Piezura pardalina pardalina Rondani, 1866

Moores, Amy & Savage, Jade, 2005, A taxonomic revision of Piezura Rondani (Diptera: Fanniidae), Zootaxa 1096 (1), pp. 41-59 : 54-56

4. Piezura pardalina pardalina Rondani, 1866

Figs. 4A–E

Piezura pardalina Rondani, 1866: 71

Piezura graminicola : authors, not Zetterstedt (see Introduction)

Diagnosis: Male holoptic, with frons at narrowest point no more than 0.9–1.0x width of first flagellomere; female frons broad, 2.5–2.6x width of ocellar triangle; first flagellomere mostly yellow with apical half weakly to moderately infuscated (slightly darker in female); postpronotum yellow in both sexes. Female with 2 av on apical half of hind tibia.

Material examined: Over 60 ♂ and ♀ examined. PALAEARCTIC: England: Avon (Bristol: Blaize Woods, Coombe Dingle ), Berkshire (Wytham), Cumbria (Brigsteer Park) , Gloucestershire ( Micheldean , Beaudesert Park School nr Stroud) , Hampshire (Farley) , Hertfordshire (Lechtworth) , Kent ( Eastling Wood , Seal, Sholden, Woolwich Wood) , Oxfordshire (Newton) , Somerset (Abbots Leigh, Blagdon , Bathampton, Failand, Hawkbridge, Leigh Woods) , Suffolk (Stansfield) , Surrey (Coulsdon); France: Montauban de Luchon, St. Mamel de Luchon ; Hungary: Mehadia , Slovenia: Bohinj , Sweden: Skåne (Hälsingborg) .

Description:

Male: body length 6.0 mm.

Head: Holoptic, with frons at narrowest point no more 0.9–1.0x width of first flagellomere; fronto­orbital plate with 4–5 medioclinate fr and with a few setulae; 1 reclinate upper orb; parafacial silver­gray pollinose; fronto­orbital plate silver­gray pollinose; first flagellomere 2.0–2.4x as long as wide; scape and pedicel yellow to lightly infuscated, first flagellomere mostly yellow with apical half weakly to moderately infuscated, never solid dark brown; arista short plumose, with longest hair 0.6–0.7x width of first flagellomere.

Thorax: Background color brownish­gray; three darkened dorsal vittae present, with median one more pronounced, golden brown and broader than lateral ones; anterior presutural dc 0.5x length of posterior presutural dc; pre­sutural acr triserial, postsutural acr irregular; scutellum with 1 strong ap sctl, 2 weak ds sctl, 2 b sctl, anterior one weaker, 2–3 accessory discal setulae; postpronotum dull yellow with faint grayish tinge.

Legs: f1 and f3 weakly infuscated near apex; t2 with 1 ad; t3 with 1 av on apical third, 2 ad on apical half, with apical one weaker, 1 d on apical half and 1 preapical d; f3 with 1 row of short av with 1–2 stronger av on apical third, 1 row of ad, stronger near apex, 1 d, 1pd, 1 row of pv with 1–3 slightly stronger pv on apical third.

Wings: Costal spine inconspicuous, no more than 1.0–1.2x length of surrounding costal setulae.

Abdomen: Tergites 3 and 4 laterally darkened, tergites 3–5 with dark median vitta.

Postabdomen: Mesolobus 2x as high as wide with apex variable (see Remarks), ranging from pointed ( Fig. 4A ) to very slightly bifurcate ( Fig. 4B ); sternite 5 3x as wide as long ( Fig. 4E ).

Female: body length 6.0–7.0 mm.

Head: Distance between eyes at narrowest point 2.5–2.6x width of first flagellomere; frontal vitta usually reddish anteriorly; 1 reclinate upper orb, 1 lower latero­reclinate orb; parafacial with a few inconspicuous setulae; first flagellomere with apical half moderately to strongly infuscated but never dark brown.

Thorax: As in male except anterior presutural acr approximately 0.6–0.7x length of posterior presutural acr.

Legs: As in male except f2 rarely slightly infuscated near apex, t3 with 2 av on apical half and 1–2 pd on apical half.

Wings: As in male.

Abdomen: As in male.

Postabdomen: See generic description and illustrations ( Figs. 4C, 4D ).

Distribution: PALAEARCTIC – Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy (including Sardinia), Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland.

Remarks: Chillcott (1961) did not include P. pardalina in his revision of Nearctic fanniids, but Huckett (1965) recorded it (as P. graminicola ) from New Hampshire and Michigan. After examination of all the Piezura material from Michigan and New Hampshire housed in the USNM (most likely the same material examined by Huckett), we concluded that these specimens belong to P. nearctica and not to P. pardalina . Consequently, the distribution of P. p. pardalina is Palaearctic and not Holarctic.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Piezura pardalina ssp. pardalina Rondani. A. Male genitalia external structures, posterior. B. Male mesolobus, variant form. C. Female spermatheca. D. Female genitalia, ventral. E. Male sternite 5, ventral.