Scatophaga marina, Macquart, 1838

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 72-73

marina Macquart, 1838 , Scatophaga

Scatophaga marina Macquart, 1838: 424 , pl. 11, fig. 3. Syntypes ♂♂, “Dunkerque” ( France, Pas de Calais, Dunkerque), not in MNHN or MHNL, and presumed destroyed.

MATERIAL. — Macquart described this species from ♂♂, which he collected himself in large numbers on Fucus at Dunkerque beach, “le 20 juillet 1838, parcourant la

plage de Dunkerque vers sept heures du matin […]”. No type material survives (see also Hennig 1966: 15).

CURRENT IDENTITY. — Scatophaga marina is listed with some doubt as a junior synonym of Fucellia maritima ( Haliday, 1838) by Hennig (loc. cit.), a synonymy accepted without reservation by Dely-Draskovits (1993: 59). There is no reason to dispute this synonymy as F. maritima is known to occur along the French Channel coast although it is nothing like as abundant as Fucellia tergina (Zetterstedt, 1845) .

Both Macquart and Haliday published these names in 1838, and both papers appeared in November 1838: Macquart’s marina in the 3rd fascicle of volume 7 of the Annales de la Société entomologique de France, and maritima in the 9th fascicle of volume 2 of the Annals of Natural History. Haliday’s paper ( Haliday 1838) was published on 1 November 1838 ( Evenhuis 2003: 12), whereas no date beyond “November” is possible for Macquart’s paper (Evenhuis et al. in prep.), and so the publication date for Macquart’s paper must be 30 November 1838 by default. It should also be noted however that Haliday’s name was pre-published (as a nomen nudum) by Curtis (1837: 279) and so in justice to Haliday, it is right to continue to use his name which was clearly in use (though not formally made available) before Macquart’s, especially as Macquart did not collect his material until July 1838.