Atylotus shagrensis, Abu El-Hassan & Badrawy & Fadl & Mohammad, 2019

Abu El-Hassan, Gawhara M. M., Badrawy, Haitham B. M., Fadl, Hassan H. & Mohammad, Salwa K., 2019, Review of the horse flies of the genus Atylotus Osten Sacken, 1876 (Diptera: Tabanidae) from Egypt, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 4551 (1), pp. 79-86 : 84-85

Atylotus shagrensis sp. nov.

(Figs 2, 7)

Type material. Holotype female, Egypt: Wadi Shagra , near Mersa Alam, 24. IV. 1933 (PPDD).

Diagnosis. Eyes with short yellow pubescence, frontal index 2.6, calli completely absent, R 4 with long appendix, abdominal tergites 1–3 dark reddish brown with black spots, tergites 4–7 blackish.

Length: (female) body 12.5 mm, wing 11.6 mm.

Description.

Head: dark reddish-brown. Eyes with short yellow pubescence, without bands; frons parallel-sided, blackish with golden-yellow hairs, frontal index 2.6, calli completely absent, with whitish ocellar tubercle; face and genae polished brown tomentose; palpi yellowish with mixed white and a few black hairs; antennae pale reddish-yellow becoming darker towards apex, basal two segments with golden-yellow hairs, basal flagellomere broad.

Thorax: blackish-brown with long and dense whitish and golden-yellow hairs; mesonotum including scutellum with dense long yellowish hairs, notopleural lobes reddish-brown with yellow hairs; legs reddish-yellow, fore tibia only blackish; wings hyaline with brown veins and a long appendix to R 4; halteres pale brown with whitish knob.

Abdomen: with the first three tergites dark reddish-brown, the 1 st with black spots around the base of the scutellum, 2 nd and 3 rd with large black spots on the middle of each segment and a small black triangular spot on the sides of the posterior margin of each segment, tergites 4–7 blackish, all tergites covered with long golden-yellow and whitish hairs, venter reddish-brown and covered with long golden-yellow and white hairs.

Male unknown.

Local distribution: W. Shagra (Eastern Desert).

Geographical distribution. Egypt.

Specimens examined. Wadi Shagra, 24. IV. 1933 (1 ♀, holotype) (PPDD).

Etymology: This new species is named after its type locality.

Affinities: Atylotus shagrensis sp. nov. is closely related to the Egyptian species A. agricola ( Wiedemann, 1828) and the European species A. loewianus ( Villeneuve), 1920 because of the parallel-sided frons and the abdominal pattern. The new species can be easily separated from A. agricola by the absence of frontal calli, blackish colour of frons, polished brown colour of subcallus and reddish-brown colour of the abdomen. Atylotus shagrensis sp. nov. is distinguished from A. loewianus by the hairy eyes, absence of frontal calli, colour of subcallus and frons, and reddish-brown colour of the abdomen.

Remarks. Four female specimens of Atylotus loewianus Villeneuve , which were collected in Croatia (8.VIII.1996), were sent to us for examination by Prof. Dr. Stjepan Krčmar from his personal collection (SKC).