Sepedon fuscipennis

Elberg, Kaupo, Rozkošný, Rudolf & Knutson, Lloyd, 2009, A review of of the Holarctic Sepedon fuscipennis and S. spinipes groups with description of a new species (Diptera: Sciomyzidae), Zootaxa 2288, pp. 51-60 : 52

Sepedon fuscipennis species group

This species group was established by Orth (1986) for the Nearctic species which lack hairs on the supraspiracular callus in the posterior portion of the katatergite, i.e. a character which was used previously in the identification key presented by Steyskal (1951) although this species group was not formally defined at that time. Knutson & Orth (2001) noted that the bare katatergite is also present in four other species groups which are distributed in the Afrotropical, Oriental and Australian-Oceanic regions. However, compared with all Nearctic species, members of these species groups (trichrooscelis, dispersa, lobifera and nasuta group) lack the orbitoantennal spot and the anterior notopleural seta is also not developed. The S. fuscipennis group included originally four Nearctic species ( S. floridensis Steyskal, 1951 ; S. fuscipennis Loew, 1859 ; S. gracilicorni s Orth, 1986 and S. tenuicornis Cresson, 1920 ). The fifth, Palaearctic, is described herein.

Some differences between the fuscipennis and spinipes groups can be found in the shape of the posterior crossvein, which is long, oblique and at least slightly S-shaped in S. fuscipennis group and short, less oblique and regularly bowed outwardly in the S. spinipes group.