Protypusia negevi ( Zaitzev, 1996 ) Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 95-98

Protypusia negevi ( Zaitzev, 1996) gen. et comb. nov.

Figs 6 , 10 , 14 , 52

Parageron negevi Zaitzev, 1996: 691 .

? Parageron griseus – Zaitzev 1966: 149, figs 428–430? misidentification.

Etymology

After collecting locality, Negev Desert, Israel.

Type material

Holotype

ISRAEL • ♂; “Loc. No. 12, South Negev. N. Hazera, 20 km ESE, of Dimona, 13 April [1]994 Volkovitsh & Dolgovskaya leg./ Holotypus, Parageron negevi V. Zaitzev 96”; TAU.

Paratypes

ISRAEL • 4 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; “Loc. No. 12, South Negev. N. Hazera, 20 km ESE, of Dimona, 13 April [1]994 Volkovitsh & Dolgovskaya leg./ Paratypus, Parageron negevi V. Zaitzev 96”; TAU • 1 ♂; “same data”; ZIN .

Other material examined

ISRAEL • 1 ♀; “Shezaf N.R., Nahal Shahaq, 30°45.10N 35°15.32E, 22 March 1999 I. Yarom. Malaise trap ”; TAU .

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.4–3.9 mm. Wing length: 2.5–4.0 mm.

Male

HEAD. Frons and gena pale yellow in ground colour, the frons slightly tumescent covered with silky white dusting not entirely obscuring ground colour from some angles, lacking longer erect hairs. Eye margin at frons sigmoid when viewed from directly above. Gena plus mouth margin moderately broad, at narrowest a little narrower than postpedicel, widening into frons. The shiny mouth margin yellow, averaging about as wide as dusted gena, wider ventrally, narrower dorsally. Occiput and ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour densely covered with grey dust and outstanding white hairs, those on ocellar tubercle hardly longer than width of vertex across hind ocelli. All ocelli in contact with eye margin. Eyes confluent for slightly longer than the length of vertex (difficult to assess because the eyes come together at very acute angles both above and below). Ommatidia conspicuously enlarged in the upper two fifths to half of the eyes, the transition to the smaller ones occupying the lower part distinct but not very abrupt. Antennae black, postpedicel rather long, parallel-sided, square-ended, with a small point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus, almost twice as long as scape and pedicel together. Antennae sparsely haired above, short silvery hairs on scape and pedicel, postpedicel with a few longer hairs immediately before the subapical sulcus. Palps small and slender, slightly clavate, yellowishbrown to blackish, darker apically, the white apical setae shorter than the length of the palps. Proboscis relatively long, a little more than head-thorax length (including scutellum), naked dorsally, black except for the dirty-white basoventral membrane.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dove-grey dust, becoming vaguely browner in front of scutellum. Mesonotum with faint but distinct darker paramedian vittae from front to above wing bases and more diffuse darker antehumeral vittae widely divided at thoracic suture. Behind thoracic suture, and below the posterior antehumeral patch is a vague, roundish darker spot. Whole of mesonotum and scutellum covered with moderately long, white hair, on the front of the mesonotum almost as long as fore femora is thick at its mid-point. Anterior of mesonotum centrally and paramedian vittae hairless, middle of mesonotum a little shorter and more sparsely haired, anterior mesonotal hairs reclinate, posterior ones erect-proclinate. Scutellar hairs apically almost as long as scutellum. Pleura with similar hairs on pronotum, posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, and a few in upper middle of katepisternum.

WING. Membrane faintly tinted yellow-brown, the veins pale yellow-brown. Crossvein r-m variable, very close to the base of the discal cell in some to basal third in others, barely beyond m-cu to clearly beyond. Anal lobe broad with conspicuously convex margin, clearly broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated.

