Lispe scalaris Loew, 1847

Vikhrev, Nikita E., 2021, Lispe (Diptera, Muscidae) of Africa, Amurian Zoological Journal XIII (3), pp. 369-400 : 385-386

Lispe scalaris Loew, 1847

Figs 42, 43

Lispe persica Becker, 1904 ( Vikhrev 2012a) Lispe flavipes Stein, 1913 , syn. nov.

Lispe scalaris maroccana Canzoneri et Meneghini, 1966 ( Vikhrev 2014)

Lispe sp. ( Pont 1991: 355) ( Vikhrev 2014) Lispe scalaris Loew, 1847 ( Vikhrev, 2014)

Material examined: see Vikhrev (2014).

New records: NAMIBIA: Windhoek env., 22.54 ° S 17.20 ° E, 1900 m asl, 1–4 December 2018, N. Vikhrev, 2♂; Oanob L., 23.323 ° S 17.018 ° E, 1460 m asl, 1 December 2018, N. Vikhrev, 2♀; Windhoek env., 22.545 ° S 17.255 ° E, 1870 m asl, 11–15 January 2021, N. Vikhrev, 15♂, 2♀; Noordoewer env., Orange R., 28.686 ° S 17.557 ° E, 23– 25 January 2021, N. Vikhrev, 2♂, 2♀ (all ZMUM) . TANZANIA, Dodoma reg. Dodoma env., 6.20 ° S 35.75 ° E, pond, 1150 m asl, 11–13 February 2017, N. Vikhrev, 2♂, 2♀ ( ZMUM) .

Distribution. Africa: Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania. Palaearctic: Near East ( Israel and Saudi Arabia), Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan; Oriental: India, Rajasthan.

Synonymy. 1. In the African Catalogue ( Pont 1980) L. scalaris was listed only for Egypt and Sudan. Vikhrev (2014) reported that it is more widely distributed from Central Asia and India to Ethiopia and Morocco in Africa. The new records listed above show that L. scalaris is distributed throughout Africa, in other words it is present in most arid localities of Asia and Africa.

Specimens of L. scalaris have thorax densely dusted or mostly shining as a result of wiping of dusting in aged specimens (due to this variability L. persica was described). Colour of the femora is also variable. Indian males have femora almost entirely dark except for their very apices (see Vikhrev 2014: fig. 34a), in females the yellow colour is a little more extend- ed. At the other end of the range, in Namibia, males have more yellow femora, f2 is yellow on almost apical half ( Fig. 42). Namibian females have colour of the femora varying from entirely yellow, as shown in Fig. 43, to the same as in males. Specimens from Morocco or Ethiopia have the intermediate colour of femora. Females with yellow or almost yellow legs were reported not only from S Africa: from Morocco (Canzoneri and Meneghini 1966 as L. scalaris maroccana ; Vikhrev 2014) and Saudi Arabia ( Pont 1991: 355 as Lispe sp. ). Vikhrev (2014) found that yellow-legged females occur together with those with dark or partly yellow femora and came to the conclusion that it is not a separate taxon but a colour variation.

2. The identity of L. flavipes Stein, 1913 needs clarification. It was described from South Africa, Willowmore (33.28 ° S 23.48 ° E) from two female syntypes (note that the yellow-legged specimens of L. scalaris are always females). Vikhrev (2014) identified the series of Lispe collected in Madagascar as L. flavipes because Madagascan specimens have all femora yellow, belong to the L. scalaris group and were collected in the southern part of Africa. The identification seemed correct in 2014, but presently we know that the yellow-legged form of L. scalaris is rather common in S Africa. Syntypes of L. flavipes were destroyed in 1956 in Budapest ( Pont 2013). I checked Stein’s (1913) description again: frontal triangle black and tergites 3 and 4 with a pair of black shining spots. It fits L. scalaris but contradicts Madagascan specimens which have whitish-yellow frontal triangle and abdomen evenly yellowish-grey dusted without any spots. Thus, Lispe scalaris Loew, 1847 = Lispe flavipes Stein, 1913 , syn. nov. and the Madagascan series is described below as L. selena sp. nov.