Phaonia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830

Michelsen, Verner & Pont, Adrian C., 2024, Macaronesian Muscidae (Diptera). V. The genera Phaonia Robineau-Desvoidy and Muscina Robineau-Desvoidy, Zootaxa 5458 (4), pp. 581-596 : 582

Genus Phaonia Robineau-Desvoidy

Diagnosis. The following combination of characters allows Macaronesian species of Phaonia to be recognized from other local genera of Muscidae : Mouthparts non-predatory (prestomal teeth small, furcate apically); prosternum bare; anepimeron bare; vein C extensively setulose ventrally; vein M 1 not flexed or curved forward distally; a submedian pd seta present on hind tibia; abdomen without any sign of paired dark marks on tergites III and IV.

Reassessment of the names Musca tuguriorum Scopoli, 1763 and Anthomyia signata Meigen, 1826

Pont (1986) proposed Phaonia tuguriorum ( Scopoli, 1763) as a senior name for P. signata ( Meigen, 1826) , a western Palearctic species occurring abundantly in temperate woodland habitats. It has subsequently become clear, that a sibling species, P. scutellata ( Zetterstedt, 1845) , is equally abundant in the Mediterranean parts of Europe and North Africa, while P. tuguriorum auct. occurs only sporadically in that area. This is illustrated by the holdings of specimens from the Mediterranean area in NHMD standing under P. scutellata : Greece (25), Portugal (2), Spain (51), Morocco (23), Tunisia (2), Turkey (1) compared to P. tuguriorum : Corsica (1), Italy (1), Spain (3), Tunisia (5).

The type area of Musca tuguriorum is Carniolia, a historical region in the present sub-Mediterranean western Slovenia. Accordingly, we find it desirable to reconsider the identity of Scopoli’s name tuguriorum and make it the valid senior name for the primarily Mediterranean species and to return Meigen’s name signata as the valid senior name for the species found preferably in temperate parts of Europe. A summary of the nomenclatorial changes is as follows: