Homalomya passerinii Rondani, 1866

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 113-114

Homalomya passerinii Rondani, 1866

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1866a: 124 (key), 126 (description).

TYPE LOCALITY: “ Parmae … Etruria [Parma … Etruria (= Tuscany) ( Italy)]” .

TYPE MATERIAL: 2 ♂♂, syntypes ( MZUF: Box 25): Homalomyia B.é Myiantha [sic!] Rnd. / passerinii Rnd. , ♂, Parma / 1330; 1 ♀, syntype ( MZUF: Box 25): Homalomyia B.é Myiantha [sic!] Rnd. / passerinii Rnd. , ♀, Etrur. [= Etruria (Tuscany) ] / 1330; 1 ♂, syntype (left wing glued to a cardboard stage pinned below specimen) ( MSNC: Box DIPTERA Ex collezione Rondani - I): Myantha passerinii R. 503 ♂ Parma / Coll. Rondani, scatola n° 6, posiz. D-16 / Museo di Storia Naturale Università di Pisa, Calci ( PI) ex collezione Rondani; 1 ♂, syntype ( OUMNH General Collection: Box 146.7): syntype / Rd. Typ. passer. / sec. typ. Rondanii / H. passerini [sic!] Ex. Coll. Kow. / Homalomya passerinii Rondani 1866 / Fanniidae Fannia lustrator (Harris, 1780) (syn. passerinii Rondani, 1866 ) Palaearctic.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Fannia lustrator (Harris, 1780) ( Pont 1986a: 51, Gorodkov et al. 1995: 9).

REMARKS: Rondani (1866a: 126) described both sexes of Homalomya passerinii without specifying the exact number of specimens and not giving a range of lengths: “ Mas prius Parmae lectus a collega Prof. J. Passerini, …, nuper a me inventus in collibus uterque sexus, at ab Etruria masculum quoque obtinui a doct. Piccioli [The first male collected in Parma by my colleague Prof. G. Passerini, …, recently both sexes found by myself in the hills but I also obtained the male from Etruria by doct. Piccioli]”. We found five syntypes in this study. The specimen from “ Etruria ” is a female, contrary to what Rondani indicates in his original description. Hennig (1961: 226) reported two females in the MRSN, which we did not find. This nominal species was described under the generic name Homalomya , which is an “unjustified emendation of Homalomyia Bouché, 1834 ” ( O’Hara et al. 2011: 97) and that Rondani (1866a: 123; 1877c: 42) considered as a senior synonym of Myantha Rondani, 1856 .