Parisus fucatus (Bezzi, 1921)

Greathead, David J. & Evenhuis, Neal L., 2004, New species of Bombylioidea in Mario Bezzi’s Unpublished Hungarian Museum Manuscript, Zootaxa 773, pp. 1-56 : 23-25

Parisus fucatus (Bezzi, 1921)

( Fig. 12)

14. Bombylius fucatus 1ɗ1Ψ South Africa (Eastern Cape): Willowmore, 1.i.1907 (H. Brauns). MS page 7.

Bezzi, 1921a: 14 – key only.

Bezzi, 1922: 72 – ex Willowmore i.1907 & 1911 (in HNHM and Bezzi personal collection [= MSNM]). Syntype located in MSNM 1ɗ ‘Capland, Willowmore, i.1911 (H. Brauns)’ and an orange label ‘38 Bezzi’; also a 1Ψ ‘OFS, Bloemfontein, 23.xi.1914 ’ (the latter specimen considered here not a part of the type series).

Bezzi, 1924: 47 – key only.

Hesse, 1938: 182 – full description of 1ɗ2Ψ from Willowmore formerly in Brauns’s personal collection (see remarks). Descriptions of other closely allied species: Bombylius calviniensis Hesse SYN. NOV. (p. 198), B. imitator Hesse SYN. NOV. (p. 185), B. anomalus Hesse SYN. NOV. (p. 196) here synonymised with P. fucatus (Bezzi) .

Hesse, 1961: 68 – discussed variability of Bombylius fucatus (sensu Hesse) and synonymised Bombylius pseudopsis Hesse and B. icteroglaenus Hesse with it.

Bowden, 1980: 392 – replaced the preoccupied Bombylius imitator Hesse with Bombylius erroneus Bowden SYN. NOV.

Greathead, 1995: 59 – transferred Bombylius fucatus to Parisus .

Evenhuis & Greathead, 1999: 165 – listed only 4 syntypes in HNHM (destroyed) and replaced the preoccupied P. anomalus (Hesse) with P. neoanomalus Evenhuis and Greathead , SYN NOV.

Types: The four syntypes in HNHM were destroyed in 1956. Another syntype was found in Bezzi’s collection in MSNM. The male specimen labelled ‘38 Bezzi’ in Brauns's collection is doubtfully a syntype (see below) and there is even less evidence that Bezzi had seen the two unlabelled female specimens in Brauns's collection. Thus the only remaining specimen that is certainly a syntype is the male in MSNM, which is here designated lectotype ( Fig. 12).

Remarks: The lectotype specimen corresponds with the characters in Bezzi’s (1921a; 1924) keys, except that the underside of the head is pale and not black. Notably, as specified in the keys it does not have dark bristly hairs on the abdomen. The manuscript description is brief but specifies yellow hair (no mention of black); eyes of male narrowly separated; proboscis black above, red beneath; scape of male black, female yellow, remainder of antenna black; thorax black with submedian vittae; scutellum red, base narrowly black; abdomen black with sides narrowly red and sternites with narrow red posterior margins; hair dense, denser at posterior margins of segments; legs yellow, only last two tarsomeres black; hind femora with 6–8 long yellow ventral bristles; wing of male with base and fore margin very feebly infuscated; cell r5 obtuse and with a long stalk, discal cell with m­m long; r­m crossvein distinctly beyond middle of discal cell.

The specimens described by Hesse (1938) do have dark bristly hairs on the abdomen. In addition the male has totally black antennae and not reddish scape and pedicel as specified in Bezzi’s keys but not in his description. Hesse (1938) states that in addition to ‘ Bombylius fucatus Bezzi’ in Brauns handwriting, the single male bears a label ‘38 Bezzi’ ( Fig. 3 d), which he considered to be in Bezzi’s handwriting and as proof that it was part of the original batch sent to Bezzi. However, the ‘38 Bezzi’ label on the MSNM syntype is not in Bezzi’s handwriting, which suggests that the labels may have been added by Brauns to identify the specimens as, in his opinion, conspecific and labelled by himself before sending the MSNM specimen to Bezzi for identification? Hesse (1938) refers to three unlabelled female specimens (except for the label ‘Bezzi I. 5 ’ on one of them) from Willowmore in Brauns’ collection. He found one to be a specimen of P. paterculus (Walker) and the other two P. f u c a t u s, but does not provide any evidence suggesting that Bezzi had seen them.

