Ornithomyia bellardiana Rondani, 1878

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 126-127

Ornithomyia bellardiana Rondani, 1878

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1878a: 157.

TYPE LOCALITY: “ Mexico ”.

TYPE MATERIAL: 1 ♀, lectotype ( MZUF: Box 66): Ornithomyia Latr. / pyrrocephala m., Mexico / 3403 / lectotype Ornithomyia bellardiana Rndn. , ♀, T.C. Maa, [19]62.

PARALECTOTYPE EXAMINED: 1 ♀ ( MSNG): Ornithomyia pyrrocephala Rndn. , Messico, C. Rondani 1877 / Ornithoctona bellardiana Rond. (Typus sensu Speiser) det. Speiser, 1905 / Ornithomyia pyrrocephala (Rndn. in litt.) Speis. ♀, TYPE T.C. Maa, [19]62 / Ornithoctona erythrocephala Lch. (= pyrrocephala Speis. ) ♀, T.C. Maa, [19]62.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Ornithoctona erythrocephala (Leach, 1817) ( Guimarães 1968a: 3) .

REMARKS: Rondani (1878a: 157) described Ornithomyia bellardiana from two specimens: “ Specimen musei Civici Januensis et meum, ex collezione Prof. Bellardi provenientia, qui plura exemplaria speciei possidebat in Mexico lecta ” [one specimen from Genoa Civic Museum and one of my property coming from Prof. Bellardi’s collection, who had many specimens of the species collected in Mexico]”. This nominal species is under the name “ pyrrocephala ” in both the MZUF and MSNG but Rondani never described a species under this name. Speiser (1904: 344) considered the MSNG female Ornithomyia pyrrocephala to fit the description of Ornithomyia bellardiana Rondani and to belong to the type series. Speiser did not unambiguously select a particular specimen from the type series to serve as the name-bearing type and therefore did not publish a lectotype designation (I.C.Z.N. 1999: Article 74.5). In spite of what Maa reported, Speiser (1904) did not describe a new species under the name of Ornithomyia pyrrocephala . Maa (1963: 19) incorrectly considered the five specimens in the MZUF and MSNG under the name pyrrocephala as the type series of Ornithomyia bellardiana and designated a lectotype (♀) and paralectotypes (4 ♀♀). Only one of the four females in the MZUF belongs to the type series. Maa (1963: 19) designated one of these females as the lectotype, therefore we treat this latter specimen as belonging to the type series and the remaining females as subsequent additions. The species is not mentioned by either Guiglia (1957) or Raineri & Rey (1996). Rondani described this nominal species under the generic name “ Ornithomyia ”, which is an “incorrect subsequent spelling of Ornithomya Latreille, 1804 or subsequent usage of Ornithomyia Agassiz, 1846 ” ( O’Hara et al. 2011: 133).