Psilota Meigen, 1822

Young, Andrew D., Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Steenis, Wouter Van, 2020, Revision of the Psilota Meigen, 1822 flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) of Australia, Zootaxa 4737 (1), pp. 1-127 : 14-15

Psilota Meigen, 1822

Psilota Meigen, 1822: 256 . Type species, Psilota anthracina Meigen, 1822 (monotypy).

= Coiloprosopa Macquart, 1850: 449 . Type species, Coiloprosopa nitida Macquart, 1850 (monotypy).

= Emmyia Klocker, 1924: 55 . Type species, Emmyia queenslandica Klocker, 1924 (original designation).

=Parapsilota Hardy, 1933: 16 ( Psilota subgenus). Type species, Psilota viridis Macquart, 1847 (original designation).

Diagnosis. Eye pilose, face pilose except in Psilota purpurea sp. nov., straight to slightly concave with epistoma projecting anteriorly. Spurious vein rudimentary to completely absent. Meron with a tuft of fine pile anteroventral to posterior spiracle, otherwise bare. Male surstylus with narrow, curved outer lobe and broader inner lobe.

Redescription: Head: Rounded in frontal view. Eye pilose, broadly holoptic in male (dichoptic in Psilota purpurea sp. nov.) and dichoptic in female. Face pilose laterally (bare in Psilota purpurea sp. nov.), lacking tubercle, straight to slightly concave with epistoma projecting anteriorly, pollinose or completely bare laterally, shining and free of pollinosity centrally. Frontal prominence not produced. Gena not well developed. Frons short, broad, pilose, slightly longer than vertical triangle. Vertex pilose, ocellar triangle approximately equilateral. Antenna inserted at half the height of the head, with scape and pedicel short; postpedicel ovoid, or subtriangular and tapering to a point, with sensory pit on medial surface; arista bare. Thorax: Scutum slightly longer than wide; scutellum about twice as wide as long, with apical marginal rim, subscutellar fringe present; pleuron entirely pollinose to entirely bare and shining; postpronotum, anepisternum, anepimeron, and katepisternum pilose, katepimeron, katatergum, and metaepisternum bare, anatergum with fine pile, meron with a tuft of fine pile anteroventral to posterior spiracle, metasternum pilose. Legs sometimes with hind femur somewhat thickened and/or with an apicoventral carina armed with thickened setula, hind tibia sometimes with a small basoventral spur, legs otherwise unmodified. Wing entirely microtrichose to extensively bare, usually hyaline but sometimes with an anteromedial or apical darkened spot; spurious vein rudimentary or entirely absent and represented only by a crease; cell r 1 open to wing margin, vein R 4+5 straight; alula well developed, plumula present and single branched. Abdomen: In most species oval, approximately 0.75 times as wide as long. Male genitalia: Usually symmetric, although some species with slight asymmetry of the surstyli; cercus rectangular to sub-triangular; surstylus forked, usually with a broad, paddle-shaped inner medial lobe and a thin, downward curved lateral lobe; phallapodeme crescent shaped, sometimes with a ventral hook; postgonite rounded, with dense patch of thickened setae on the dorso-medial surface.