Phaenobezzia fulvithorax (Malloch)

Huerta, Herón, Spinelli, Gustavo R. & Grogan Jr, William L., 2023, New records of predaceous midges in Bezzia Kieffer and Phaenobezzia Haeselbarth from Mexico with description of two new species of Bezzia (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), Zootaxa 5323 (4), pp. 535-552 : 549

Phaenobezzia fulvithorax (Malloch)

Probezzia fulvithorax Malloch, 1915: 354 (male, female; USA, Illinois).

Phaenobezzia fulvithorax (Malloch) : Wirth & Grogan 1982: 185 (redescription; combination; distribution); Spinelli & Wirth 1986: 234 ( Mexico record); Borkent & Wirth 1997: 135 (world catalog); Borkent & Spinelli 2000: 65 (new world catalog south of USA); Borkent & Dominiak 2020: 213 (world catalog).

Diagnosis. The only species of Phaenobezzia with the following combination of characters: eyes broadly separated by the diameter of 5–6 ommatidia; antenna dark brown, flagellomere 13 bluntly rounded, not tapered distally; legs yellowish brown, hind femur and tibia with dark apices; ventral palisade setae sparse on tarsomere 1 of mid leg, dense on tarsomeres 1–2 on hind leg, tarsomeres 5 on all legs with 4 pairs of stout, sharp-pointed ventral spines. Male gonostylus about half as long as the gonocoxite.

Material examined. MEXICO, Guerrero, Cocula, Apipilulco , sept-1995, light trap, 1 female CAIM [ CAIM / Crt/lam-00265] . Morelos, San Rafael Vicente Aranda , 6-may-1983, light trap, 10 females, 7 males CAIM [ CAIM / Crt/lam−00267−00284]. New records from Guerrero and Morelos.

Distribution. British Columbia and Quebec ( Canada), in USA from Washington, east to Michigan, south to California, east to Texas and Arkansas, Mexico (Baja California, Nuevo Leon, Morelos, Guerrero).

Remarks. This species has a wide Nearctic distribution, included in Baja California, Mexico ( Wirth & Grogan 1982). Spinelli & Wirth (1986) recorded this species from Nuevo Leon. We herein include new records from the Neotropical region of Mexico (Guerrero, Morelos).