Physocephala rufipes, Fabricius, 1781

Stuke, Jens-Hermann, 2016, Taxonomic notes on Western Palaearctic Conopidae (Diptera), Zootaxa 4178 (4), pp. 521-534 : 529

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4178.4.4
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0FC215B7-B640-42E5-9709-64CC15581D97
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6070350
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03CE87E7-B323-9274-30DA-FE33F373FC0D
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Physocephala rufipes
status

Treatment

P. rufipes ( Fabricius, 1781) View in CoL

Conops rufipes Fabricius 1781: 466 View in CoL ; type-locality: “ Germania ”; no information available about type material [ ZMUC]

Diagnosis. see Chvála (1961) and Stuke (2006).

= P. laticincta ( Brullé, 1832) syn. nov.

Conops laticinctus Brullé, 1832: 680 ; type-locality: “Caritène” [ Greece]; holotypus ♂ [MNHN]

The only character used to separate Physocephala laticincta from Physocephala rufipes View in CoL is the black base of the femora in the former species. Numerous intermediates have been examined by the author of the present paper, however, and there are no other characters to date that allow one to distinguish the two reliably. As a consequence, I interpret the leg colouration as infraspecific variability and therefore place P. laticincta as a junior synonym of P. rufipes View in CoL (syn. nov.).