Atomogaster rufipes, Macquart, 1851

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 86

rufipes Macquart, 1851 , Choetura

Choetura rufipes Macquart, 1851b: 245 ( 1851d: 272) , pl. 25, figs 3, 3a. Lectotype ♂, “ Maldonado. Uruguay. Muséum.” ( Uruguay, Maldonado), by designation of Albuquerque (1949: 440), in MNHN.

MATERIAL. — There is 1 ♂ syntype in MNHN, under no. 1890 of the Macquart collection. It is dirty and somewhat fractured, with the wings rolled up ; left foretarsomeres missing. It has an old hand-written tag “27”, and the accession no. 9523.34. It is also labelled by Macquart “ Choetura / rufipes. ♂. / Macq. n. g., n. sp.”. It was listed as the lectotype by Albuquerque (loc. cit.). The accessions no. 9523.34 refers to material collected by d’Orbigny, and under this number in the d’Orbigny catalogue there is an entry for “no. 27, sur les plantes”, for a collection made from 30 September to 15 October 1826 around Montevideo. Maldonado is about 100 km east of Montevideo .

With the lectotype there is a ♀ of an acalyptrate fly which is evidently misplaced and has nothing to do with the lectotype.

CURRENT IDENTITY. — Stein (1919) did not recognize this as muscid, but it was referred to the genus Coenosia Meigen, 1826 by Séguy (1952: 6). Albuquerque (1949: 439, 440, figs 1, 2) had earlier redescribed the lectotype and, considering Macquart’s generic name Choetura to be preoccupied, proposed the replacement name Macquartiopsis . I subsequently referred C. rufipes to the genus Coenosia and, as it thereby became a junior secondary homonym, proposed the replacement name Coenosia macquarti ( Pont 1972: 43) .

Because of the presence of a posterodorsal preapical seta on hind femur (in addition to the dorsal and anterodorsal), two postsutural intra-alar setae (but anterior one very reduced), and large lower calypter, this species belongs to the genus Neodexiopsis Malloch, 1920 , to which it was transferred by Carvalho et al. (1993: 127; 2005: 199). As a result, the name C. rufipes can be re-instated, but the name Choetura Macquart, 1851 , should now replace the younger Neodexiopsis Malloch, 1920 . In order to conserve the name of the well-known and speciose Neotropical genus Neodexiopsis , application needs to be made to the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature for the suppression of the name Choetura Macquart.