A possible species of Mutillidae from Cyprus

[mycologistman]

This species was found near Avtepe in Cyprus on 27 Mar 2015. I wonder if it might possibly be Myrmilla erythrocephala ? I would be very grateful for any suggestions. I do have the specimen which is c 13mm

Many thanks

Alan

[piros]

The stripes of light hairs on the abdomen look very different from those of Myrmilla sp. I know, including erythrocephala.
Greetings,
Henrik

[mycologistman]

Thanks Henrik. I have no literature on these but just had to rely on looking at on-line images of various species in the group, many of which of course will undoubtedly be misidentified. The best match I could find was labelled as this! Thank you for ruling this out. If anyone does have any suggestions please as to what this insect actually it would be greatly appreciated, even to genus.

Many thanks

Alan

[Marcello Romano]

Pseudophotopsis schachruda (Skorikov 1935) (Mutillidae, Pseudophotopsidinae)

[mycologistman]

Very many thanks Marcello.

I had virtually given up hope of getting an identification for this one so am absolutely delighted to have this!

I note that there do not appear to be any images of this species on the internet. Do please feel free to make use of these images of mine if they are of any use to you. If you would like them at higher resolution just contact me off group.

Very many thanks again

Best wishes

Alan Outen

[Christian]

Dear Alan,

soon, we re-organize our online photo gallery of Hymenoptera. As soon as the project runs, I will contact you again for this and - maybe - other pictures. We have already about 3000 pictures, and our aim is to build up a photo gallery with well identified species, because there are so many misidentification in the internet.

Best wishes, Christian

[mycologistman]

That sounds excellent Christian and will be a very worthwhile exercise. I agree with you totally regarding misidentifications on the internet. As you know my own speciality is mycology and nowhere is this problem more apparent than with fungi!

Best wishes and thanks again for all your help as always.

Best wishes

Alan