Dolichomutilla sycorax is broadly distributed throughout eastern Africa, from Kenya to South Africa where it is the most common species of the genus. Its taxonomic status as a valid species distinct fromDolichomutilla guineensis(Fabricius) has recently been clarified by Nonveiller (1996). Specimens are approximately 9–12 mm long, with the head and metasoma black and the mesosoma deep maroon-red. The apterous females have a pair of white spots on the second metasomal tergum and an interrupted broad white band on the third tergum; the macropterous males are almost identical in coloration, unlike for most Mutillidae, and have conspicuously banded wings (Figs. 1–2). Although Gerstaecker (1857, 1862) first described the male (misidentified as that ofD. guineensis), presumably based on the similarity of the sexes, Péringuey (1898) was the first to associate the sexes directly, having reared both simultaneously from the mud nests of Pelopaeus [= Sceliphron] spirifex (Linnaeus) (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae).
