Udamopyga Hall, 1938

Udamopyga Hall, 1938: 255 . Type species: Udamopyga smagra Hall, 1938, by original designation.

Merokellymyia Blanchard, 1939: 843 . Type species: Merokellymyia nodositas Blanchard, 1939 [= Udamoctis setigena Enderlein, 1928], by original designation.

References. Lopes (1940; Merokellymyia as synonym of Udamopyga, key, biological notes, revision and descriptions of new species); Lopes (1941; diagnosis of female); Travassos (1941; report of field work); Lopes (1943; descriptions of larvae of two species); Lopes (1955; catalog); Dodge (1965; key, revision and descriptions of new species); Dodge (1967; description of a new species); Lopes (1968; comments on the type of one species); Lopes (1969a; catalog); Lopes (1969b; biological notes and descriptions of new species); Rohdendorf (1970; checklist); Lopes (1973; biological notes); Lopes (1975a; diagnosis of subtribe Udamopygina); Lopes (1975b; descriptions of new species); Lopes (1978; revision of one species); Linhares (1981; synanthropy); Lopes (1982; diagnosis of subtribe Udamopygina); Shewell (1987; key to genera of Nearctic Sarcophagidae); Lopes (1988; key, revision and description of new species); Pape (1996; catalog); Sabrosky (1999; family group names of Diptera); Arnett (2000; checklist); Pape et al. (2004; checklist); Mello-Patiu et al. (2009; checklist); Mulieri et al. (2010; key and biological notes); Pape & Dahlem (2010; key to genera of Central American Sarcophagidae); Mulieri et al. (2011; biological notes); Patitucci et al. (2011a; geographic notes); Patitucci et al. (2011b; type deposition); Vairo et al. (2011; key to Brazilian species of forensic importance); Beuter et al. (2012; species of forensic importance); Mello-Patiu et al. (2014; key to genera and list of species from Argentina); Alves et al. (2014; species of forensic importance); Dufek et al. (2015; checklist); Mulieri et al. (2015a; comparative morphology); Mulieri et al. (2015b; sex-biased patterns of saprophagous Calyptratae); Patitucci et al. (2015; inventory of saprophagous Calyptratae in Buenos Aires); Dufek et al. (2016; ecology); Mello-Patiu (2016; catalog); Buenaventura & Pape (2018; sarcophagine phylogeny).

Generic diagnosis. Antennal arista with upper ray in a double row; two anteriormost frontal setae divergent; scutellum with pairs of basal, lateral and subapical setae (the lateral one being the shortest) and a pair of preapical discal setae; proepisternum bare; postalar wall setulose; wing with vein R 1 bare or setose dorsally, and third costal sector setose ventrally. Male: no proclinate orbital setae; outer vertical seta undifferentiated from postocular setae; scutellum with a pair of marginal apical setae; mid femur without a ctenidium; ST5 with a window (Fig. 7); cerci fused almost along their entire length in posterior view (Fig. 9); postgonite with a long seta, longer than maximum width of postgonite (Fig. 10); basiphallus and distiphallus distinctly separated (Fig. 10); juxta well differentiated and formed of two lobes, generally joined proximally and with proximal margins slightly recessed within paraphallus (Figs 1, 3–4, 6); vesica consisting of a single proximal portion attached to the hypophallus and a paired distal portion forming two lateral, lobe-shaped arms (Figs 1–6). Ventrally, the inner margin of each arm has a detached projection of species-specific shape and ornamentation, herein named “inner ventral margin” (im; Figs 2– 3, 5, 11, 22, 26, 31, 36, 40, 45). Female: scutellum without marginal apical setae; T6 undivided and broad posteriorly (Figs 12–13, 52–57); ST6–8 fused (Figs 12–13); ST7 with a discal concavity (Figs 12–13, 54, 56–57); spermathecae oval and striate (Fig. 13).

Remarks. The morphological and taxonomic revision of the seven species analyzed herein has led to more a detailed diagnosis of the genus and a reinterpretation of some structures of the male terminalia. Each of the studied species has four (two long, two short) postsutural dorsocentral setae except for Udamopyga diversa, which has three (the first short). Moreover, Dodge (1965) observed in some species of Udamopyga that the upper rays of the arista are in a double row, which is corroborated herein. We highlight that species of Udamopyga are not easily distinguishable by color patterns, which show a lot of individual variation (e.g., specimens of the same species can have either bright golden pruinosity or bright silver pruinosity on the head). In the redescriptions, the most frequent color pattern is presented. For a more detailed overview of color variations in Udamopyga species see Lopes (1988).

Roback (1954) defined the vesica as “an antero-dorsal flap-like appendage of the corpus”. The corpus is referred to by Giroux et al. (2010) as the phallic tube, and defined as “the tube-shaped part of the distiphallus surrounding the sperm duct and supporting processes such as the harpes and the vesica”. As a result, Giroux et al. (2010) described the vesica as a lobe-like structure protruding outwards from the anterior surface of the phallic tube. Whitmore et al. (2013) recovered the terms hypophallus and paraphallus, using them for the ventral and dorsal parts of the phallic tube, respectively. In the hypophallus, they considered two structures: the membrane (the most proximal section of the hypophallus) and the vesica (an appendage of the hypophallus distal to the membrane). While seeking to determine the homology of a structure called “lateral plates of paraphallus” by Lopes (1982) or “a pair of rounded lateral lobes in the phallus” by Pape (1996) with respect to these definitions, our observations led us to identify them as being the vesica (Figs 1–6), which agrees with the interpretation of Buenaventura & Pape (2018). In Udamopyga, the vesica has a paired distal portion forming two lateral lobe-shaped arms, and ventrally the inner margin of each lobe has a projection of species-specific shape and ornamentation, referred to as “inner ventral margin of vesica” in the species descriptions (im; Figs 2–3, 5, 11, 22, 26, 31, 36, 40, 45). Buenaventura & Pape (2018) also observed this configuration of the ventral margin of the vesica in U. percita, U. neivai and U. provecta, and termed it as “vesical denticulated lobe”. A vesica with this particular configuration has not yet been observed in any other genus of Sarcophaginae and we agree with Buenaventura & Pape (2018) that this character is autapomorphic to Udamopyga . In addition, our study of the female terminalia allowed us to confirm the observations by Lopes (1940), who pointed out a discal concavity on ST7 (“sternite VIII” in Lopes [1988]), another possible autapomorphy supporting the monophyly of Udamopyga (Figs 12–13, 54, 56–57).