Emphysomera Schiner, 1866

Scarbrough, A. G., 2010, An overview of the Afrotropical Ommatiinae (Diptera: Asilidae) with a key to genera, Zootaxa 2540, pp. 1-47 : 9-11

Emphysomera Schiner

Figs. 24–29, 107

Emphysomera Schiner, 1866: 845 . Type species: Ommatius conopsoides Wiedemann, 1828 , by original description; Hull 1962: 259; Martin 1964: 308; Daniels 1989: 333; Scarbrough & Marascia 1996: 71 .

Diagnosis. The genus is distinguished by the long woolly setae, spatulate abdomen, the shape of the r 4 cell ( Fig. 24), and unique terminalia of both sexes ( Figs. 26–29).

Distribution. Subsaharan Africa and Madagascar.

Remarks. Emphysomera was long considered a synonym of Ommatius ( Oldroyd 1975, 1980; Martin 1964; Daniels 1989). In a review it was reinstated to genus ( Scarbrough & Marascia 1996 ). The distribution of the genus is presented in Fig. 107. Emphysomera macquarti Bezzi, 1908 , and E. haemorrhoides Lindner, 1955 , were declared synonyms of E. pallidapex Bigot, 1891 . Three subsaharan species, E. auribarbis Wiedemann, 1828 ( Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda), E. pallidapex ( Botswana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe), and E. spinalis Scarbrough & Marascia, 1996 ( Chad, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe), are recognized. Only E. atrogaster Bigot, 1859 has been collected in Madagascar.

Adults have been collected margin vegetation of roads and trails through forests, bushveld and mixed woodland communities during each month in the year using hand nets and malaise and black light traps.