Australoechus capensis (Linnaeus, 1767)

(Fig. 9)

18. Bombylius braunsi 1ɗ1Ψ South Africa (Eastern Cape): Willowmore, viii.1906 (H. Brauns). MS page 8.

Bezzi, 1921a: 23, 27 – key and short description; referred to species being found ‘near Willowmore (Cape) by Dr Brauns’ and to be described in his forthcoming paper on the Bombyliidae in the Hungarian Museum.

Bezzi, 1922: 72 – referred to key in Bezzi (1921a) and intention to describe in his Hungarian National Museum paper. ‘Exempliaria nonnulla e Willowmore, Aug. et Sept., in Museo Budapestini et in collectione mea’. Bezzi’s collection in MSNM contains a single female from Willowmore, 4.ix.1919 (Dr Brauns) with a separate red label ‘20’.

Bezzi, 1924: 47 – key only.

Hesse, 1938: 246 – described from females from Brauns’s collection: Willowmore, viii.1921; ix.1921; viii.1925.

Hesse, 1961: 83 – synonymised with Bombylius capensis .

Greathead, 1995: 62 – transferred Bombylius capensis to Australoechus .

Evenhuis & Greathead, 1999: 92 – listed (incorrectly) a holotype in SAMC.

Types: The two syntypes in HNHM were destroyed in 1956. The single female syntype in MSNM is here designated lectotype (Fig. 9).

Remarks: The synonymy of A. braunsi with A. capensis is accepted. As recognised by Hesse (1961) A. capensis is a very variable species with respect to the presence, size, and number of dark spots at the wing margin. The lectotype in MSNM runs to capensis in Hesse’s (1938) key.