Mesoconius ottoi Marshall, 2019

Marshall, Stephen A., 2019, A revision of the genus Mesoconius Enderlein (Diptera, Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 548, pp. 1-126 : 86-87

Mesoconius ottoi Marshall nom. nov.

Fig. 30 C–D

Tanypoda garleppi Enderlein, 1922: 201 (preoccupied by Mesoconius garleppi Enderlein 1922: 177 ).

Aristobata garleppi – Hennig 1935: 31 .

Zelatractodes garleppi – Steyskal 1968: 20 .

Etymology

The species name replaces the preoccupied patronym, which was based on the collector’s surname, with one based on the collector’s first name.

Material examined

Lectotype of Tanypoda garleppi Enderlein, 1922 (here designated)

BOLIVIA • ♀; Garlepp leg.; MNBG .

Paralectotype

COLOMBIA • ♀; “n. Granada”; v. Nolcken leg.; MNBG .

The paralectotype collector was presumably J.H. Wilhelm Baron (von) Nolcken, who collected in the mountains of Colombia 1870–71 ( Horn & Kahle 1936). The lectotype collector, Otto Garlepp, collected in Bolivia 1893–97, but the type label reads only “ Bolivia Garlepp s.v. ”, so a precise locality is not available.

Redescription

Based on lectotype female of Tanypoda garleppi Enderlein, 1922 .

LENGTH. 13 mm.

COLOUR. Mostly bright orange, except as follows: frontal vitta velvety black, except for partially orange ocellar triangle, contrasting with pale frons; face, parafacial, gena and postgena pale yellow-white. Fore tibia black with apex narrowly yellow, fore tarsus bright yellow; hind and mid tarsi brown. Hind femur with a broad, indistinct black band just beyond base.

HEAD. Frontal vitta characteristically shaped, with anterior portion broadly tapered and widely separated from very pale frontal margin (continuous with anterior margin in the similar M. garyi sp. nov.), posterior portion elongate triangular; broadest part of vitta continuous with a narrow transverse black band almost meeting eye.

THORAX. Scutellum with long, thin apical bristles. Vertical row of katepisternal bristles golden. Katatergite not swollen, without median process, evenly convex and microtrichose. Wing entirely yellowish, without clear bands.

ABDOMEN. Strongly petiolate, T1+2 darker than and twice as long as T3, basally narrow, with a strong constriction between T1 and T2, apically as wide as base of T3.

Remarks

Enderlein (1922) named two similar orange species, both collected by Otto Garlepp, as ʻ garleppi ʼ, one in the genus Tanypoda and one in the genus Mesoconius . Tanypoda garleppi was later moved to Aristobata by Hennig (1935) and then treated as Zelatractodes by Steyskal (1968). Now that Zelatractodes and Mesoconius are regarded as subjective synonyms, the species described as Tanypoda garleppi (until recently treated as Z. garleppi ) is a subjective junior homonym and is renamed M. ottoi here. The general habitus and the shape and colour of the frontal vitta suggest a relationship to M. garyi sp. nov., which differs in lacking scutellar bristles, having a dark anterolateral thoracic patch and having a dark frontal vitta that reaches the anterior margin of the frons.

Figures

Fig. 30. Species of the Mesoconius nono group known only from original type specimens. A–B. Mesoconius hoffmannsi (Enderlein, 1922), holotype (Peru), ♂, MNBG. C–D. Mesoconius ottoi nom. nov. (replacement name for Tanypoda garleppi Enderlein, 1922), lectotype (Bolivia), ♀, MNBG. E. Mesoconius scurrus (Hennig, 1935), holotype (Bolivia), ♂, SMTD.