Musca paganus Harris, 1780

Šifner, František, 2008, A catalogue of the Scathophagidae (Diptera) of the Palaearctic region, with notes on their taxonomy and faunistics, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 48 (1), pp. 111-196 : 180

Musca paganus Harris, 1780

Musca paganus Harris, 1780: 153 .? HOLOTYPE: ♀, Great Britain, SE England (depository unknown).

Note. The figure in the original publication shows a female; the collection of Harris is generally considered to have been destroyed ( PONT & MICHELSEN 1982: 26). This species was not mentioned by BECKER (1905) and GORODKOV (1986); Pont (in KLOET & HINKS 1976: 119) listed it as an unrecognized species of the Muscidae . PONT & MICHELSEN (1982: 37-38) wrote: ‘The combination of glossy black thorax and abdomen, yellow legs and orange frons is a rare one in Muscidae , and we believe that this species belongs to the Scathophagidae .’ In my opinion, neither the combination of these characters nor any of them independently is characteristic for any of the genera of Scathophagidae . Therefore, I suppose that this species does not belong to the Scathophagidae and its family placement remains unclear.