Sinotilla trisecta ( Chen, 1957 )

Okayasu, Juriya, Lelej, Arkady S., Williams, Kevin A., Brabant, Craig M., Nguyen, Lien Thi Phuong, Nguyen, Anh Duc, Pham, Thai Hong & Truong, Tuong Thi Cat, 2025, Current knowledge on the velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae, Myrmosidae) of Vietnam: faunal review and new distributional records, Zootaxa 5668 (1), pp. 1-104 : 52-54

Sinotilla trisecta ( Chen, 1957)

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:D6B056D5-499E-4CB9-870E-9D611F05E817

( Figs 18C, 18D)

Smicromyrme trisecta Chen, 1957: 206 , ♂, holotype ♂ (Chusan [= Zhoushan], Chekiang [= Zhejiang], China) [TARI]; He et al. 2004: 958, ♂; Lelej 2005: 64; Hua 2006: 301.

Sinotilla trisecta : Okayasu 2018: 493, ♂; Okayasu 2020: 89, ♂; Pagliano et al. 2020: 203.

Material examined. 1♂. Vietnam: GIA LAI: Kon Ka Kinh National Park , 30.VI.2023, A. Tinh leg. [1♂ IEBR] .

Identification source. Compared with types [ TARI] .

Previous record. None.

Distribution. China. Vietnam *: Gia Lai.

Occurrence in Vietnam. June. Southern Annamites montane rain forests ecoregion.

Sex association. Female unknown.

Remarks. Like Si. ansula and Si. hong , this species was originally described from southern China. Unlike those two species, Si. trisecta reaches further south. This suggests wider potential distribution of Si. ansula and Si. hong .

Genus Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B761D778-D7AB-4154-ADC0-85B065A325A6

Smicromyrme Thomson, 1870: 208 , ♂ ♀; Bischoff 1921: 556, ♂ ♀; Skorikov 1935: 312, ♂ ♀; Giner Marí 1944: 75, ♂ ♀; Invrea 1964: 153, ♂ ♀; Lelej 1985: 211, ♂ ♀; Lelej 2002: 64; Lelej 2005: 56; Lelej & Brothers 2008: 56 ; Pagliano et al. 2020: 187; Lelej & Williams 2023: 128, ♂ ♀. Type species: Mutilla rufipes Fabricius, 1787 (♀), by monotypy. Synonymized by André (1902b: 32) under Mutilla Linnaeus, 1758 . Resurrected to valid genus status by Ashmead (1903: 326).

Mutilla (Smicromyrme) : Dalla Torre 1897: 6.

Diversity and distribution. This is the largest smicromyrmine genus with 273 species from the Afrotropical, Palaearctic, and Oriental Regions including Wallacea ( Lelej, 2002, 2005, 2024; Pagliano et al. 2020; Lelej & Williams 2023). Thirty-six species are distributed in East Asia ( Lelej 2002, 2005; Pagliano et al. 2020; Thaochan et al. 2022). Five subgenera are recognized for the Palaearctic species. Only a few Northeast Asian species are assigned to those subgenera.

Remarks. This genus is apparently an assemblage of heterogeneous species that cannot be reliably placed in any other genera of the Smicromyrmini . Extensive taxonomic revision is needed for South and Southeast Asian species. It has recently been discovered that the gender of Smicromyrme is actually feminine (Brothers & Lelej, in prep.) rather than masculine ( Lelej & Brothers 2008), so it is treated as such in this paper.