REVISION OF LEUCOSPIDAE 33 



The New World species 



Leucospis includes at present 42 species in the New World. From the species 

 classified as American by previous authors two were already excluded, viz. integra 

 Haldeman (see p. 229) and shuckardi Westwood, and two more must be omitted: 

 L. varicollis Cameron and L. pediculata Guerin-Meneville. 



L. varicollis has been regarded as an Argentinian species, for it was described by 

 Cameron (1909) along with some Argentinian Hymenoptera, although no locality 

 was given and the type bears no indication of origin. During my study this species 

 proved to belong to a species-group confined to the Old World and L. varicollis 

 eventually was recognized as a South African species. 



L. pediadata was originally described from Java, but Schletterer (1890) 

 misquoted the type-locality as Cuba. 



L. shuckardi is a synonym of the Mediterranean L. gigas Fabricius but was 

 recorded originally from 'North America', because it was received together with 

 some other American insects. It was rightly excluded from the list of the North 

 American species (by Peck, 1951) and referred to later on (Peck, 1963 : 907) as 

 an exotic species. The original record must have been erroneous or based on a 

 specimen introduced from some Mediterranean country (e.g. with reeds containing 

 cells of Megachiline bees). The latter possibility cannot be excluded; for example 

 I have seen another female of L. gigas (MNHN, Paris, Coll. De Gaulle) labelled 

 'New York'. The species is not known, however, to be established in North 

 America and is not included in the key below. 



On the other hand, L. ignota Walker, the country of origin of which has not been 

 known, was recognized as an American species and treated as such. 



The American species show a different grade of similarity and are put accordingly 

 in several species-groups, viz. the texana-group, hopei-group, affinis-group, egaia- 

 group, speifer a-gvoup and the cayennensis-gvoxxp. These are characterized below 

 and to some extent also in the key, which aims not only at the correct identification, 

 but also tries to put together species belonging to the same group, although 

 sometimes secondary but more apparent characters are used (as for example in 

 L. hopei, L. leucotelus , L. propinqua). The cayenne nsis-gvoup includes the type- 

 species of the subgenus Metallopsis Westwood, but I do not think it opportune 

 or useful to split the genus in subgenera, mainly because of the existence of various 

 intermediates. A similar situation is in the hopei-group which includes, in the 

 anthidior um-subgroup, the type-species of Exochlaenus Shipp. 



Most American species are fairly distinct and it is hoped that they may be readily 

 recognizable even if known at present in one specimen only and in spite of the 

 sometimes amazing sexual dimorphism. In some cases, however, I feel some 

 uncertainty as to the proper status. For instance the following species seem to 

 have their twin species, sometimes more distinct, sometimes very similar and 

 with the characters partly overlapping, but even then mostly allopatric (at least 

 as far as known) : 



L. texana Cresson and L. rileyi Schletterer 



L. anthidioides Westwood and L. xylocopae Burks 



