Parusia, Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 121-122

Genus Parusia gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:4A91131A-1CA0-4BC3-AF37-39A8E764C56A

Type species

Voluccella aurata Fabricius, 1794 .

Diagnosis

The combination of dichoptic males, very narrow gena plus oral margin, relatively short proboscis, entirely black legs, relatively weakly sclerotised matt-black tergites with yellow apical margins and large, globular genitalia in the male should serve to distinguish this genus from other Parageron s. lat. and Usia . However, all these characteristics are variable, and are found at least in part in other Usia and Parageron s. lat. The most convincing characters are found in the male epiphallic complex and the female genitalia. Males have a strongly sclerotised epiphallus and very large basal ejaculatory apodeme enclosed within a very large, strongly sclerotised and shining black hypopygium. The female genital fork is strongly sclerotised, often flat, sometimes bent dorsally, sometimes strongly angled with the arms. Compared to other Usiini , there is no obviously separate vaginal plate, it appears to be contiguous with the genital fork body. In many Protypusia gen. nov. the genital fork is also strongly sclerotised, but the vaginal plate is always discernible, even when sclerotised and fused with the genital fork.

Etymology

‘par(a)-’ and ‘ usia ’ meaning ‘near to the genus Usia ’.

Remarks

This genus encompasses the former ‘ aurata ’-complex including Pru. loewi . It is a very coherent group, all very closely related to each other and clearly monophyletic, but with no obvious affinities within the rest of the Usiini . The group might arguably be closer to Usia , and it has often been placed here rather than in Parageron . While there are some members of Parageron s. lat. that share some of the features of the ‘ aurata ’-complex, the Parageron s. str. are really quite different, and it became apparent that if the separation of Usia and Parageron were to be maintained, then Parageron in its former sense needed to be subdivided.

Parusia gen. nov., like other Usiini , exhibits a strong tendency for endemism, in this case with many cryptic species superficially very similar and differing predominantly in the structure of male and female genitalia. During this study, it has been possible to show that the two formerly recognised species Pru. aurata and Pru. loewi (with Pru. taeniolata a synonym of the former) in fact comprise no less than eight species. All of these have been found within a small part of the previously published range of the ‘ aurata ’-complex in the western Mediterranean east to Libya. Records of Pru. aurata and Pru. loewi come from many countries north to France, east to Kyrgyzstan and south to Kuwait ( Evenhuis & Greathead 2015). During this study no specimens from the eastern Mediterranean or Central Asia have been seen so it seems likely that these are all misidentifications in the literature. The lack of any specimens from mainland Italy or Sicily is somewhat surprising, so it could well occur there (probably Pru. taeniolata ). Given the number of cryptic species found during this study, it is highly likely that more local endemics remain to be found.

Included species

Parusia almeria gen. et sp. nov.

Parusia aurata ( Fabricius, 1794) gen. et comb. nov.

Parusia benoisti gen. et sp. nov.

Parusia cyrenaica gen. et sp. nov.

Parusia faesae gen. et sp. nov.

Parusia loewi ( Becker, 1906) gen. et comb. nov.

Parusia propinqua gen. et sp. nov.

Parusia taeniolata (Costa, 1883) stat. rev., gen. et comb. nov.