Sarcophaga aurata, (Macquart)

Sinclair, Bradley J., 2023, An annotated checklist of the Diptera of the Galápagos Archipelago (Ecuador), Zootaxa 5283 (1), pp. 1-102 : 78

aurata (Macquart)

Sarcophaga aurata Macquart, 1851: 207 . Pape 2008: 45 [distribution]; Souza et al. 2020: 29 [review].

Sarcophaga taitensis Schiner, 1868: 314 . Curran 1932: 365 [records]; Curran 1934: 168 ( Sarcophaga ); Linsley & Usinger 1966: 172 [checklist].

Oxysarcodexia taitensis: Lopes 1969: 27 [catalogue]; Lopes 1978: 604 [records]; Lopes & Tibana 1987: 344 [checklist]; Pape 1996: 269 [catalogue]; Causton et al. 2006: 134 [introduced species]; Pape 2008: 44 [as syn. of S. aurata ].

Sarcophaga obtusifrons Thomson, 1869: 536 . Coquillett 1901a: 374 [records]; Johnson 1924: 89 [records]; Townsend 1931: 77 [transferred to Oxysarcodexia ]; Curran 1932: 365 [as syn. of S. taitensis ]; Souza et al. 2020: 28 [remarks on types].

Distribution. Introduced. Australasian/ Oceanian, Neotropical; Galápagos: Baltra, Fernandina, Floreana, Isabela, Pinzón, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Santiago.

Remarks. This species was described initially from Tahiti, and was subsequently recorded from Fiji, French Polynesia (Austral Is, Marquesas Is, Society Is, Tubuai Is), New Caledonia, Tonga, Western Samoa, and throughout South and Central America ( Souza et al. 2020). This species was commonly collected in dung traps during the Galápagos surveys. Adults have been collected on the flowers of Cryptocarpus pyriformis ( Hervías-Parejo & Traveset 2018) .