Tabanus punctipleura Hine

(Figs 48 A–D, 49)

Tabanus punctipleura Hine, 1920: 314 (list of species); Kröber, 1930a: 261 ( Tabanus (Lophotabanus)) (Tax. Tabanini), 1934: 296 (cat.; Tabanus (Lophotabanus)); Fairchild, 1947: 569, figs. 4, 4a, 4b (list of species), 1961c: 32 (list of species), 1971: 100 (cat.); Hogue & Fairchild, 1974: 26 (list of species); Moucha, 1976: 134 (cat.); Fairchild, 1984: 33, map 4, 1986: 123 (rev.); Fairchild & Burger, 1994: 147 (cat.); Cambra, 2006: 124–125, table 2 (list of species); Coscarón & Papavero, 2009b: 140 (cat);

Distribution: Costa Rica, Panama.

Type-locality: Costa Rica, San Carlos.

Diagnosis: One of the largest species of Tabanus in the Americas (Fairchild, 1984) (reaching 23mm). Frons narrow (FI: 5.6), parallel or divergent at the base (DI: 1.0). Postpedicel with a long dorsal tooth, larger than one-third of the postpedicel’s size. Scutum and scutellum integument purplish-brown with gray pruinosity and black setulae. Pleura yellowish-brown setulose except for a well-defined tuft of dark setulae below the wing base. Wing light brown infuscated. Abdomen integument darker than thorax, without any dorsal setulose or integument well-defined spots, triangles or stripes, except for pale yellow setulose tufts on the posterolateral margin of tergites I to IV or V.

Remarks: We had no specimens of T. punctipleura available for examination in this study. The species diagnosis presented here is based on Hine’s (1920 b) description, on Fairchild’s (1947, 1984, 1986) comments, and on photos of the holotype made available in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History database. T. punctipleura is easily distinguished from other species in the T. nebulosus group due to the absence of any dorsal spots, triangles or stripes on the abdomen, whether it integumental or setulose, the long postpedicel tooth, and the well-defined setulose dark tuft on the pleura (see T.lutzi). The male is similar to the female except for the reduced mouthparts, slender antenna lacking the ventral angle found in females, holoptic eyes with the facets poorly-demarcated, and the largest ones occupying less than a half of the upper eye areal (Fairchild, 1986). T. punctipleura has part of the Andean/Mesoamerican components of Amorim & Pires (1996, Fig. 27), and it would not be a surprise to find the species further north in Central America and in Colombia west to the Andes in the areas of Cauca, Bojayá etc.