Dolichopus popularis Wiedemann, 1817

Kahanpää, Jere, 2008, Nematode-induced demasculinisation of Dolichopus males (Diptera: Dolichopodidae), Zootaxa 1689, pp. 51-62 : 60

Dolichopus popularis Wiedemann, 1817

Dolichopus popularis Wiedemann, 1817: 70 Dolichopus aemulus Loew, 1859: 9

Demasculinised males examined: Coll. JK — Finland, 1ɗ Ab:Korppoo, Jurmo (66469:31977), 20.vii.2005, J. Kahanpää, id jka-05-02711, collected with several normal specimens of D. popularis .

Dolichopus aemulus is close to D. popularis , from which it differs by the broader face and the narrowly feathered and weakly compressed apical segments of the mesotarsus ( Fig. 1 ). The 5th mesotarsal segment is dark, not white as in D. popularis . The hypopygium is somewhat smaller than normal for D. popularis , but without obvious morphological differences. D. aemulus has been recorded from Sweden and the former Czechoslovakia ( Negrobov 1991).

Ringdahl (1928, 1949) classified D. aemulus as a gynandromorphic form of D. popularis . Parent (1938), Negrobov (1991), and Grichanov (2004) treated D. aemulus as a valid species, although Grichanov (2002) had earlier expressed doubt about its validity. Yang et al. (2006), following Meuffels (1978), placed D. aemulus in synonymy with D. popularis . The only Finnish specimen was dissected and found to be parasitised. This supports the placement of Dolichopus aemulus Loew, 1859 as a junior synonym of D. popularis .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Ornamentation of apical segments of middle tarsi of Dolichopus popularis Wiedemann. a) normal male, b) parasitised male (= D. aemulus Loew)