The lectotype runs most closely in Hesse’s (1938) key to Parisus calviniensis (Hesse) . However, it is evident that Parisus spp. tend to be variable in the degree of reddening of the cuticle and colour of the vestiture as concluded by Hesse (1961) so that the full extent of variation within species can only be decided when large numbers of specimens are available for comparison and that some other species described from single specimens or a few specimens of one sex only may also be synonyms. A number of the species described by Hesse (1938) as near P. f u c a t u s sensu Hesse (1938) have virtually identical male genitalia, including P. calviniensis . An examination of all available material of all the described species in this complex is needed to determine the degree of variation of P. fucatus . At present only P. calviniensis , P. i m i t a t o r and P. anomalus can confidently be synonymised with P. f u c a t u s sensu stricto in addition to the two species synonymised with it by Hesse (1961).

The female specimen from Bloemfontein in Bezzi’s collection is very similar to the lectotype male and undoubtedly belongs to the same species.

Description: Lectotype male. Head. Black with yellow­grey tomentum, facial cone and underside ochreous. Hair gleaming yellow and with decumbent scale­like hair on the frons and hind borders of the eyes. Eyes separated by the width of the median ocellus immediately in front of the ocellar triangle diverging sharply to leave a relatively large triangular frontal area above the antennae. Antennal ratio 2.5:1:5 with scape yellow, pedicel brownish yellow, first flagellomere black elongate conical, second barely longer than wide and with a terminal style. Proboscis black but greater part of underside of labium orange. Palpi not visible.

Thorax. Scutum black, pleura brownish, scutellum red. Hair even in length, dense gleaming yellow, only meron bare, paler on pleura. Bristles inconspicuous barely darker than hair.

Legs. Yellow, including coxae, only fourth and fifth tarsomeres and articulation with trochanter blackened. Long hairs beneath femora, scales and bristles pale yellow. Claws curved beyond the middle, tips black. Pulvilli narrow, about two thirds length of claws.

Wing. Base and fore border tinged yellow fading to greyish hyaline at apex and hind margin. Veins brown. Crossvein r­m just beyond middle of discal cell, m­m crossvein oblique to wing margin, slightly longer than r­m. Costal hook and comb yellow, comb weakly developed. Squama yellow with a long fringe of yellow hairs. Haltere yellow, knob paler than stalk.

Abdomen. Black with pale margins to sterna. Dense yellow hair, somewhat denser at hind margins of terga, paler on sterna. Hair not paler towards apex. Genitalia not dissected. Length of body, 8 mm; of proboscis, 3 mm; of wing, 8 mm.

Female. Very similar to lectotype except: frons parallel sided, three times width of ocellar triangle; Scutum grey tomentose with a pair darker submedian stripes; hair on pleura paler more whitish; abdominal terga with pale margins and orange at sides; abdominal terga with decumbent yellow hair­like scales at fore margins and dense stiff hairs at hind margins giving a banded appearance.

The overall appearance of these specimens is similar to many species of Systoechus in colour and distribution of hair. Hesse (1938) uses the term ‘sericeous’ to describe the gleaming appearance of the hair, which changes in intensity of colour with the angle and quality of incident light. Specimens from localities in Eastern Cape, previously identified as P. calviniensis , are very similar to the syntype but another series from near Craddock is closer to P. fucatus sensu Hesse in that the males run to P. pseudopsis in Hesse’s (1938) key with the antennae of the males entirely black; the hair longer and very pale whitish yellow on the head and thorax; that on the abdomen includes longer, stiffer, darker hairs at the margins of the terga; and the extreme bases of the fore and mid femora are blackened. Some of the associated females have darker brown hairs at the margins of the terga and both sexes entirely black proboscis. A single male from Carlisle Bridge with a reddish scape is closest to another member of the complex, P. anomalus (Hesse) described from a single male from Namaqualand (north western part of Northern Cape).

Additional material examined. SOUTH AFRICA (Eastern Cape): 1Ψ, Committees Drift, 17.viii.1959 (D.J. Greathead); 1ɗ2Ψ, near Fort Brown, 30.ix.1959 (D.J. Greathead); 2?, 20.xi.1959 (D.J. Greathead); 3ɗ3Ψ, 10 miles E of Craddock, 18.ix.1959 (D.J. Greathead); 1ɗ, Carlisle Bridge, 3.ix.1959 (D.J. Greathead) all DJG.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Examples of Bezzi labels. A, samples of Bezzi handwriting from two determination labels. B, labels from Exoprosopa fuscescens. C, labels from Bombylius braunsi [= Australoechus]. D, labels from Bombylius fucatus [= Parisus].