Laphria Meigen

Dennis, D. Steve, Barnes, Jeffrey K. & Knutson, Lloyd, 2008, Pupal cases of Nearctic robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae), Zootaxa 1868 (1), pp. 1-98 : 22

Genus Laphria Meigen

The pupa of the Palaearctic species Choerades gilva (Linnaeus) (as Laphria gilva ) was described by Melin (1923) and Quentin (1948), but the descriptions are not detailed enough to include in the following key. Bullington (1986) provided some information on the pupal cases of L. sericea , L. rapax , L. index , and L. winnemana . He provided information primarily on the head, thorax, and abdominal processes and spines, but he did not provide enough information to allow us to include them in the following key. His descriptions and illustrations indicate that female cases have four posterior antennal processes and abdominal segment 9 lacks the ventral, posterior, pointed tubercles observed in male Laphria cases. Bullington (1986) showed L. sericea and L. index with 3 posterior antennal processes. We have observed 4 in L. index , based on 4 male pupal cases and 1 female pupal case. Abdominal segment 9 of male L. index has pointed posteroventral tubercles. Abdominal segments 8 and 9 of male L. index are more bulbous than female cases and they have indistinct or slight tubercles or swellings. Female abdominal segment 9 appears to lack ventral tubercles.