Trichopsidea Westwood, 1839

Barraclough, David A., 2006, An overview of the South African tangle­veined flies (Diptera: Nemestrinidae), with an annotated key to the genera and a checklist of species, Zootaxa 1277, pp. 39-63 : 54-55

Trichopsidea Westwood, 1839

Trichopsidea Westwood, 1839: 151 . Type species: Trichopsidea oestracea Westwood, 1839 , by monotypy.

* costata Loew, 1858: 113 ( Symmictus ). North West; Gauteng [ Greathead 1960]; Limpopo.

Discussion: In South Africa this genus is known from rather few specimens, most of which are in poor condition. Trichopsidea costata was described from Caffraria (see Greathead 1960), which is assumed to be the eastern provinces of South Africa. I have not seen any Cape material or records, and it seems likely that the genus is most abundant in arid northern areas, where its locust hosts occur. In fact most of the material in South African collections was collected or reared in Namibia.

Greathead’s treatment of the genus (1958 1960 1967) should be referred to if any further detail is required about taxonomy and biology. More information exists about the biology of T. costata than any other Afrotropical species. It should be noted that T. costata is distributed through Africa into the southern parts of the Palaearctic Region ( Bowden 1980), and is the only Afrotropical species of Nemestrinidae which occurs in another zoogeographical region.

Relationships: The hyaline wings of Trichopsidea and its vestigial proboscis make it immediately recognizeable in the South African fauna. It does not have affinity with any of the other Afrotropical genera. In fact Bernardi (1973) treated Atriadops and Nycterimyia in a separate subfamily (the Atriadopsinae), although this classification is not upheld here.