Cephalodromia bicolor ( Santos Abreu, 1926 )

Suárez, Daniel, Lugo, David, Santos-Perdomo, Irene, Duque, Amanhuy, Pérez-Delgado, Antonio José & Ruiz, Carlos, 2025, Taxonomic review of the family Mythicomyiidae (Diptera, Asiloidea) in the Canary Islands, Zootaxa 5686 (4), pp. 517-535 : 525-526

Cephalodromia bicolor ( Santos Abreu, 1926)

( Fig. 6a–g )

Cyrtosia nitens Becker, 1908: 21 . Santos Abreu, 1926: 83–84. Frey, 1958: 15, misidentification.

Cyrtosia bicolor Santos Abreu, 1926: 84–86 . Engel, 1933: 106–107.

Cephalodromia bicolor (Santos Abreu) : Greathead & Evenhuis, 2001: 133. Carles-Tolrá & Báez, 2002: 108. Evenhuis, 2002: 19; 2024: 23. Báez & García, 2004: 273. Báez & Oromí, 2009: 333.

Habitus ( Fig. 6a ): Head black. Mesonotum yellow with three shiny black longitudinal bands, that can be fused into one single mark. Scutellum black, with a yellow posterior margin. Abdomen black, with thin yellow bands on the posterior margin of tergites.

Male terminalia ( Fig. 6c–f ): Epandrium dark brown, obcordiform in ventral view, thorn like processes either touching or not. Epandrium in lateral view subquadrate, with thorn like process on ventral surface curved downwards, darkly sclerotized apically; gonocoxa in lateral view subconical, with spines; lateral arms of parameral sheath extending well beyond gonocoxa; aedeagal bulb oval, one-third length of lateral parameral arms; aedeagal apodeme cylindrical, darkly sclerotized apically, with four lateral rami.

Female terminalia ( Fig. 6g ): genital fork thin, U-shaped with two inwardly directed processes on lateral arms, sclerotized; three well developed spermatheca, spheroid, sclerotized brown, as long as wide.

Material examined. SPAIN: Canary Islands, Gran Canaria, Cuermeja , 27.9780ºN, - 15.8123ºW, 24.II.2024, 2♀ (DZUL-50922), A.J. Pérez, D. Lugo & E. Jiménez leg. ; Fataga , 27.8528ºN, - 15.5628ºW, 25.II.2024, 1♂ 1♀ (DZUL-50923), A.J. Pérez, D. Lugo & E. Jiménez leg. Tenerife, Barranco de Ruiz , 28.3863ºN, - 16.6274ºW, 13. V.2023, 3♀ [DZUL-50640 (pinned); DZUL-50641 (pinned); DZUL-50924], D. Suárez & I. Santos leg.; Fuente Joco , 28.3655ºN, - 16.4647ºW, 21. V.2024, 3♂ 4♀ (DZUL-50925), D. Suárez leg. ; Iserse , 28.1881ºN, - 16.6783ºW, 29. V.2024, 1♂ (DZUL-50926), D. Lugo leg. ; Los Adernos , 28.3588ºN, - 16.862ºW, 7.II.2025, 1♂ (DZUL-50927), A. González leg. La Palma, Montaña de La Breña , 28.6326ºN, - 17.7820ºW, 1♀ (DZUL-50928), D. Lugo leg.

Distribution: Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, and El Hierro.

Remarks: Becker (1908) and Frey (1958) reported Cephalodromia nitens for Tenerife, El Hierro, and Fuerteventura. Two individuals from Tenerife stored in the Finnish Museum of Natural History (Helsinki, Finland) collected by Frey and one individual from Tenerife stored in the Museum für Naturkunde (Berlin, Germany) collected by Becker were examined, and their habitus fitted with C. bicolor . Although two individuals had a black mesonotum (i.e., the three longitudinal bands were fused), the black scutellum with yellow margin allows us to rule out C. nitens , which has a completely black scutellum. Santos Abreu (1926) also reported C. nitens for La Palma. He mentioned that it had a shiny black thorax, with yellow shoulders. In the same work, he described C. bicolor and stated that it had a yellow thorax with three shiny black longitudinal bands. In the present contribution, by examining a relatively large series of specimens, we were able to observe that this species displays a variable mesonotum pattern, with some individuals showing the typical longitudinal bands (as in the original description) while others lacked the bands and, instead, those were fused into a single wide black mark. Even in the locality of Barranco de Ruiz, two individuals showed a mesonotum with three bands while one had the bands fused. Male genitalia were examined in the two different forms, and they turned out to be identical, thus confirming that they belong to the same species. Thus, the presence of C. nitens in the Canary Islands is rejected. Instead, those records belong to C. bicolor .

Figures

FIGURE 6. Cephalodromia bicolor. (a) Habitus, lateral view. (b) Wing venation, lateral view. (c) Epandrium, ventral view. (d) Epandrium, lateral view. (e) Epiphallic complex, dorsal view. (f) Epiphallic complex, ventral view. (g) Female genitalia. Scale bar = 1 mm. Abbreviations: adb = aedeagal bulb; adp = aedeagal apodeme; epa = epandrium; fur = furca [= genital fork]; gcx = gonocoxa; par = lateral arms of parameral sheath; spm = spermatheca.