Oxysarcodexia thornax ( Walker, 1849 )

Souza, Carina Mara De, Pape, Thomas & Thyssen, Patricia Jacqueline, 2020, Oxysarcodexia Townsend, 1917 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) - a centennial conspectus, Zootaxa 4841 (1), pp. 1-126 : 99-101

Oxysarcodexia thornax ( Walker, 1849)

( Figs 257–259 )

Musca auriflua Wiedemann, 1830: 364 . Unavailable name [originally proposed in synonymy with Musca tessellata Fabricius, 1805 and not made available by subsequent usage].

Sarcophaga thornax Walker, 1849: 814 ; type locality unknown. Lectotype female [designated by Lopes (1976: 630)] in NHMUK (not examined). [Described from an unspecified number of female syntype (s); not mentioned by Aldrich (1930), probably because no type locality was given; Lopes (1976: 630) made the incorrect assumption that the single female was a holotype; we consider Lopes to have made a lectotype designation in accordance with Article 74.5 of the Code, having “unambiguously selected a particular syntype to act as the unique name-bearing type” of the nominal taxon Sarcophaga thornax Walker, 1849 .]

Sarcophaga pudica Rondani, 1850: 174 ; Brazil, São Paulo, São Sebastião. Lectotype female [designated by Lopes (1985: 558)] in MRSN (not examined). [Described from an unspecified number of female syntypes; Lopes (1985) made the incorrect assumption that the single female present in MRSN was the holotype, and we thereby consider Lopes to have made a lectotype designation in accordance with Article 74.5 of the Code ( ICZN 1999), having “unambiguously selected a particular syntype to act as the unique name-bearing type” of the nominal taxon Sarcophaga pudica Rondani, 1850 .]

Sarcophaga aurifinis Walker, 1853: 325 ; Brazil. Syntypes, sex not specified, one male in NHMUK (not examined). [Described from more than one specimen, sexes not specified; Aldrich (1930: 18) recovered and examined only “one male, Brazil ” in NHMUK; Contreras-Lichtenberg (2002: 199) listed four specimens of Oxysarcodexia aurifinis from Brazil in NMW, collected by Johann Natterer during 1817‒1836; it is not clear whether these could be additional syntypes.]

Hybopygia auricauda Enderlein, 1928: 41 . Nomen nudum.

Oxysarcodexia neotropicale Prado & Fonseca, 1932: 36 ; Brazil, São Paulo, São Paulo. Holotype male, female allotype and four paratypes (sex not stated), not located [originally stated to be in “Instituto Butantan”].

Stackelbergeola papei Nandi, 1994: 57 , syn. n.; India, West Bengal, Darjeeling [probably mislabeled]. Holotype male in NHMUK (examined from photographs).

Diagnosis. Male. Length 6.0–10.0 mm. Postocular plate with pale golden pollinosity. Ocellar bristles weakly developed. Thorax and abdomen with pale golden pollinosity; T5 partly with golden pollinosity. Two welldifferentiated posterior and 1–3 smaller anterior post-sutural dorsocentrals. Apical scutellar bristles absent. Legs blackish. T3 with 2 pairs of lateral marginal bristles, T4 with 1 pair of median marginal and 2 pairs of lateral marginal bristles. ST5 with deep median cleft with margins almost parallel and with pilosity and bristles at apex of arms. Cercus straight in lateral view, with normal apex (i.e., as broad as median area) and concave margin. Cercus with bristles ventrally absent only on middle portion. Cerci with distal third as broad as middle part in posterior view; diverging. Pregonite with expanded base and sudden narrowing at apex; darker at apex. Postgonite like pregonite, except unicolorous. Distiphallus with serrated ventroapical margin, rounded apex, straight dorsal outline and “finger-like” dorsoapical swelling. Vesica symmetrical, with angular median projection of main branch; distal lobes well developed, sclerotized, square, with median “finger-like” projection and spines only along margins.

