Lucilia meridensis, Macquart, 1846

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 73

meridensis Macquart, 1846 , Lucilia

Lucilia meridensis Macquart, 1846a: 327 ( 1846b: 199) . Syntypes ♂ and ♀, “de Mérida de Yucatan. Trouvée par M. Pilate.” ( Mexico, Yucatan, Mérida), not in MNHN or MHNL, and presumed destroyed.

MATERIAL. —Described from material collected by Pilate. No syntypes have been located. Brauer (1899: 522) studied some specimens of L. meridensis from North America in the Bigot collection and placed them in the genus Pyrellia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 . Aubertin (1933: 429) stated that she had not found the type but was following Brauer in assigning the name to the Muscidae . This statement was the basis for James’ (1970) exclusion of the name from the Calliphoridae and for my own inclusion of it as a species of Morellia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 ( Pont 1972: 9) . However, the specimens studied by Brauer, now in the BMNH, are labelled by Macquart “ Lucilia meridensis ♂ ♀. Macq. var.” and are from North America. There are 1 ♂ and 3 ♀♀, and they belong to Neomyia cornicina (Fabricius, 1781) . They are certainly not types and should not be used in assessing the identity of the name meridensis .

CURRENT IDENTITY. — The description of Lucilia meridensis indicates that the name should in fact be referred to the Calliphoridae , either to the Chrysomyini or to Lucilia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 . The angular forward curvature of vein M excludes all the muscid greenbottles except for species of Neomyia Walker, 1859 , and this genus is excluded by Macquart’s description of yellow palpi and yellowish-white fronto-orbital plates (“cotés [du front] d’un blanc jaunâtre”).