Protypusia grata (Loew, 1856) 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 : 55-58

Protypusia grata (Loew, 1856) gen. et comb. nov.

Figs 5 , 23 , 40

Usia grata Loew in Rosenhauer, 1856: 380.

Usia aurata – Efflatoun 1945: 202, pl. 19 figs 298–299, misident.

Usia sp. no. 2 (holoptic male) – Theodor 1983: 55, figs 135–137.

Etymology

From Latin ‘ gratis ’ meaning ‘for nothing’, ‘free’.

Type material (not examined)

Not seen, apparently lost? Type locality: Spain.

Other material examined

ISRAEL • 1 ♂; “ Jerusalem, Israel, Loc: Mishot Rotem , Date : 14 February 1965,Col: M.Weichselfich /574, 1400/ HOLOTYPE, Usia holoptica, Theodor , det. O.Theodor 1985 495, 1300/”; TAU • 1 ♂;“ PARATYPE, Usia holoptica, Theodor , det. O. Theodor 1985”; TAU • 1 ♂; “same data 564, 1300” ; • 1 ♂; “same data 578, 1330”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ N. Revirim, 12 March 1974, D. Furth/ PARATYPE, Usia holoptica, Theodor , det. O. Theodor 1985”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Kfar Adumim , 3 March 1981, F. Kaplan ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Kalia , 3 March 1981, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 1 ♀; “ 13 February 1975 ”; TAU • 2 ♂♂; “ 6 February 1978 ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Mashabe Sade , 16 February 1976, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Jerico , 8 March 1976, M. Kaplan ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Shivta , 13 March 1977, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 2 ♂♂; “ Arad , 5 January 1971, leg. Kugler ”; TAU • 2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; “ Tel. Jerucham , 4 April 1962 ”; TAU • 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀; “ Ma’agar Yeroham , 7 March 2007, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Merhav’Am, Nahal Hazaz , 7 March 2007, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Nahal Shahaq, Shezaf Nat. Res. , 30 44′83N 35 15′10E, 12 March 1997 O. Niehuis ”; TAU • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; “ Har Horesha , 30°36′N 34°31′E, 6 April 2005, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 3 ♂♂; “ Sedé Boqér , 18 March 2007, L. Friedman ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ 30 March 2004 ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Jerico-Ein Gedi , 23 February 1983, A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Bkaot , 15 February 1984, Y. Zvik ”; TAU • 3 ♂♂; “ W. Faria 4 March 1985, Ian Susman”; TAU .

MOROCCO • 1 ♀; “Museum Paris, Maroc, Dar Kaïd M’Tougui, P. Pallary 1914”; MNHN .

PORTUGAL • 1 ♂; “Algarve, St Vincents Cape, 13 ii 2004 (leg. A. Godfrey)”; PCDG .

SPAIN • 1 ♀; “ Madrid, Dusmet”; MNHN • 2 ♂♂, 7 ♀♀; “ Mosa Trajectum , nr. Murcia 26 February 2007, on flower of yellow composite nr. waterworks (leg. C.E. Dyte)”; PCDG • 2 ♂♂, 13 ♀♀; “ Cordoba , 15 km NW Hwy N432, 2 April 1996, I. Yarom ”; TAU .

TUNISIA • 1 ♀; “Bou Hedma, C. Dumont 1929, March”; MNHN .

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.3–7.5 mm. Wing length: 2.8–7.4 mm.

Male

HEAD. Gena relatively broad, twice as wide as width of proboscis at base, broadening out and inflated above into frons, all grey dusted, a narrow, slightly shinier, margin to the oral opening. Dust coating shifting according to view, from some angles completely obscuring ground colour, from other black cuticle apparent, subshining. Frons slightly convex covered with long, blackish hairs, the longest exceeding the length of the postpedicel. Often a glabrous area separates these hairs from the equally long black hairs extending down the gena to the level of the proboscis where narrowly separated by bare strip from paler hairs below eyes. Eyes holoptic, contiguous for about seven facets, frons extending up in narrow point. Ocellar tubercle black, subshining, barely brownish dusted, the hind ocelli in contact with hind corners of eyes or very narrowly separated; ocelli form an equilateral triangle. Blackish hairs on ocellar tubercle as long as scape and pedicel combined, a little shorter than frons hairs. Eye facets enlarged in upper two thirds, about twice the size of lower facets. Occiput blackish in ground colour, very thinly dusted dorsally, becoming distinctly yellow-grey dusted below and on to jowls. An irregular bi- to tri-serial row of long, dark post ocellars extending to just below middle of eye, as long as hairs on ocellar tubercle. Behind and below these the occiput is covered with shorter pale-yellowish hairs, becoming longer below eyes. Antennae blackish, the scape and pedicel grey dusted, postpedicel significantly longer than scape and pedicel together. Scape and pedicel clothed with blackish hairs, the longest on the scape longer than its diameter, postpedicel with series of short hairs along dorsal surface becoming longer distally. Palps short, claviform, black, thickly clothed with long yellowish hairs. Proboscis moderately long, about equal to the mesonotum, brown, laterally with short curved hairs on basal third to half.

