Climaciella semihyalina (Le Peletier de Saint-Fergeau & Audinet-Serville, 1825)

(Figs. 21 a‒f, 25, Map 4)

Mantispa semihyalina Le Peletier de Saint-Fergeau & Audinet-Serville, 1825: 270. Holotype: sex unknown, Brazil (MNHN), not studied.

Mantispa chalybea Erichson, 1839; Enderlein 1910: 367 (syn.).

Nobrega tinctus Navás, 1914; Penny 1982b: 453 (syn.).

Climaciella semihyalina; Handschin 1960: 554 (redesc.); Penny 1977: 34 (list.); Poivre 1986: 87 (diag.); Penny 1982b: 450 (redesc.); Penny & da Costa 1983: 670 (redesc.); Ohl 2004: 167 (cat.); Reynoso-Velasco & Contreras-Ramos 2008: 708 (list.).

Specimens examined. Colombia: Putumayo: Loma Alta, NNP la Paya, 0°6’N – 74°58’W, 350 m, 18.VIII.2004, M. Trejos, Malaise trap m-4962 (1 ♂, 1 ♀—IAvH).

Diagnosis. Head black (Fig. 21 d), prothorax bent ventrally at mid-length in lateral view (Fig. 21 a). Pterothorax almost entirely black, except the edges of notal and pleural sclerites that exhibit orange pigmentation (Figs. 21 c, e). Forelegs almost entirely dark reddish brown, femur with basal margin reddish brown (Figs. 21 a, b). Wings dark amber in the anterior half, light amber posterad MA, the remainder of the membrane hyaline (Fig. 21 f).

Remarks. The pattern of mimicry of C. semihyalina corresponds with Polybia ignobilis (Haliday) (Vespidae), one of the most common social wasps in southern South America. Another similar wasp, perhaps more common in the northern South America is Polybia simillima Smith (Bolivar R. Garcete-Barrett, pers. comm.).

Adults of C. semihyalina have been collected from November to April and from June to August. Its altitudinal distribution range is between 350 and 1200 m. This species is recorded from Colombia for the first time.

Distribution. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay.