Mesomelena loewii Rondani, 1859

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 194

Mesomelena loewii Rondani, 1859

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1859b: 206.

TYPE LOCALITY: “Hungarn [ Hungary]” ( Loew 1848: 377) [type locality for Metopia mesomelaena Loew, 1848 ].

TYPE MATERIAL: see Remarks.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Mesomelena mesomelaena ( Loew, 1848) ( Verves 1986: 95, Pape 1988: 10, 1996: 97).

REMARKS: Rondani (1859b: 206) proposed Mesomelena as a new genus and identified Metopia mesomelaena Loew, 1848 as the type species. Having used the species epithet for the new nominal genus and thinking that Mesomelena mesomelaena was incorrect, Rondani incorrectly substituted it with Mesomelena loewii . Schiner (1861b: 501), Bezzi & Stein (1907: 515) and Rohdendorf (1975: 186) placed this name in synonymy with Mesomelena mesomelaena , while Brauer & Bergenstamm (1889: 178) considered it as a valid species. The types for Metopia loewii will be the same as for the name it was proposed to replace, i.e., Mesomelena mesomelaena . The type material of this latter species should be in Loew’s collection in the MNHUB. In Loew’s collection under the label Metopia mesomelaena there is only one female (in good condition) (J. Pohl, pers. comm., July 2020) which cannot be the type because Loew (1848: 378) stated that the single female of his collection had the abdomen destroyed. Under the name Metopia loewii there is one female (non-type) in the MZUF.