Aricia pici, Macquart, 1854

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 80

pici Macquart, 1854 , Aricia

Aricia pici Macquart, 1854: 659 , pl. 20, II, figs 1-4. Holotype ♂, “de St-Domingue” (probably Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo), not in MNHN or MHNL, and presumed destroyed.

Aricia pici – Macquart 1853: xxxix, nomen nudum.

MATERIAL. — Described from a single ♂ that hatched from a larva collected on 15 March 1851 by Auguste Sallé from a tumour on the wing-membrane of the bird Picus striatus Gmelin, 1789 (now known as Melanerpes striatus (Statius Müller, 1776) , the Hispaniolan woodpecker). Macquart did not state where the specimen was deposited, and it has not been located.

CURRENT IDENTITY. — The species has been assigned to Philornis Meinert, 1890 , a Neotropical genus in which the larvae of many species live as subcutaneous parasites of nestling birds (e.g., Carvalho et al. 2005: 67). Problems involved with the identity of this species have recently been discussed by Couri et al. (2009). In the absence of a holotype, it is impossible for this species to be recognized and a neotype will eventually have to be designated.