Hemipenthes scylla (Osten Sacken, 1887)

Avalos-Hernandez, Omar, Kits, Joel, Trujano-Ortega, Marysol, Garcia-Vazquez, Uri Omar & Cano-Santana, Zenon, 2014, New records of bee flies (Diptera, Bombyliidae) from Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila, Mexico, ZooKeys 422, pp. 49-85 : 64

Taxon classification Animalia Diptera Bombyliidae

Hemipenthes scylla (Osten Sacken, 1887) Figure 12c

Material examined.

REC: Apr (23 M), Aug (7 M); REE: Feb (5 M), Apr (2 M); RLC: Mar (8 M), Jul (8 M), Sep (9 M).

Known Nearctic records.

Mexico (Coahuila, Morelos, Guanajuato, Sonora); USA (Arizona, Texas).

Comments.

Males of this species are abundant all year long but females are unknown. There is no explanation for this lack of females in the collections. Extreme sexual dimorphism and misidentification of females can be dismiss, since there is no Hemipenthes species from which only females are known. One possible explanation is that females life span is too short and therefor encounter probabilities are low. Distribution is discontinuous with populations present in central and northern Mexico and the southern USA; it is unknown whether this species is present in between these areas.