Atylotus nigromaculatus Ricardo, 1900

Mugasa, Claire M., Villinger, Jandouwe, Gitau, Joseph, Ndungu, Nelly, Marc Ciosi, & Masiga, Daniel, 2018, Morphological re-description and molecular identification of Tabanidae (Diptera) in East Africa, ZooKeys 769, pp. 117-144 : 117

Atylotus nigromaculatus Ricardo, 1900 Fig. 3H

Location.

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania; Nguruman, Kenya.

Generally, slender body covered with dense golden-brown hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8A).

Descriprion.

Head. Head wide, posterior vertex slightly concave. Eyes pale golden brown with thin black horizontal line or band. Eyes separated by narrow golden-brown frons on posterior quarter and black anteriorly. Callus in two well-separated lower and upper parts shiny black and vaguely round (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8B). Antenna golden brown; Scapes with white hair and black hair anteriorly as does the pedicel. Pedicel less distinct as it closely adheres to much larger flagellum. Second palp segment white with white and black hair but only white hair seen ventrally; brown labellum (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8B).

Thorax. Black thorax with indistinct stripes and golden-brown hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8C). Indistinct hair tufts at postalar callus. Halteres yellowish white and clear wing; R4 with small appendix (Fig. 4D ; Suppl. material 2: Figure S8A). Fore tibia black distally and light brown towards femur with black and white hair. Fore femur brown with grey patch at proximal end with white hair all over. Fore tarsus black with black hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8D). Hind tibia light brown with black and white hair, while hind femur light brown and proximally blackish grey with white hair all over the femur. Hind tarsus light brown with black and white hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8E); middle leg similar to hind leg.

Abdomen. Brown abdomen, slender and slightly tapers posteriorly. Broad black median band that longitudinally dissects abdomen; band with black recumbent hair (Fig. 4D ). Brown patches with brown recumbent hair on either side of the band on first to fourth segment. Fifth to seventh segments black. Lateral abdominal margins black (Suppl. material 2: Figure S8C). Ventral surface of abdomen brown with white hair and dark grey margins.

Note.

Atylotus nigromaculatus is the only species in genus Atylotus described by Oldroyd (1954) whose eyes have no band. The morphological features described in this study are similar to features described by Taioe et al. (2017) of specimen collected from South Africa.

Figures

Figure 3. Whole tabanid flies. A Ancala fasciata, discal cell (dc) B Tabanus thoracinus, discal cell (dc), haltare (ht) C Tabanus donaldsoni, distinct R 4 appendix (px) D Tabanus taeniola, median stripe (ms), parafacial hair (pf), antennae (at), labellum (lbl), palpus (lp) E Tabanus taeniola variatus, medial triangles (mt), peri-median bands (pm) F Tabanus gratus, haltares (ht), comma shaped shades (cm) G Tabanus guineensis H Atylotus nigromaculatus, eyes with thin black horizontal line (hl) I Atylotus diurnus, haltares (ht), wing with indistinct appendix (px) J Haematopota duttoni K Haematopota fenestralis, double white streak (ds) L Chrysops distinctipennis, hair tufts (hf), bifurcating band (bf).

Figure 4. Key morphological features of sampled tabanid species. A Ancala fasciata B Tabanus donaldsoni green eyes (in fresh sample) C Tabanus donaldsoni, wing with distinct R 4 appendix (px), indistict hair tuft (hf) D Atylotus nigromaculatus, wing with short, clear appendix on R 4 E Haematopota duttoni, mottled wing with a right angled white thick line (in black circle) between vein A 1 and the wing margin, the R 4 has a long appendix F Haematopota fenestralis, shiny black callus on frons, eyes have bright coloured bands G Chrysops brucei, lateral view of head showing the antenna, black mouth parts and brown legs (partial).