Brachypogon (Isohelea) crassiforceps ( Kieffer, 1925 )

Dominiak, Patrycja & Szadziewski, Ryszard, 2023, Taxonomic status of two European sibling and barcode-sharing species of Brachypogon Kieffer, 1899 (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), Zootaxa 5319 (1), pp. 145-147 : 146

Brachypogon (Isohelea) crassiforceps ( Kieffer, 1925)

crassiforceps ( Kieffer, 1925): 411 (Trishelea) . Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast).

turfaceus ( Kieffer, 1925): 415 (Anakempia) . Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast). New synonym.

finniae ( Clastrier, 1961): 417 (Ceratopogon) . Finland. New synonym.

nitidulus auct.: Remm 1981: 28 (= crassiforceps ); Remm 1988: 45 (in catalog); Szadziewski et al. 1994: 21 ( Belgium, Poland).

The original descriptions of males of B. crassiforceps and B. turfaceus are long but not very accurate. Although the type specimens of both species are most probably lost, the presence of particularly large cerci is clearly marked in the illustrations of the male genitalia provided by Kieffer (1925). Such cerci are rather unique among European species of the genus, what let us to assume that these two names are synonymous. The original drawing of B. crassiforceps fits quite well to B. nitidulus auctorum (e.g. Szadziewski et al. 1994). However, for the male of B. turfaceus , we are accepting here a more detailed illustrated interpretation given by Remm (1974), and following his suggestion ( Remm 1974, 1981) to treat B. crassiforceps , B. turfaceus and B. finniae as conspecific. Males of B. crassiforceps have large cerci and weakly sclerotized middle part of parameres ( Fig. 1B ), in which they differ significantly from B. nitidulus males. The name is now retrieved from synonymy.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Male genitalia (aedeagus barely visible), ventral view: A—Brachypogon nitidulus (Edwards, 1921), B— Brachypogon crassiforceps (Kieffer, 1925).