Bibio giganteus Unger, 1841

Skartveit, John & Wedmann, Sonja, 2021, A Revision of fossil Bibionidae (Insecta: Diptera) from the Oligocene of Germany, Zootaxa 4909 (1), pp. 1-77 : 47

Bibio giganteus Unger, 1841 (figs. 74, 193)

Plecia? heroica Heyden & Heyden, 1865: 29 . Syn. n.

The species was redescribed by Skartveit & Krizmanić (2020).

Localities: Rott. The species was described from the Miocene of Radoboj, Croatia.

Material examined: Syntypes (females) of Bibio giganteus from Radoboj (discussed in Skartveit & Krizmanić (2020)). Holotype of Plecia heroica (female) NHMUK In 58802 (fig. 74) .

Addtional material, female: STIPB A 610.

Description of the specimens from Rott (N=2, fig. 74):

Female:

Total length (partial) 14.5 mm, wing length 13.5 mm

Head, thorax and legs not preserved

Wing: Length 13.5 mm, width 5.0 mm, length/width = 2.7. Basal third not preserved. Brown fumose, costal cell darkened. Subcosta prominent and straight. Costa extends to apex of R 4+5. Basal Rs about 2.5 times as long as R-M. Crossvein dM-Cu joins M 2 immediately apical to furcation. M- and CuA-veins strong and distinctive, rather straight, CuP basally strong, fading apically. Vein measurements given in Table 5.

Abdomen: Cylindrical, apically truncate. Cerci rather short, pointed.

Male unknown.

Discussion:

Heyden & Heyden (1865: 29) stated in their original description of Plecia heroica : «Ohne Zweifel bildet sie daher eine besondere Gattung», yet did not name this genus but instead placed the species in Plecia with a query. Meunier (1920: 207) and Statz (1943: 43) found that the species belonged in genus Bibio , but did not formally rename it.