Atylotus diurnus Walker, 1850

Mugasa, Claire M., Villinger, Jandouwe, Gitau, Joseph, Ndungu, Nelly, Marc Ciosi, & Masiga, Daniel, 2018, Morphological re-description and molecular identification of Tabanidae (Diptera) in East Africa, ZooKeys 769, pp. 117-144 : 117

Atylotus diurnus Walker, 1850 Fig. 3I

Location.

Muhaka, Shimba Hills, Nguruman, all in Kenya.

Generally, the body is slender and not as hairy as in At. nigromaculatus described above.

Descriprion.

Head. Head wider than thorax and eyes pale black without band (Suppl. material 2: Figure S9A). Eyes separated by narrow frons brown on posterior quarter and black anteriorly with black and golden-brown hair. Basal callus brownish black and upper callus black. Two small calli vaguely rounded and well separated (Suppl. material 2: Figure S9B). Antenna yellowish orange; scape light yellow with white hair at base and black hair at anterior end as does the pedicel. Pedicel small with projection and is less distinct as it closely adheres to the much larger flagellum. Flagellum orange with blunt projection with small black hair. Second palp segment white with white and black hair; labellum dark brown (Suppl. material 2: Figure S9A).

Thorax. Thorax greyish black without visible median stripe, but lateral stripes black and indistinct, halteres white (Suppl. material 2: Figure S9A). Clear wing and R4 with short appendix (Suppl. material 2: Figure S9C). Legs as described in At. nigromaculatus .

Abdomen. Abdomen with thick black band running medially to last segment with black and few white hair; light brown part that is broader anteriorly but narrows posteriorly such that the sixth and seventh segments are completely black. Brown parts of abdomen with black and white hair, black part with mostly black hair and few white hairs. Lateral margins of abdomen black (Suppl. material 2: Figure S9A).

Note.

Atylotus diurnus is the only species described by Oldroyd (1952) whose wing has an appendix on the R4 of the wing. Though the other morphological features described here are different from those described by Oldroyds (1952), they are similar to those described by Taioe et al. (2017), thus confirming that the specimen are indeed Atylotus diurnus .

Figures

Figure 3. Whole tabanid flies. A Ancala fasciata, discal cell (dc) B Tabanus thoracinus, discal cell (dc), haltare (ht) C Tabanus donaldsoni, distinct R 4 appendix (px) D Tabanus taeniola, median stripe (ms), parafacial hair (pf), antennae (at), labellum (lbl), palpus (lp) E Tabanus taeniola variatus, medial triangles (mt), peri-median bands (pm) F Tabanus gratus, haltares (ht), comma shaped shades (cm) G Tabanus guineensis H Atylotus nigromaculatus, eyes with thin black horizontal line (hl) I Atylotus diurnus, haltares (ht), wing with indistinct appendix (px) J Haematopota duttoni K Haematopota fenestralis, double white streak (ds) L Chrysops distinctipennis, hair tufts (hf), bifurcating band (bf).