Tachytrechus tessellatus ( Macquart, 1842 )

Grootaert, Patrick & Velde, Isabella Van De, 2019, Empidoid flies from Cabo Verde (Diptera, Empidoidea, Dolichopodidae and Hybotidae) are not only composed of Old World tropical species, European Journal of Taxonomy 528, pp. 1-17 : 7-8

Tachytrechus tessellatus ( Macquart, 1842)

Fig. 3

Dolichopus tessellatus Macquart, 1842: 185 . Type locality Senegal.

Hercostomus ponderosus Frey, 1958: 15 . Type locality Cape Verde, Sal, Pedra Lume.

For a complete list of synonyms we refer to Grichanov (2018).

Material examined

CAPE VERDE • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀; Sal, Santa Maria; 16°37′24.22″ N, 22°55′47.89″ W; 3 Feb. 2019; P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde leg.; artificial pit filled with water on the upper beach; RBINS • 3 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, same collecting data as for preceding; 4 Feb. 2019; P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde leg.; RBINS .

Remarks

The present species corresponds to the morphospecies known as Tachytrechus tessellatus ( Macquart, 1842) described from Senegal. It has a wide Old World tropical and subtropical distribution from the Cape Verde archipelago in the west, all across continental Afrotropical Africa; in the Palaearctic realm it is known from Israel and Egypt, recorded throughout the Oriental Realm from the islands in the Indian Ocean, India and Sri Lanka to Indonesia and the Philippines in the east ( Grichanov 2018). Recently, we also recorded it from southern Thailand and Singapore (Grootaert, Van de Velde & Samoh, unpublished). There, it consists of two well separated populations with a barcode difference of 2.8% (Grootaert, Samoh & Meier, unpublished).

We generally found this species along temporary bodies of water such as small lagoons on the supralittoral zone of the beach or in sun-exposed rainwater drains. On Sal, they were observed displaying on the border of an artificial water pit close to the beach.

Hybotidae Meigen, 1820

Tachydromiinae Meigen, 1822

Crossopalpus Bigot, 1857

Figures

Fig. 3. Tachytrechus tessellatus (Macquart, 1842), male, habitus (leg. P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde, RBINS; photo credit Rene Ong). Scale: 1 mm.