Philoliche (Philoliche) umbratipennis ( Ricardo, 1900 ), 2008

Morita, Shelah, 2008, A revision of the Philoliche aethiopica species complex (Diptera: Tabanidae), African Invertebrates 49 (1), pp. 129-158 : 146-148

Philoliche (Philoliche) umbratipennis ( Ricardo, 1900) , stat. rev.

Figs 5b , 8 , 9

Diatomineura (Corizoneura) umbratipennis Ricardo, 1900: 111 . Annshaw [ECP], South Africa (BMNH).

Corizoneura umbratipennis (Ricardo) : Austen 1920: 140.

Philoliche (Philoliche) aethiopica ssp. aethiopica (Thunberg) : Oldroyd 1957: 337. Syn. rejected here.

Philoliche (Philoliche) aethiopica (Thunberg) : Dias 1966: 1176.

Diagnosis: P. umbratipennis can be distinguished from P. rondani by its relatively paler hind coxa and hind femur, by the third abdominal segment which is relatively paler than the other segments, and by having both black and white tufts of hair posterolaterally on segment 4. This species appears to occur only in the Albany Centre of endemism. It usually has a proboscis 2 times greater in length than P. rondani .

Description:

Female.

Head: Eyes dichoptic; facets of similar size throughout. Frons only slightly divergent towards antennae, almost parallel; covered with yellow-grey or golden pruinescence (pollinosity) with shiny, reddish surface visible underneath; convex. Face conically produced forward, distance just greater than sagittal depth of the eye. Antennae with first two segments light brown to brown with black hairs; flagellum orange-brown to bright orange, sometimes with dark apex. Palps slender; distal segment wider with black hairs and sensory groove leading to an aperture; tip ending in a point. Proboscis length usually 1.5–2× body length.

Thorax: Mesonotum dark brown with faint or no sublateral stripes. If sublateral stripes are evident, they are not narrow and grey but instead broad and brown or brownish red. Supra-alar areas of scutum sharply contrasting with white-grey pruinescence beginning with the postpronotal lobes and ending at the post-alar calli. Pleura light grey to pinkish grey with numerous white to yellow hairs, also with very few dark hairs.

Wings: Smoky, becoming clearer posteriorly; darkened at cross-veins. Fifth radial cell usually open but closed at margin or even closed and stalked in some specimens; third medial cell always open.

Legs: Fore and mid coxae grey to pinkish grey, paler dorsally and with white and a few black hairs; hind coxa yellow, trochanters orange; fore and mid femora orange; hind femur yellow, same as hind coxa. Tibia of foreleg and midleg paler than femora. Hind tibia darker than hind femur with black hairs. Tarsi concolourous with tibia of same leg; darkened at apex of fifth tarsomere in fore and midtarsi. Tarsomeres with black hairs.

Abdomen: Orange-yellow with black medial spot on segments 1 and 2; segments 3 orange-yellow with scattered spots of pigment, but no true spot; segments 4–7 dark yellow-brown. Central posterior margin of segment 2 sometimes with white or yellow hairs. Posterior margin of segment 4 with black hairs (as rest of segment), except on posterolateral margin. Posterolateral margin of segments 3–7 with tufts of black or white hairs as follows: 3 – black, 4 – black and white, 5 – black, 6 – white, 7 – white.

Male as female except:

Head: Eyes holoptic; facets increasing in size from ventral to dorsal very abruptly. Frons extremely small and triangular, pruinescent, covered with long, silky yellow, golden or white hairs; eye margins beginning to diverge a distance from vertex similar to length of antennae. Face conically produced, but not as prominent as in female, clypeus highly reduced. Palps reduced compared to female but with sensory pit. Clypeus reduced to frontoclypeal membrane.

Thorax: Mesonotum with longer, more dense, golden or yellow hairs.

Legs: With short, distally projecting dorsal process on tarsomeres 1 and 2 (lappet). Lappet of tarsomere 2 never extending beyond proximal margin of tarsomere 4.

Abdomen: Abdomen narrower and often more brightly coloured.

Type material examined:

Diatomineura (Corizoneura) umbratipennis Ricardo

Syntypes: 1♀1♂ SOUTH AFRICA: Eastern Cape: “Annshaw” [Mission], [Rev.] Barrett , #242033, #242036 ( BMNH) .

