summarized. Nectar robbing is reported for wasps in the genus Bohartodynerus at flowers of Astragalus spp. (Fabaceae), Penstemon sp. (Plantaginaceae), and Calylophus sp. (Onagraceae). It is speculated that nectar is used by them to bond the gravel during the construction of the closing plug of the nest. Parkerodynerus erythrogaster comb. n. apparently does not use liquid for the nest construction. Bionomics of other genera in the Odynerus group of the tribe Odynerini s. str. are discussed. Neither Bohartodynerus nor Parkerodynerus can be treated as members of the genus Odynerus according to their ethology, and the differences between these two newly described taxa are also enough to recognize them as separate genera. A cocoon of P. erythrogaster is described in detail; it has a sandwich-like structure with two layers of silk strands and a layer of sand in-between. Similar structure is found in the cocoons of other genera in the Odynerus group but only at the free part of the cocoon instead over its whole surface; that was overlooked during the previous studies of those genera.