Tabanus platycerus Fairchild

Carmo, Daniel D. D. & Henriques, Augusto L., 2019, Taxonomy of Tabanus trivittatus species-group (Diptera: Tabanidae), with description of five new species, Zootaxa 4554 (1), pp. 63-100 : 82-83

Tabanus platycerus Fairchild

( Figures 17 A–E, 33)

Tabanus platycerus Fairchild, 1976: 251 , fig. 9; Fairchild, 1986: 119 ( Panama spp.); Henriques & Gorayeb, 1993: 19 (MPEG spp., in part); Fairchild & Burger,1994: 146 (cat.); Henriques, 1997: 88 (INPA spp., in part); Coscarón & Papavero, 2009: 139 (cat.).

Diagnosis. Notopleuron integument lighter than adjacent scutum. All coxae, mid and hind femora brownish yellow, pruinescent gray, white haired, hind coxae sometimes with black areas. Middorsal abdominal stripe series of slender connected triangles through tergite 6; dorsolateral disconnected through tergite 4.

Male. Unknown.

Comments. Fairchild (1976) described this species based on specimens from Costa Rica and Panama. Since then, this species has been registered east of the Andes, by Henriques and Gorayeb (1993; Brazil), Cárdenas & Vieira (2005; Ecuador), Cárdenas (2009; Ecuador) and Henriques (2016; Venezuela). We also examined several specimens from the Amazon Basin at the INPA and Museu Goeldi collections identified as T. platycerus . All specimens from the collections had lateral abdominal stripes present beyond segment four, reaching the fifth segment and sometimes with vestiges on the sixth, a character not seen in the type series of T. platycerus , but present in the very similar T. sextriangulus . We believe that this might be the case for all species registers east of the Andes, therefore T. platycerus distribution is restricted to Central America, while citations above refers to T. sextriangulus .

Material examined. Paratypes, label as fig. 17 E (5 ♀ FSCA) . PANAMA, Bocas del Toro (♀ INPA 2 ♀ MPEG) . Holotype examined by photos, available at the MCZ database .

Figures

FIGURE 17. Tabanus platycerus. Paratype female. A. Dorsal habitus. B. Lateral habitus. C. Head, anterior view. D. Head, lateral view. E. Labels. Scale bars. A, B. 5 mm. C, D. 1 mm.