Notommima Freidberg and Copeland, 2006

Freidberg, A. & Copeland, R. S., 2006, Notommima parallela, a new genus and species of fruit fly from Kenya allied to Notomma Bezzi (Diptera: Tephritidae), Journal of Natural History 40 (35 - 37), pp. 2111-2121 : 2113-2114

Notommima Freidberg and Copeland , n. gen.

Type species: Notommima parallela n. sp., by present designation.

Notommima is a typical Trypetinae (Plate 1) (e.g. sensu Freidberg and Kugler, 1989), although within this subfamily it is difficult to place it in any monophyletic clade. Superficially it is similar to Malica Richter , Notomma Bezzi , Notommoides Hancock, Xanthorrhachis Bezzi , Xanthorrhachista Bezzi , and Craspedoxanthitea Hardy , as all these genera primarily contain yellow species with one or more yellow longitudinal bands on the wing. However, these genera belong to several different tribes ( Korneyev 1999). Xanthorrhachis belongs to the Gastrozonina ( Dacini ), a group exclusively associated with bamboo and other grasses, in which the female is usually equipped with broad, dorsoventrally flattened and strongly sclerotized aculeus. Craspedoxanthitea belongs to the Acidoxanthina ( Trypetini ), a group apparently associated with large flowers, and characterized by a needle-like aculeus and round epandrium, without projecting lateral surstyli. Xanthorrhachista was placed in the Ceratitidina ( Dacini ) ( Norrbom et al. 1999); Notomoides was placed in the Trypetini ( Freidberg 1994) , a group primarily comprising leaf-miners, although this assignment has later been questioned ( Han 1999); and Malica and Notomma were placed in the Notommatina (Carpomyini) ( Korneyev 1999). However,

Plate 1. Notommima parallela n. sp., habitus (photo by R. S. Copeland).

the assignments of the last four genera are doubtful, as the taxonomic and phylogenetic position of these genera, their groups, or both, are not clear. Notomma , Notommoides , and Xanthorrhachista are Afrotropical, and therefore more prone to be confused with Notommima . Table I presents the main differences between these four genera. The table shows that there are enough substantial differences between Notommima and any of the other genera to enable easy separation and justify the erection of this new genus.

Etymology

This new genus is named after the superficial resemblance to Notomma . The gender is feminine.

Comments

While considering the erection of this new genus and studying various species of Notomma , the situation was compounded by the discovery of a single rearing record of Notomma bioculatum Bezzi from fruit. Following our reasoning in erecting the new genus Notommima , i.e. by choosing to separate genera based, in part, on large biological gaps, N. bioculatum could also be separated from the other species of Notomma , and Hermannloewia Bezzi (the original genus in which it was described) could be resurrected from synonymy for it. However, since there is only a single specimen labelled as frugivorous, we postpone any further taxonomic changes until additional, confirming records are obtained. The possibility of including N. bioculatum and the new species together in the same genus ( Hermannloewia ) is rejected because the former species has all the external morphological characters of Notomma (e.g. Table I).