Protypusia punctipennis ( Loew, 1846 ) Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 102-105

Protypusia punctipennis ( Loew, 1846) gen. et comb. nov.

Fig. 54

Usia punctipennis Loew, 1846: 417 .

Etymology

From Latin ‘ punctus ’ = ‘pierced’ and ‘ penna ’ = ‘feather’, ‘wing’; ‘spotted-wings’.

Type material

Lectotype (here designated)

[ TURKEY] • ♂; “[headless, front left and hind right legs missing; otherwise in good condition.] Small square blank label/ Usia punctipennis m./9691/ Coll. H. Loew / Type /Zool. Mus. Berlin”; ZMHB.

Paralectotype

UNKNOWN • 1 ♀; “[antennae missing; otherwise in good condition.] Small square blank label/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin ”; ZMHB .

Other material examined

GREECE • 7 ♂♂, 13 ♀♀; “Fokida, Itea 0 m, N38°25′53″ E22°23′49″ 15 May 2001 ”; PCJD .

TURKEY • 4 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; “ Icel , Ќarakűtűk, 549 m, N37°8′28.7″ E34°50′20.1″ 3 June 2005 ”; PCJD • 7 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀; “ 663 m N37°8′27.6″ E34°50′23.6″ 5 June 2005 ”; PCJD • 8 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀; “ Calaman , 683 m N37°11′33.1″ E34°48′33.9″ 5 June 2005 (leg. J. Dils & J. Faes)”; PCJD .

ISRAEL • 1 ♀; “ Tel Aviv beach, 10 June 1996 (leg. B. Merz & A. Freidberg)”; TAU • 1 ♀; “Merzliya, 28 August 1977, F. Kaplan ”; TAU • 2 ♂♂; “ 5 km E, No’omi , saline, 31°54′N 35°30′E, 16 March 2005, L. Friedman ”; TAU .

CYPRUS • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “Akamas Peninsular, Lara beach 0 m 28 April 2002/2t.28 dunes, meadow (leg. B. Merz, J. Deeming, M. Ebejer & P. Gatt)”; NMWC .

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.0–3.0 mm. Wing length: 1.9–3.6 mm.

Male

HEAD. Gena plus mouth margin very narrow, no wider than anterior ocellus, the shining yellow mouth margin significantly broader than linear, often hardly visible dusted gena. Gena broadening abruptly just below antennae, running into long narrow frons, at antennal insertions hardly as wide as scape is long, covered with whitish-grey or brown dust, often a little darker and browner centrally, frons paler dusted in Israeli specimens. Eyes clearly separated, by distinctly more than half diameter of anterior ocellus. Vertex between the eyes densely brown dusted, often a little darker than the frons, but paler and uniform in Israeli specimens. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, dark brown dusted, hind ocelli contiguous with the eye, front ocellus narrowly separated. Pale hairs on ocellar tubercle rather longer than the width across hind ocelli. White hairs on anterior part of frons short and inconspicuous. Eye facets small and equal throughout. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with brown to grey-brown dust. Occiput covered with pale yellow to white hairs, upper ones short, falling well short of tips of hairs on ocellar tubercle, those on ventral side of head a little longer but not dense. Antennae black with a brown or grey cast on scape and pedicel, postpedicel variable, longer than scape and pedicel together, obviously contracted below in apical third, convex, swollen below in basal two thirds, tip truncate. Palps relatively large, easily seen, pale yellow with a few very inconspicuous pale hairs apically. Proboscis black, rather short, about equal to thorax length (with scutellum), but longer in Israeli specimens where longer than head plus thorax, hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane pale-whitish.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dense grey to brown dust, often with an olive tinge, patterned with sharply defined dark brown paramedian vittae back to just rear of wing bases and antehumeral vittae, the latter broadly separated at thoracic suture. A dark prescutellar vittae running forward almost to paramedian pair, less clear but still present in some specimens; supra-alar area just behind transverse suture lacking any defined marking in many, but clear in some. Hairs of mesonotum white to very pale yellow, relatively short, arranged along acrostichal and dorsocentral lines irregularly bi- to tri-serial more general on lateral parts of mesonotum. Scutellum dark grey-brown dusted similar to adjacent parts of mesonotum, often with darker longitudinal mid-vittae, sparse yellowish to white hairs on disc longer around margin. Pleura greyer dusted than mesonotum, pronotum and posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with short white hairs.

WING. Membrane apart from faint brownish tinge, with clear brown spots over junctions of R 2+3 and R 4+5, base of R 4, r-m, m-m and m-cu. Veins brown, subcosta yellower basally. Crossvein r-m approximately at mid-point of discal cell, or even beyond, well beyond m-cu. Anal lobe moderately developed with evenly convex margin, equal or a little broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. Knob variable, from clear white (some Israeli specimens) to more or less dark brown dorsally ( Greece and Turkey), stem slightly infuscated especially at base.

LEGS. Femora and coxae brown to black, coxae with narrow yellow apical rim, femora sometimes yellowish basally, tips of femora yellow. Trochanters dark black to brown. Tibia and base of basitarsi yellow, apical tarsal segments black, hind tibia sometimes infuscated dorsally and apically. Coxae grey dusted like pleura; femora also grey-dusted but more thinly so. Coxae, femora and tibia clothed with short white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally.

ABDOMEN. Dark brown dusted with greyer dust laterally on reflexed margins, all tergites with conspicuous yellow apical margins, broadest on basal tergites and laterally, narrowing to edge of tergites (margins broader and brighter in Israeli specimens). All tergites with white to pale yellow hairs mainly longer then the length of respective tergite, longest laterally, shorter and sparser on disc. Sternites similar to tergites but distinctly more grey-dusted, pale apical margins more obscure.

GENITALIA. Large for the genus, only some members of Parusia gen. nov. with proportionately larger male genitalia, dusting similar to lateral part of abdomen, epandrium shining apically, yellow to brownish or blackish. Gonocoxite also shining and more brownish apically. Both epandrium and gonocoxite with long hairs as on tergites, or even longer on gonocoxites.

Female

Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, about one fifth head width (a little wider in Israeli specimen), hind ocelli separated from eye margin by a little more than their diameter (more in Israeli specimen). Frons dusted as occiput, a darker brown line down middle from front ocellus to antennae, short sparse hairs antero-laterally. Postpedicel averages a little shorter. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter. Femora often much paler, brown or sometimes almost as yellow as tibia. Wing spotting often more distinct and can include a spot at tip of anal cell. Haltere variable, knob with dark infuscation in Israeli specimen.

Remarks

Very closely allied to Pro. kerkini gen. et sp. nov. and Pro. strymonas gen. et sp. nov. Relatively widely distributed and so exhibiting some variability with more southern examples ( Israel) being generally paler and with entirely white knob to haltere (2 males), or brown infuscated (1 female) and longer proboscis. No significant differences could be found in the epiphallic complex between Greek/Turkish and Israeli specimens.

Distribution

Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Turkey.

Figures

Fig. 54. Protypusia punctipennis (Loew, 1846) gen. et comb. nov. a. Epiphallic complex ventral. b. Epiphallic complex lateral. c. Gonocoxite ventral. d. Gonocoxite lateral. e. Epandrium dorsal. f. Epandrium lateral. g. Female genitalia ventral.