Coniceromyia cubensis Brues

Ament, Danilo César & Amorim, Dalton De Souza, 2016, Taxonomic revision of Coniceromyia Borgmeier (Diptera: Phoridae), with the description of three new species from Brazil, Zootaxa 4086 (1) : 31-32

Coniceromyia cubensis Brues , status reinstated

( Figs. 71, 160, 212, 274)

Coniceromyia cubensis Brues, 1928: 158 , fig. 1 a–b. Refs.: Borgmeier 1950: 297, 1963b: 455 (syn. to C. latimana ).

Diagnosis (male). Wing with long ventral microtrichia, costa apically swollen; hypopygium without projections, with subepandrial elevation bearing row of setulae.

Material examined. Holotype ♂, CUBA: San Juan Mts.: Prov. Santa Clara, i-ii.1927, C.T. & B.B. Brues col. (MCZ).

Hypopygium description ( Fig. 71). Hypopygium very similar to that of C. bilineata , but with two hypoproct setae.

Comments. Borgmeier (1963 b, p. 456) synonymized Coniceromyia cubensis with C. latimana , stating that “the thickness of the costa [of C. cubensis ] seems to be exaggerated in Brue’s figure”, and that no other characteristic could be used to separate both species. The re-examination of the holotype of C. cubensis revealed that this species really has the swollen costa ( Fig. 212). Coniceromyia cubensis differs from C. latimana also in having three foretibial dorsal setae, wing with ventral long microtrichia, a single dorsal seta at hind tibia, and different hypopygium morphology. Coniceromyia cubensis has an interesting combination of characters. While its ventral microtrichia on the wing and apically swollen costa suggest a close relationship to C. pilipleura and C. sakaii , the hypopygium morphology is more similar to C. bilineata . It is not very clear to which precise collecting site the type-locality actually corresponds. There is a “San Juan Hill” (sometimes referred to as San Juan Heights) close to Santiago, in the southeast margin of the country, but this is pretty far away from the “Province of Santa Clara” [sic; actually Province of Villa Clara, where Santa Clara is]. More probably, it should be “Pico San Juan”, in the Escambray Mountains, but to the southwest of the southern border of the Province of Villa Clara.