Musca pusilla, Macquart, 1848

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 82

pusilla Macquart, 1848 , Musca

Musca pusilla Macquart, 1848a: 219 ( 1848b: 59) , pl. 6, fig. 13 (junior primary homonym of Musca pusilla Gmelin, 1790 ). Syntype ♀, “de Haïti. M. Fairmaire.” ( Haïti), in BMNH.

MATERIAL. — This specimen, described from Fairmaire’s collection, was acquired by Bigot, and is now in that part of the Bigot collection in the BMNH. It is labelled by Macquart “ Musca / pusilla. ♀ / n. sp. Macq. [?illegible]”.

CURRENT IDENTITY. — It was studied by Brauer (1899: 527) who noted that it was a tachinid or a calliphorid. Without realising that this syntype was at that time amongst unsorted Bigot material in the BMNH, I included the name in Musca Linnaeus, 1758 ( Pont 1972: 7) , but subsequently found this syntype and recognized it as a species of Sarcophagidae . It was sent to the late Dr Hugo de Souza Lopes for study, who reported that it probably belonged to the genus Anapunaphyto Dodge, 1968 ( Lopes 1975: 541) , whilst Pape (1996: 436) has placed it as an unrecognized species of the genus Tricharaea Thomson, 1869 (with which he synonymized Anapunaphyto ). As a junior primary homonym,it has been given the replacement name of Musca lopesi Thompson & Pont (1994: 112) .