THORAX. Mesonotum with blackish ground-colour obscured by pale-grey dust on postpronotal lobe, notopleuron, above wing bases, anterior slope of mesonotum which extend backwards as dorsocentral lines that more or less diverge rearwards, and a short acrostichal line stopping one quarter to third way from the front. Area in front of scutellum more or less grey dusted and may or may not be connected to the dorsocentral lines. Hairs of mesonotum pale yellowish, as long as postpedicel, evenly distributed, denser anteriorly, sparse in front of scutellum. Scutellum variably grey-brown dusted, often browner, more densely dusted, than adjacent mesonotum, yellowish hairs dorsally as long, peripherally longer than those on mesonotum. Pleura blackish with thin coating of yellow-grey dust, anepisternum and pronotum with long, pale yellow hairs, katepisternum with a scattering of pale yellow hairs anteriorly and ventrally.

WING. Membrane with a faint yellow-brown tinge, the veins yellowish-brown, paler basally, subcosta all yellow. Crossvein r-m between basal third and middle of the discal cell, clearly beyond m-cu, a little variable. Anal lobe well developed with evenly convex margin, a little broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. Knob dark brown with variable yellowish dorsal spot, stem yellowish with dark brown base.

LEGS. Coxae black, concolourous with pleura and similarly dusted. Femora and tibia uniformly black, thinly yellow-grey dusted not obscuring ground colour. Legs covered with pale yellow hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally. Tibia and tarsi with short, pale hairs, tibia also with longer hairs basally, continuing to tip antero-dorsally on hind tibia. Black spicules present beneath mid basitarsus and tip of mid-tibia ventrally.

ABDOMEN. Tergites matt black on disc, only grey dusted on reflexed lateral margins. All tergites with narrow, sharply delimited yellow posterior margins, narrowing to a point on reflexed lateral margins. All tergites with long pale yellow hairs longer than the length of each tergite, even longer laterally. Sternites grey dusted obscuring ground colour, pale apical margins broader than on tergites, dulled by grey dusting, hairs as long as those on tergites.

GENITALIA. Small, typical of genus, somewhat ventrally deflected, black in ground colour, gonocoxite with thin grey dusting, subshining and long, curve-tipped, pale yellow hairs. Epandrium more densely grey dusted, clothed with pale yellow hairs, shorter than on gonocoxite, apical margin of epandrium with distinct fringe of yellow-brown hairs.

Female

Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons densely grey dusted except for subshining ocellar tubercle and down the center of the frons which is slightly more thinly dusted than laterally. At its narrowest part frons is noticeably wider than length of postpedicel, about one third head width. Hairs on frons rather shorter, extending back to level of front ocellus, paler and browner than in male. Dark post ocellar hairs lacking, all hairs behind eyes shorter and pale yellow-white, not longer than hairs on ocellar tubercle. Mesonotum more extensively and densely grey dusted, often leaving just dark, less dusted paramedian and antehumeral vittae (variable and very obscure in some individuals). Hairs on tergites a little shorter, especially dorsally. First tergite basally and centrally grey dusted.

Remarks

Becker’s (1906) treatment of Pro. grata is at first sight peculiar, tentatively synonymising it with his Pru. loewi . However, it is clear that he recognised that Loew’s description was at variance with the only specimens he could find that seemed to have the correct provenance, so he correctly described these specimens as a new species. The type of Loew’s Pro. grata still could not be located during this study.

This is the most widely distributed of all the Usiini , and the only species to occur at both ends of the Mediterranean and in both North Africa and Europe. Records from Italy and the Canary Islands are almost certainly misidentifications. Across its range Pro. grata is widely sympatric with close congeners, Pro. separata gen. et sp. nov. in Israel, Pro. argentata gen. et sp. nov. in Morocco and Pro. incisa in Iberia and northeast Africa. A damaged female specimen from northeast Turkey might also be this species, and if so this would greatly extend its known range. However, the genitalia differ in some respects so it could equally represent an undescribed taxon.

Distribution

Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia.

Figures

Fig. 5. Protypusia grata (Loew, 1859) comb. nov., ♂.

Fig. 23. Protypusia grata (Loew, 1859) gen. et comb. nov., ♀.

Fig. 40. Protypusia grata (Loew, 1856) comb. 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.