Atherigona (Acritochaeta) orientalis Schiner, 1868

Deeming, John C. & Kirk-Spriggs, Ashley H., 2024, A contribution to the knowledge of Namibian Atherigona Rondani (Diptera: Muscidae), with the descriptions of four new species and two new subspecies, Zootaxa 5536 (4), pp. 501-535 : 528

Atherigona (Acritochaeta) orientalis Schiner, 1868

Atherigona orientalis Schiner, 1868: 295 ; Deeming 1971: 146, fig. 7; Deeming 1978: 367; Clearwater 1981: 308, fig. 11;

Deeming & Overman 1987: 117; Pont 1991: 342; Dike 2003: 18 (distribution); Couri et al. 2006: 810; Deeming 2008: 718;

Deeming 2022: 140; Deeming 2019b: 93. Coenosia excisa Thomson, [1869] : 560. Atherigona trilineata Stein, 1900: 157 . Acritochaeta pulvinata Grimshaw, 1901: 42 . Atherigona magnipalpis Stein, 1906: 66 .

Material examined: 1♀, Keetmanshoop District, Khabus 146, 26°17'S, 18°14'E, 30.vi–23.vii.1988, N. & G. Olivier, preservation traps, on dolomitic hill east slope ; 1♂, 1♀, Rundu District, Rundu (Kavango Lodge ), 17°54'43''S, 19°45'33''E, 27–29.iii.2003, A .H. Kirk-Spriggs & W. Mey, light trap; 1♀, West Caprivi Park, Kwando River, Susuwe , 17°45'37''S, 23°20'55''E, 28.ix–02.x.1998, A . H. Kirk-Spriggs , Malaise trap in dry woodland (all NMNW) .

Remarks: Larval development takes place in a wide variety of decaying fruits, in which larvae prey upon other soft-bodied insects, but are also able to develop in other breeding media, including faeces. For this reason, Bohart & Gressitt (1951), regarded the species as of major medical importance on the island of Guam in the Pacific, due to its ability to transfer pathogenic organisms to human food. The immature stages were described in detail by Skidmore (1985: 290), who included figures of the larval cephaloskeletons and details of the puparium.

Distribution: A common largely circumtropical species, occurring in all zoogeographical regions, except Antarctica: (Afrotropical): Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Réunion Is., Rodrigues Is., Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia, Zanzibar Is. and Zimbabwe.