Remarks. See under O. afficta , O. conclausa and O. morretesi . The female of O. thornax has T7 divided into two plates ( Tibana & Mello 1985). The first larval instar was described by Lopes & Leite (1986). Oxysarcodexia thornax has been intercepted in the port of Shanghai in a cargo container from the Americas ( Deng et al. 2011), but its possible establishment in China has not been investigated. Nandi’s (1994) description of Stackelbergeola papei was based on a male from India, Darjeeling, collected by E.A. Brunetti in 1913. This could be interpreted as a chance introduction, but Darjeeling is far from the coast and not a port of entry for relevant foreign goods and it is very far from any Neotropical locality that could have served as the original source of specimens. It is difficult to envision a small population of O. thornax sustaining itself in the hull of a cargo ship during months of travelling [Neotropical flesh flies in general have no pupal diapause ( Denlinger et al. 1991)], and as a bovine coprophage the most likely means of introduction may have been in association with transportation of cattle, where again a Neotropical source appears unlikely. The known introductions of Neotropical flesh flies exclusively relate to eastern China ( Deng et al. 2011), Pacific islands ( Pape 1990b), eastern Australia ( Pape 1990a) and New Zealand ( Pape 1996). The mitochondrial genome of this species has been completely sequenced ( Carmo et al. 2019).

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL. Argentina (Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Corrientes, Jujuy, Misiones, Tucumán), Bolivia, Brazil (Amapá, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, Paraíba, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Roraima, Santa Catarina, São Paulo), Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay (Paysandú).

Biology. Oxysarcodexia thornax is one of the most widespread species of Oxysarcodexia . It is very abundant in field catches in Brazil and Argentina, especially during the summer ( Oliveira et al. 2002) and autumn ( Mulieri et al. 2010). Human and bovine feces are the preferred rearing and feeding substrates, and females use nutrients in the feces to complete ovarian development ( Mendes & Linhares 1993, 2002). Larviposition on human, dog and anteater feces, cow dung, shrimp, bovine kidney, chicken viscera and dead fish has been documented in the literature ( Lopes 1973b; D’Almeida 1986, 1988, 1989; Mendes & Linhares 1993; D’Almeida 1994; Marchiori & Linhares 1999; Marchiori et al. 2001, 2002; Mendes & Linhares 2002; Mulieri et al. 2010). Under laboratory conditions, larvae of O. thornax have been reared on agar mixed with powdered milk for 24h, then transferred to meat in order to complete their development to adults ( Lopes 1973b). Reared on minced bovine meat at LIE, with adults emerging after 17–21 days (on average, 10 days from first instar to pupa and 8 days from pupa to adult). This species has also been collected on pig carcasses ( Rosa et al. 2011; Oliveira-Costa et al. 2014; Vairo et al. 2014; Barbosa 2015; Ries & Blochtein 2015; Vasconcelos et al. 2016; Faria et al. 2018; Lopes et al. 2018; Castro et al. 2019; Leite-Júnior et al. 2019; Paseto et al. 2019), being associated with the fresh, bloated, decay and post-decay stages of decomposition of an unburned carcass and with the decay, post-decay and skeletal stages of a burned one ( Oliveira-Costa et al. 2014; Lopes et al. 2018; Castro et al. 2019). Vasconcelos et al. (2016) registered the occurrence of this species in all decomposition stages of pig carcasses exposed in a fragment of Brazilian Caatinga. Ries & Blochtein (2015) reported the association of O. thornax with a pig carcass in the bloated and black putrefaction stages of decomposition. Oliveira & Vasconcelos (2018) found that this species was associated only with the early stage of decomposition of rat carcasses exposed in a semi-preserved fragment of Caatinga and collected it only during the diurnal sampling. Besides the above, baits such as raw pork, mouse, rat and other rodent carcasses, chicken viscera (especially liver), fresh and rotten bovine liver, spleen and lung, dead fish (sardine), crab and squid, fermented banana, rotten banana mixed with yeast or brown sugar, and rotten S. comosa have been reported as attractive for this species ( Lopes 1973b, 1975a; Ferreira 1979; Ferreira et al. 1980; Dias et al. 1984c; D’Almeida & Lima 1994; Couri et al. 2000; Pamplona et al. 2000; Oliveira et al. 2002; Leandro & D’Almeida 2005; Costamagna et al. 2007; Marchiori 2007; Mariluis et al. 2007; Moretti et al. 2008; Mulieri et al. 2008, 2011; Sousa et al. 2011; Beuter et al. 2012; Ramírez-Mora et al. 2012; Vasconcelos & Araujo 2012; Moretti & Godoy 2013; Barbosa 2015; Barbosa et al. 2015; Sousa et al. 2015; Carmo & Vasconcelos 2016; Dufek et al. 2016; Sousa et al. 2016; Souza & Von Zuben 2016; Barbosa et al. 2017; Ernesto et al. 2018; Oliveira & Vasconcelos 2018). Adults have also been collected on human cadavers (Oliveira-Costa et al. 2001). A preference of O. thornax for sunlit as opposed to shaded areas has been reported ( Linhares 1981). This species is known to occur in urban, rural and forest areas, pastures, cattle sheds, slaughterhouses, zoological gardens, highlands above 1000 m, grasslands, woodlands, wetlands, palm groves, Brazilian Cerrado and Caatinga, deforested coastlines, and archipelagos ( Couri et al. 2000; Marchiori 2000; Carvalho & Linhares 2001; Costamagna et al. 2007; Marchiori et al. 2007a; 2007b; Mariluis et al. 2007; Barros et al. 2008; Couri et al. 2008; Mulieri et al. 2008; Barbosa et al. 2009; Mulieri et al. 2011; Vairo et al. 2011; Beuter et al. 2012; Vasconcelos & Araujo 2012; Vairo et al. 2014; Barbosa et al. 2015; Ries & Blochtein 2015; Carmo & Vasconcelos 2016; Dufek et al. 2016; Sousa et al. 2016; Barbosa et al. 2017; Ernesto et al. 2018; Paseto et al. 2019). Ferreira (1979), D’Almeida (1984), and Dias et al. (1984a) highlighted the non-synanthropy of O. thornax , a trait which seems to have changed over time. Recently, Dufek et al. (2016) pointed out that O. thornax has a strong preference for human settlements, based on results of a study carried out in Argentinean wetlands, and a similar result was obtained by Souza & Von Zuben (2016), who studied the synanthropy of Sarcophagidae from rural, forest, and urban areas of the Brazilian Cerrado and semi-deciduous forest. In the Brazilian state of Maranhão, O. thornax was recorded from 25% to 50% of study sites ( Sousa et al. 2015). In Itamaracá, a continental island in Pernambuco state, Brazil, O. thornax was considered accidental, collected only in an area of low anthropogenic impact; in Fernando de Noronha, an oceanic island in the same state, its classification varied according to the anthropogenic impact, being considered accidental in areas of low anthropogenic impact, constant in areas of moderate anthropogenic impact, and accessory in areas of high anthropogenic impact ( Carmo & Vasconcelos 2016). In contrast, O. thornax was considered a recessive and accidental species in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul by Ries & Blochtein (2015). Oxysarcodexia thornax has also been recorded as a host of parasitic wasps of the genus Trybliographa ( Hymenoptera : Figitidae ) ( Marchiori et al. 2005, 2007a, 2007b), as a rare visitor on flowers of Metrodorea stipularis Mart. (Rutaceae) ( Pombal & Morellato 2000), a floral visitor of Triplaris gardneriana (Polygonaceae) ( Custodio et al. 2017), and as prey (in the pupal stage) of the rove beetles Aleochara verberans Erichson, 1839 and A. bimaculata Gravenhorst, 1802 ( Coleoptera : Staphylinidae ) ( Walsh & Posse 2003). Oxysarcodexia thornax is considered useful for biomonitoring, revealing anthropogenic impacts due to its preference for modified habitats such as clearings ( Sousa et al. 2014).

