by Discoelius on 23 Feb 2017, 23:20
Hello
I don't know what is meant by "current keys" in this context, but in any case the morphology of A. antilope has not changed, so I think "older" keys and "older" diagnostic characters continue to be valid and useful to separate the species.
Traditionally, keys have mentioned both the sides and the posterior part of the propodeal dorsum as diagnostic for this species. In my experience the propodeal sides of antilope females are (at least posteriorly) very clearly shiny, and the propodeal sides of antilope males are both wholly and impressively shiny, while the propodeal sides are clearly matt in the other European species of the genus: this is such an extremely effective diagnostic character that I think there's no point in looking at the posterior part of the propodeal dorsum (I also think that the difference in the surface of the posterior propodeal dorsum between antilope and the other species is often subtle and therefore a less practical character). Moreover, in dry specimens the sides of the propodeum are usually easy to inspect, while the posterior part of the propodeal dorsum is often hard to impossible to inspect without relaxing the specimen, because it tends to be hidden by the base of the metasoma.
Cheers,
Discoelius.