Open Access

Thorleif Haakon Dörfel, Michael Ohl

• The Afrotropical species of the sphecid genus Sphex are revised. Forty-six taxa are recognized, of which fifteen are newly described: Sphex abbotti nivarius subsp. nov., S. comorensis sp. nov., S. hades sp. nov., S. nefrens sp. nov., S. occidentalis sp. nov., S. pseudopraedator sp. nov., S. pseudosatanas sp. nov., S. pulawskii sp. nov., S. rufoclypeatus sp. nov., S. satanas memnon subsp. nov., S. schmideggeri sp. nov., S. schoutedeni malawicus subsp. nov., S. socotrensis sp. nov., S. stadelmanni rufus subsp. nov. and S. victoria sp. nov. A new subgenus, Menkeella subgen. nov., is proposed for S. paulinierii Guérin Méneville, 1843. Four former synonyms are resurrected: Sphex pruinosus var. haemorrhoidalis Magretti, 1898, for which the replacement name of S. feijeni nom. nov. is proposed, S. camerunicus Strand, 1916, S. cinerascens Dahlbom, 1843 and S. abbotti W. Fox, 1891. Nine of the previously valid names are shown to be junior synonyms: Sphex haemorrhoidalis basuto (Arnold, 1947) and S. haemorrhoidalis kobrowi (Arnold, 1928) = S. umtalicus Strand, 1916; S. incomptus anonymus Leclercq, 1955 = S. nigrohirtus Kohl, 1895; S. neavei (Arnold, 1928) = S. abbotti W. Fox, 1891; S. observabilis (R. Turner, 1918) = S. ahasverus Kohl, 1890; S. rufiscutis (R. Turner, 1918) and S. mochii Giordani Soika, 1942 = S. jansei Cameron, 1910; S. rufiscutis laevigatus Arnold, 1951 = S. gaullei Berland, 1927; and S. stadelmanni integer (Arnold, 1928) = S. stadelmanni Kohl, 1895. Three previously synonymized species are transferred as new synonyms to different species: Sphex conradti Berland, 1927 = S. camerunicus Strand, 1916; S. kilimandjaroensis Cameron, 1908 = S. abbotti W. Fox, 1891; and S. nigripes var. pachyderma Strand, 1916 = S. umtalicus Strand, 1916. For three species, the actual type localities are on different continents than their labels indicate: Sphex ahasverus Kohl, 1890, S. castaneipes Dahlbom, 1843 and S. optimus F. Smith, 1856, with the first occuring in Africa instead of Australia and the other two presumably occuring in South America instead of Africa. The occurrence of the argentatus group in Sub-Saharan Africa is confirmed, and seven additional species groups are established, with all but one of them based on apomorphic morphological traits. A hypothesis on the phylogenetic relationships among the subgenera and species groups of Sphex is presented, and an identification key for both sexes as well as a placoid-based identification table for males are presented. Using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analysis on mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data generated from thirty-one of the recognized taxa, the monophyly of the proposed species groups is corroborated.