Platypygus natalensis (Hesse)

Gharali, Babak, Evenhuis, Neal L. & Almeida, Jorge, 2013, World synopsis of described species of the genus Platypygus Loew (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae: Platypyginae), Zootaxa 3745 (2), pp. 199-242 : 220

Platypygus natalensis (Hesse)

( Fig. 13 )

Platypygus natalensis Hesse, 1967: 97 . Hull, 1973: 262. Evenhuis, 1983: 481; 1993: 97. 2002: 26. Tschirnhaus et al., 2000: 384. Gharali et al., 2011: 25.

Material examined. Types: 1 female holotype: SOUTH AFRICA: Lilani Ahrens dist. Natal, S. Africa /B. & P. Stuckenberg/ April 1962 (NMSA).

Notes on types. Hesse (1967) based his description of P. natalensis on a single female holotype from Lilani, Natal, South Africa deposited in NMSA. The type specimen was seen by NLE during his visit to the Natal Museum in 1990 and its condition of partially collapsed eyes due to air-drying and the apical one-fifth of the left wing being torn off were published in Evenhuis (1993). We re-examined the holotype during this study and there is no change to its condition (see Fig. 13 ).

Diagnostic features. Face yellow; frons yellow becoming diffusely brown dorsally ( Fig. 13 f); postgena with rounded posterior extension ( Fig. 13 c), mentum yellow, concave ventrally; occiput black; ocellar triangle black ( Fig. 13 f); antennae with scape and pedicel yellow, flagellomere black; mesonotum ( Fig. 13 b) with a three brown stripes dorsally, medial stripe extending anteriorly to anterior margin of mesonotum, tapering posteriorly to rounded point before yellow prescutellar area; lateral stripe consisting of two parts thinly coalesced behind transverse suture; postpronotal lobes and postalar calli yellow; brown spot next to transverse suture; lateral margin of mesonotum yellow; scutellum yellow, lateral corners narrowly black; halter yellow; Sc fading toward tip and not reaching costa ( Fig. 13 e); r-m slightly before middle of cell dm; cell br longer than cell bm ( Fig. 13 d); legs orangeyellow except two last tarsal segments brownish black ( Fig. 13 a).

Distribution. South Africa ( Natal).

Remarks. The rather posterior extension of the postgena is unusual in Platypygus species and appears superficially to be more characteristic of Cyrtisiopsis . However, cell br is longer than cell bm, a major character separating Cyrtisiopsis from Platypygus . We were unable to dissect the unique female holotype and tentatively keep natalensis in Platypygus awaiting further material from which to make genitalic dissections. Re-examination during this study of Namibian Platypyginae shows that the record of P. natalensis from Namibia in Tschirnhaus (2000) was based on a misidentification of an aberrant specimen of Ahessea , so we have removed Namibia from the distributional range.

Figures

FIGURE 13. Platypygus natalensis female holotype: a — lateral view, b — dorsal view, c — head (ventrolateral view), d — wing, e — detail view of vein Sc, f — head (anterior view).