Additional material examined: SOUTH AFRICA: Eastern Cape: 2♀2♂ R63 E of Bedford (32°40'S: 26°01'E), 5.ii.2004, S.I. Morita ( SMPC) ; 3♀11♂ Rd to Glen Craig Farm at Bosberg (32°41': 25°39'E), 6.ii.2004, S.I. Morita ( SMPC) ; East London (33°02'S: 27°55'E), H.K. Munro: 1 ♂ 29.x.1922 ( NMSA) , 1♀15.xi.1924 ( NMSA) ; 1♀Resolution (33°10'S: 26°43'E), 23.iii.1928, A. Walton ( NMSA) ; Grahamstown (33°18'S: 26°32'E): 2♀5.iv.1970, J.G.H. Londt ( NMSA) ; 1 ♂ “ Albany [ Dist. ] ”, 11.v.1949, B. Stuckenberg ( NMSA) ; 3♀2♂ R67 N of Port Alfred (33°23'S: 26°42'E), 18.ii.2004, S.I. Morita ( SMPC) ; 1♀Trappes Valley (33°27'S: 26°54'E), xi.1924, H. Cronwright ( NMSA) ; 3♀Kenton On The Sea (33°41'S: 26°40'E), 21.xi.1970, J.G.H. Londt ( NMSA) .

Distribution: Southern Africa; known only in the Albany Centre.

Remarks: Ricardo (1900) described D. (C.) umbratipennis based on a series of specimens collected by Rev. Barrett at the Annshaw Mission in the former Ciskei (currently Eastern Cape). It was later reclassified as Corizoneura by Austen (1920), and then synonymised under P. aethiopica ssp. aethiopica by Oldroyd (1957). It was left in synonymy with P. aethiopica when Dias separated P. rondani as a species (1966).

The molecular ( Morita 2006, in press a) and morphological evidence presented here show that Corizoneura umbratipennis (Ricardo) was incorrectly synonymised with P. aethiopica . Examination of the type material reveals clear dimorphism in eye facets from dorsal to ventral, only short lappets on the fore tarsi of the male, and the index of frons divergence less than 2.1 in the female. These characters place P. umbratipennis in the rondani species group. Additionally, molecular data resolve P. umbratipennis as a monophyletic clade within the rondani clade ( Fig. 2 ). However, the sister clade of P. umbratipennis is still unclear. It forms a strongly supported clade with both P. rondani and P. rubiginosa , which is itself a sister one to P. elegans . Strong support for monophyly of P. umbratipennis and its morphological distinctness, even where it overlaps geographically with P. rondani , testifies to this entity’s species status (see discussion).

Figures

Fig. 5. (a) Morphotypes of Philoliche aethiopica. From left to right: Philoliche aethiopica Natal (female and male), P. aethiopica Albany (female and male). Note that the Natal form pictured here has a white stripe formed by a continuous fringe of white hairs on the posterior margin of the fourth abdominal segment. (b) Females of the rondani species group. From left to right: Philoliche umbratipennis stat. rev., P. rondani, P. rubiginosa, and P. elegans.

Fig. 8. Geographic distribution of the rondani species group over South African provinces (GP – Gauteng, MPU – Mpumalanga, KZN – KwaZulu-Natal) and in neighbouring countries (SW – Swaziland). Note that all taxa overlap in distribution in the Eastern Cape, with the exception of Philoliche rubiginosa.

Fig. 9. Map showing geographic and taxonomic variation in proboscis length for Philoliche rubiginosa, P. rondani and P. umbratipennis. Circle diameter is proportional to the proboscis length of the individual specimen collected at that site.

Fig. 2. Phylogenetic relationships in the subgenus Philoliche (Philoliche) from southern Africa.Relationships and chronographic data are based on Morita (2006, in press a, b). Numbers under branches represent clade support from maximum parsimony (bootstrap proportions from 1000 replicates, MP), maximum likelihood (bootstrap proportions from 1000 replicates, ML), Bayesian (posterior probability from 20 million generations of MCMC, PP) analyses presented as MP/ML/PP (Morita in press a). Branch lengths are proportional to millions of years (MYA) (Morita in press b). Major clades are marked with letters in circles:A – P. aethiopica species complex, B – aethiopica species group, C – rondani species group, D – P. rubiginosa, E – P. umbratipennis.