The only female of this species in the CAS collection agrees to perfection with the type of Argogorytes matangensis and both specimens fit very well the good description of Malaygorytes konishii by Nemkov (1999). Their three most important characters are: scutellum with round preapical fossa whose diameter is about half midocellar width (Fig. 1a), terga II–V narrowly double-edged, and a narrow apical fascia of golden setae present on each terga I–IV (Fig. 1e). Other significant features include: basal scutellar sulcus foveolate (Fig. 1a); postscutellum longitudinally ridged (Fig. 1a); mesopleuron with conspicuous longitudinal ridges that do not extend down to mesopleural signum (Fig. 1b); metapleuron microscopically punctate; tergal punctures minute; tergum I with erect setae, the longest ones (on the tergum’s side) slightly longer than midocellar width; median carina of sternum I triangular in profile; sternum II moderately angulate anteromesally, with fine, dense, and larger, sparse punctures; sterna III and IV punctate throughout (punctures conspicuous and sparse mesally); pygidial plate unusually narrow, practically parallel-sided, with glabrous median carina (Fig. 1d); body all black except at least hindfemur reddish brown (all femora reddish brown in holotype of matangensis; mid- and hindfemora reddish brown in CAS specimen), wings mostly hyaline but marginal cell and beyond conspicuously infumate as well as anterior portions of submarginal cells II and III (Fig. 1c). Length 11.1–11.4 mm.

Male unknown.

Argogorytes fuliginosus Tsuneki, 1968, from Taiwan, whose type I have also examined, is similar to matangensis in having double-edged terga and a small preapical fossa on the scutellum as well as a conspicuously ridged mesopleuron. It differs in having the mesopleural ridges attaining the mesopleural signum, the legs all black, and all wings conspicuously infumate.

Records

(Fig. 2).MALAYSIA: Pahang: Genting Tea Estate, Genting Sempah (1 ♀, CAS). Nageri Sembilan: Pasoh Forest Reserve (Nemkov 1999). Sarawak: Matang (1 ♀, BMNH, holotype of Gorytes matangensis).

Figure 1.

Argogorytes matangensis (F. Smith), female: a scutellum (arrows indicate scutellar fossa) b mesopleuron c left wings d pygidial plate e gaster in dorsal view.

Figure 2.

Collecting localities of Argogorytes matangensis (F. Smith).

In his description of Cerceris bantamensis, based on a single male, van der Vecht (1964) commented that “This is perhaps the unknown male of Cerceris ferox Smith, described from Sumatra and also known from Malaya, but this must remain uncertain so long as the sexes have not been collected together”. I was able to study a series of both males and females collected in West and East Malaysia by Kenneth M. Guichard and C. Giles Roche, several of them in the same locality. The detailed description of bantamensis by van der Vecht leaves no doubt about the identity of the males, and a study of the holotypes of both bantamensis and ferox confirmed that they are indeed conspecific. The main characteristics of ferox are the following: the terga have no apicomedian pits, the hindcoxa is not carinate ventrally, sternum II has no basal plate, and the propodeal enclosure is longitudinally ridged throughout (Fig. 3d). As in some other Southeast Asian species, tergum I has well defined, relatively large punctures (Fig. 4c, d), whereas terga II–V are densely microscopically punctate and have some fine punctures many diameters apart; also, tergum I is elongate (Fig. 4c, d): length about 1.2 × maximum width in the female, 1.6–1.7 × in the male, and the female mesopleuron has a conspicuous, vertical prominence just below the scrobe (Fig. 3e, f). The species can be further recognized by a coarsely punctate scutum (Fig. 3c), punctures being elongate in female, only posteriorly so in male, and puncture bottoms microscopically punctate, and the sides of the propodeal dorsum with coarse, round to oval punctures (Fig. 3d), with puncture bottoms finely punctate. In the female, the head is unusually wide in the ventral half (Fig. 3a), the clypeus has a sharp tooth on each side of the free margin (distance between teeth markedly greater than distance between a tooth and eye margin, Fig. 3b), and the depressed part of the free margin is uniformly, slightly concave between the teeth; the clypeus also has a median transverse prominence next to the foremargin that overhangs the margin (free margin of prominence is evenly arcuate); the inner mandibular margin has one subbasal tooth and is only slightly broadened preapically (Fig. 3b). In the male, the free margin of the median clypeal lobe is nearly truncate and rounded laterally (Fig. 4a); flagellomeres VI–X or VII–X each has a round, unsculptured concavity on the ventral surface (Fig. 4b), flagellomeres VI–IX are sharply prominent apicoventrally, and flagellomere XI is markedly curved (Fig. 4b), with the ventral surface concave, impunctate, asetose; sternum VII has no particular distinguishing structures.