Notiphila (Notiphila) ignobilis Loew, 1862

Dawah, Hassan A., Ahmad, Syed K., Abdullah, Mohammed A. & Zatwarnicki, Tadeusz, 2019, An overview of the Ephydridae (Diptera) of Saudi Arabia, Zootaxa 4711 (3), pp. 401-445 : 417-418

Notiphila (Notiphila) ignobilis Loew, 1862

( Fig. 17 )

Notiphila ignobilis Loew, 1862b: 12 : Cogan 1968: 303–305 [revision]; Dawah & Abdullah 2006: 387 [fauna, Saudi Arabia]; El-Hawagry et al. 2016: 125; 2017: 1516 [ Saudi Arabia].

Notiphila confinis Adams 1905: 178 : Cresson 1947: 120 [synonymy].

Specimens examined. 2 ♀, Asir, Mahayil Asir, Wadi Hali Garden , sweeping grasses, 9. i. 2003, H.A. Dawah ( CERS) .

Other Saudi Arabian records: Al-Baha Region: Jabal Shada al-A’la Nature Reserve ( El-Hawagry et al. 2016); Asir Region: Garf Raydah Nature Reserve ( El-Hawagry et al. 2017); Wadi Hali ( Dawah & Abdullah 2006).

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Dawah & Abdullah (2006) and El- Hawagry et al. (2016, 2017). The species has been collected in South Africa (Caffraria) and widespread in Afrotropical Region: Angola, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. There are some specimens in NMWC collected from Burkina Faso, Gambia, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Remarks. This species shows considerable variation in the male genitalic structure and colour. The male genitalia provides reliable characters for differentiating it from closely related species of Notiphila ( Cogan, 1968) . Larvae of Notiphila species live mainly in oxygen-deficient mud at the edges of ponds and lakes, where they feed on detritus and microorganisms. In west Africa the puparia of this species have been found in paddy fields with the posterior spiracles penetrating the aerenchyma of rice roots (Dr. J.C. Deeming; pers. comm.).

Figures

FIGURES 16–17. Habitus, lateral view. 16. Hydrellia latipalpis Cresson, 1943, female. 17. Notiphila ignobilis Loew, 1862 (Images: James Turner, NMWC).