Xanthocanace kaplanorum Mathis and Freidberg, 1982

Munari, Lorenzo, 2016, The Canacidae of the Arabian Peninsula (Diptera: Brachycera: Carnoidea), Zootaxa 4092 (4), pp. 489-517 : 493-494

Xanthocanace kaplanorum Mathis and Freidberg, 1982

Xanthocanace kaplanorum Mathis and Freidberg, 1982: 100 [ Egypt. Sinai: Nabek; HT ♂, USNM].

Distribution. Afrotropical: Oman, United Arab Emirates (new). Palaearctic: Bahrain, Egypt (Sinai), Qatar.

Additional material examined. Qatar: Al Khor, Purple Island, 25°40’52,12”N – 51°33’20.23”E, 25.iv.2014, D. Whitmore, 1 ♀ (cf.), [BMNH(E) 2015-94]; Al Shamal, Al Zubarah, exclusion zone, 25°58.318’N – 51°01.287’E, upper beach/lower sabka near old pier, UV light trap from dusk to dawn, 22–23.iii.2012, KPP-QA2012-PF14-LT, K.P. Puliafico & A.M. Jensen, 10 ♂♂ 24 ♀♀, [LMC, ZMUC]; Al Shamal, Al Zubarah, ex[clusion] zone upper sabka, 25°58.557’N – 51°02.296’E, yellow pan traps, 09:15‒17:30, 8.iii.2012, K.P. Puliafico & A.M. Jensen, 1 ♀ (cf.), [ZMUC]. United Arab Emirates: Ajman, 25°25.7’N – 55°30.1’E, mangrove, 28.ii.2010, W.N. Mathis, 9 ♂♂, [LMC, USNM].

Remarks. This species is distinguished from the closely allied Xanthocanace sabroskyi Mathis and Freidberg, 1982 by the densely microtomentose mesofrons of male, whereas in the latter species this appears shiny or subshiny, that is, bare or thinly microtomentose. Females of the two species are not distinguishable, but they can be tentatively assigned to the former or the latter species only if strictly associated with males. The male terminalia of these two species show no consistent differences in their structure (Munari, 2010). The two species are found sympatrically, and often syntopically, throughout their area of distribution. As far as their identification is concerned, the clinal extremes among all of the specimens examined clearly exhibit individuals with shiny mesofrons and, conversely, individuals with dull mesofrons, that is, bearing an obvious, dense microtomentum. However, Munari (2010) stated he had found specimens having the male mesofrons noticeably shiny to densely microtomentose, without any solution of continuity. He also noticed specimens with faint, although uniformly distributed, microtomentum, others having dense microtomentum, but with lucid reflections, still others bearing dense microtomentum that still allows the visualization of the underlying shiny cuticle of the mesofrons. This variation, though to a lesser extent, was also found in the specimens examined here. For further details, the reader is referred to Munari (2010). In that paper, Munari expressed some doubts about the taxonomic separation of this species from the allied X. sabroskyi , in that he found a fair number of transitional forms between the two species showing the different degrees of microtomentum of the mesofrons in males. Munari (2010) so concluded: “I prefer to maintain [...], at least for the time being, Mathis and Freidberg’s (1982) taxonomical concept for these two species, although I consider their separation somewhat doubtful and in a few cases really puzzling”.