Atherigona (Atherigona) budongoana Emden, 1940

Deeming, John C. & Kirk-Spriggs, Ashley H., 2024, A contribution to the knowledge of Namibian Atherigona Rondani (Diptera: Muscidae), with the descriptions of four new species and two new subspecies, Zootaxa 5536 (4), pp. 501-535 : 509

Atherigona (Atherigona) budongoana Emden, 1940

Atherigona budongoana Emden, 1940: 131 , figs 23, 59; Deeming 1971: 176, figs 125, 126; Deeming 1979: 45, fig. 34; Deeming & Overman 1987: 117; Dike 2003: 219 (distribution); Muller 2015: 861, fig. 22; Muller & Mostovski 2018: 346, fig. 8.

Material examined: 2♂, West Caprivi Park, Kwando River, Susuwe , 17°45'37''S, 23°20'55''E, 28.ix–02.x.1998, A .H. Kirk-Spriggs, Malaise trap, dry woodland; 1♂, Rundu District, Simanya : Okavango River, 17°33'17''S, 18°32'30''E, 23–24.i.1998, [ A.H.] Kirk-Spriggs & [E.] Marais, Malaise trap, primary woodland (all NMNW) .

Remarks: Muller (2015: 861) noted that in South Africa there are two forms of this species, the typical form, with the frontal vitta black and a second form in which this is yellow. Atherigona budongoana is a species with very small, weakly differentiated paired maculae on the abdominal tergites. One of the specimens from Susuwe (cited above) is of the form having the frontal vitta black, but the abdomen (at least when macerated), exhibits no such maculae. The Simanya specimen (cited above) has the frontal vitta black, but yellow in colour at the anterior part up to the insertion of the first orbital seta. By the abdominal colouration peculiarity both could well be confused with most specimens of A. (s. str.) decempilosa Dike, 1989b , which display either the mere vestiges of maculae or none at all. The trifoliate process of A. budongoana , however, has the median lobe very broad when viewed in profile, which is indicative of its identity.

Distribution: (Afrotropical): Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mali, Namibia *, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.