LEGS. Coxae dark with a dense coating of grey dust. Femora predominantly dark with a covering of grey dust, the tip clear yellow, more brownish on hind femora. Front and mid-tibia blackish, base and tip very narrowly yellow, hind tibia similar but tip hardly paler. Tarsi black to dark brown with the basitarsi more or less yellow basally. Coxae and front four femora furnished with moderately long white posterior hairs, hind femora with long anterior hairs, legs otherwise covered with rather short, adpressed white hairs.

ABDOMEN. Tergites dark blackish-brown with grey dusting conspicuously thinner on disc than on mesonotum. Tergite one and reflexed lateral margins of all tergites densely grey dusted similar to that on mesonotum. Each tergite with sharply demarcated pale yellow apical margins, these becoming narrower and slightly darker rearwards, on average yellow apical margins occupy about one fifth of the length of respective tergite, continuing and hardly narrowing to lateral margins. Sternites similar but uniformly densely grey dusted, pale apical margins a little paler. Tergites and sternites all covered with fairly long, erect white hairs, shorter on disc of tergites.

GENITALIA. Relatively large when compared to other holoptic species. Gonocoxites black, grey dusted with narrow yellow tips, covered in long whitish hairs. Epandrium basally black, grey dusted, with very broad yellow apical margin, covered in short, dense white hairs, erect medially, apically directed on yellow part.

Female

Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons dark in ground colour, densely grey dusted and hairless anteriorly, a small dark undusted spot centrally. Hind ocelli separated from eye-margin by about twice the diameter of that ocellus. Frons about a quarter to two fifths head width. Mesonotum with darker vittae less conspicuous, the antehumeral vittae very obscure. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter, significantly so on the abdomen.

Remarks

In the keys provided by Engel (1932) and Efflatoun (1945) this taxon runs to Pro. inornata ( Engel, 1932) . Efflatoun provides a very full description of both sexes and some illustrations, which fit very closely with the specimens of Pro. negevi gen. et comb. nov. available to me. I was unable to see the types of Pro. inornata in ESEC, but good photographs of a female Pro. inornata preserved in EFC were sent to me by Professor Magdi El-Hawagry. This specimen had been collected at the type locality in January 1933, so within the time scale that the types were collected and determined by Professor Efflatoun Bey. Although it does not have a red type label, so was presumably not one that was sent to Engel, it is very likely to have been compared to the types by Efflatoun so can be considered a homoeotype. As far as can be seen from the photographs of this female specimen, while very similar to female Pro. negevi , it differs in the wider brownish-yellow apical margins to the tergites, better defined and darker paramedian and antehumeral vittae, slightly wider frons and wider gena. These differences are small and could all be attributable to variation so it will only be possible to know if these taxa are conspecific when more material becomes available that can be directly compared and dissected.

When describing Pro. negevi, Zaitzev (1996) compared this taxon only with the other two species that he described in Parageron in the same paper. He does not point out differences from known species, nor does he cite Engel (1932) or Efflatoun (1945).

The illustrations provided by Zaitzev (1966) and ascribed to Pro. grisea (Paramonov) are certainly not Pro. grisea and appear to be very similar to this species or, perhaps more likely, the closely related Pro. zimini (Paramonov) . The description, while brief, could fit either species, closer to Pro. negevi on size but more likely to be Pro. zimini on range. Without seeing the specimens, it is not possible to be confident what species Zaitzev had before him.

Distribution

Israel.

Figures

Fig. 6. Protypusia negevi (Zaitzev, 1996) gen. et comb. nov., ♂.

Fig. 10. Protypusia negevi (Zaitzev, 1996) gen. et comb. nov., ♂.

Fig. 14. Protypusia negevi (Zaitzev, 1996) gen. et comb. nov., ♂.

Fig. 52. Protypusia negevi (Zaitzev, 1996) gen. etcomb. nov. a. Epiphallic complex ventral.b. Epiphallic complex lateral. c. Gonocoxite ventral. d. Gonocoxite lateral. e. Epandrium dorsal. f. Female genitalia ventral. g. Female genitalia lateral. h. Female sternite 8 ventral.