Philornis pici ( Macquart, 1854 )

Couri, Márcia S., Antoniazzi, Leandro R., Beldomenico, Pablo & Quiroga, Martin, 2009, Argentine Philornis Meinert species (Diptera: Muscidae) with synonymic notes, Zootaxa 2261, pp. 52-62 : 57

Philornis pici ( Macquart, 1854)

Aricia pici Macquart, 1854: 659 . Syntypes male lost (formerly in MNHN or MHNL). Type locality: Dominican Republic, “St-Domingue.

As stated in “Historical data, the records of this species from Argentina are based on speculation ( Bezzi 1922) or on doubtful identifications ( Shannon & Del Ponte 1926; Nores 1995).

Garcia’s (1952) description of P. pici , based on five males, four from Tucumán and one from Santa Fe (all lost), is sufficiently vague that it cannot be accepted as a reliable record of P. pici from Argentina, and hence the species is doubtfully recorded from Argentina. None of the specimens examined in the present study correspond to P. pici .

The following diagnosis, based on Macquart’s (1854) original description and on Aldrich (1923), could help a further identification: length of male 12mm; male eyes contiguous; antenna and palpus yellow; scutum bluish-brown with greyish pollinosity and with four brown vittae; legs yellow; wing clear, abdomen bluishbrown with tergite 1+2 and basal half of tergite 3 yellow. Puparium light brown; with large stigmatal plates, spiracles in a deep concavity, smooth inside; spiracular slits very sinuous (Figure 5 of Aldrich 1923). Macquart (1854: 659) described a cocoon “fait de gros filaments blancs et poreux and gave an illustration of the adult male (Pl. 20. No II).