Elephantotus, Gorayeb, Inocencio de Sousa, 2014

Gorayeb, Inocencio de Sousa, 2014, Tabanidae (Diptera) of Amazonia XXI. Descriptions of Elephantotus gen. n. and E. tracuateuensis sp. n. (Diachlorini) from the Brazilian coast, ZooKeys 395, pp. 23-31 : 24-25

Elephantotus gen. n.

Etymology.

Latin. Elephantotus = elephant. Masculine. Refers to the large sizes of the species and the shape of the furcation of the female genitalia, which have large side flaps - resembling an elephant’s head and ears in frontal view.

Type species.

Elephantotus tracuateuensis sp. n.

Diagnosis.

Eyes glabrous, solid-colored. Frons slightly divergent above. Frontal callus light brown, narrower than frons, extending to vestiges of ocelli on vertex. Basal plate of antennal flagellum with obtuse angle, without tooth or spine. Palpus approximately the same length as antenna. Labella completely membranous. Thorax with reddish-brown integument with irregular yellow spots, black median stripe and yellow stripes on sutures. Wing hyaline with brown basal cells, yellowish-brown veins, except basicostal which is brown, vein R4+5 fork without appendix. Genital furca wide, with flaps extended laterally. Goblets of genital ducts short.

In the key to the genera of Tabanidae Fairchild (1969), Elephantotus gen. n. proceeds to dichotomy 44 (p. 236) of Dasybasis Macquart. Dasybasis differs from Elephantotus by having a generally gray-colored body; eyes with sparse hairs; quadrangular frontal callus touching the eyes; ocellar triangle and ocelli vestigial; abdomen with longitudinal stripes and triangles on tergites ( Coscarón and Philip 1967, González 1999). Elephantotus tracuateuensis sp. n. evidently does not belong to the genus Dasybasis which is characteristic of the neotropical southern temperate zone, with the exception of some species such as Dasybasis montium (Surcouf), 1919 and Dasybasis schineri ( Kröber), 1931 occurring in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador ( Coscarón and Papavero 2009).

The characteristics of some genera of Diachlorini (Fairchild, 1969) are presented here to differentiate them from Elephantotus gen. n.:

- Catachlorops Lutz - Tubercle on vertex distinguished and prominent, rarely rudimentary; proboscis usually with labella small, compact, completely or partially sclerotized, rarely completely membranous; antenna slender, dorsal spine slender, pointed, rarely shorter than basal plate; wing almost always with splotches, rarely faintly tinged, never completely hyaline.

- Dasychela Enderlein - not a strong or robust species, brown; wing spotted brown, hyaline or lighter colored at the end of basal cell and wing apex.

- Phaeotabanus Lutz - thorax without stripes; frontal callus small and round; labella much or completely sclerotized; wings usually with dark designs.

- Stenotabanus Lutz - most species small; eyes smooth with at least two transverse bands; frontal callus usually as wide as frons.