Type material examined. No specimens were examined directly, but photographs of the holotype of Stackelbergeola papei were provided by courtesy of Dr. Daniel Whitmore ( NHMUK) .

Other material examined. [ ♂] BRAZIL: São Paulo, Campinas, Sousas , 13.IV.2011, C. M. Souza, D. L. Brancoli, F. Rezende / O. thornax, Sousas , Campinas-SP, 13/04/2011 [ LIE] // [♂] Petropolis, Tq. E. do Rio, Brasil H. S. Lopes 2:69 / Oxysarcodexia thornax (Walker) ♂ Det. H. S. Lopes [ MNRJ] // [♂] [Brazil] Goiânia Est. Goiaz VIII-1943 Freitas & Nobre / Oxysarcodexia thornax (Walker) ♂ Det. H. S. Lopes [ MNRJ] .

Figures

FIGURES 254–263. Oxysarcodexia spp., males. 254–256. Oxysarcodexia terminalis (Wiedemann) (Argentina, MACN). 254. Habitus, lateral view. 255. Terminalia, lateral view. 256. Terminalia, posterior view. 257–259. Oxysarcodexia thornax (Walker) (Brazil, São Paulo, Campinas, LIE). 257. Habitus, lateral view. 258. Terminalia, lateral view. 259. Terminalia, posterior view. 260–263. Oxysarcodexia timida (Aldrich) (Venezuela, Aragua, NHMD). 260. Habitus, lateral view. 261. Terminalia, lateral view. 262. Distiphallus, anterior view. 263. Terminalia, posterior view. Figs 254–256 by P.R. Mulieri (MACN).