Helina nigritarsis, Macquart, 1847

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 76

nigritarsis Macquart, 1847 , Aricia

Aricia nigritarsis Macquart, 1847a: 85 ( 1847b: 101) , pl. 5, fig.12. Lectotype ♀, “de la Nouvelle-Hollande.M. Bigot.” ( Australia), by present designation, in OUMNH.

MATERIAL. — There is 1 ♀ syntype in the Bigot collection in OUMNH. It was lent by Verrall to Stein in 1907, according to a note in Verrall’s MS list of the contents of the Bigot collection. The labels include a purple label in G. Enderlein’s handwriting “ Australien / (Coll. Bigot)”, and Macquart’s label “ Aricia / nigritarsis. ♀ / n. sp. Macq.”. It stands over Bigot’s drawer label “Y. [ Yetodesia ] nigritarsis. ♀. / Aricia . id. Macq. / Australie. J. Bigot. ”. It is in very poor condition: it is considerably mouldy ; left mid leg and right hind tarsomeres 2-5 missing. I have labelled it and designate it herewith as lectotype.

CURRENT IDENTITY. — This ♀ was studied by Stein (1907b: 280) who gave a brief description and assigned it to the genus Spilogaster Macquart, 1835 (now = Helina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 ). Despite the appalling condition, it can be identified as a valid species of Helina , and as an older name for Helina piliventris Malloch, 1922 . It has the body colour dark and non-metallic, halteres yellow, four postsutural dorsocentral setae, foretibia with a posterior seta, femora yellow, fore femoral extension moderate in size; and it agrees in all visible characters with H. piliventris . This synonymy has been recorded by Pont (1989b: 686).