Protypusia vagans ( Becker, 1906 ) Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 115-117

Protypusia vagans ( Becker, 1906) gen. et comb. nov.

Figs 8 , 58

Usia vagans Becker, 1906: 221 .

Etymology

From Latin ‘ vagus ’ = ‘wandering’, ‘vague’.

Type material

Lectotype

TUNISIA • ♂; “ Gafsa, Biró/ vagans Beck. ♂ det. Becker / Lectotypus /Zool. Mus. Berlin [leg. Lajos Biró, abdomen greased, head glued back on upside down]” ZMHB.

Other material examined

MOROCCO • 4 ♀♀; “Oujda, Plateau du Rekkam 100 km E Ain-Benimathar 1150 m N33°44.254 W2°59.095, 25 April 2010, Leg. Dils J. Faes J. ” PCJD .

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length. 2.2–2.6 mm. Wing length: 2.3–3.0 mm.

Male

HEAD. Gena and mouth margin narrow, about as broad as the length of the pedicel with pale grey-dusted gena barely wider than the tip of the palps, mouth margin shiny. Frons rather small, triangular and not tumid, silky white without outstanding hairs. Eyes meeting for about 9–10 facets, equal to or greater than the length of the vertex. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, densely grey-brown dusted, all ocelli contiguous with the eye margins. White hairs on ocellar tubercle noticeably longer than the width of vertex at its broadest. Eye facets large in upper half, small in lower half, the division between them, just below the antennal insertion, not well marked. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with grey-brown dust, covered with whitish hairs about half as long as those on ocellar tubercle, becoming longer and silky below. Antennae blackish with scape and pedicel more brownish, postpedicel about 1.4 times as long as scape and pedicel together, rather oval in shape with no more than a slight point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus. Palps small, subclavate, pale brown with several white hairs apically as long as palp. Proboscis moderate, about as long as thorax and scutellum, hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane blackish-brown.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by brownish-grey dust, with vaguely darker paramedian vittae extending back two thirds the length of the mesonotum, also faint, obscurely defined, darker antehumeral vittae broken at thoracic suture. Hairs of mesonotum pale yellow-white, rather long, longer than ocellar hairs, acrostichals irregular, dorsocentrals irregularly uniserial, hairs on hind third and lateral parts of mesonotum more general, more dense on notopleuron, area above wing bare. Scutellum rather more yellowish brown dusted than mesonotum, hairs equal in length to than those on mesonotum, generally scattered dorsally but lateral margins bare. Pleura concolourous with mesonotum, pronotum and posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with long, white hairs.

WING. Membrane somewhat milky with inconspicuous brown shades around fork of R 2+3 and R 4+5, fork of R 4 and R 5 and the crossveins r-m, m-m and m-cu the veins pale yellow basally, darker in rather more than apical half. Crossvein r-m a little beyond basal third of the discal cell, clearly beyond m-cu. Anal lobe very well developed with conspicuously convex margin, much broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. Yellow, stem and base of knob clearly suffused with brown.

LEGS. Coxae concolourous with pleura. Femora and tibia rather browner, not densely dusted, very tip of femora and narrow base of tibia yellow. Legs covered with white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally and hind tibia dorsally.

ABDOMEN. Greased but probably grey-brown dusted similar to thorax. Tergite one brownish laterally and along apical margin, remaining tergites also with narrow dull brownish posterior margins. All tergites with long white hairs on reflexed lateral margins, dorsally hairs shorter and largely confined to the posterior half of each tergite. Sternites similar to tergites.

GENITALIA. Small even for holoptic Protypusia gen. nov., dark in ground colour, tip of gonocoxite yellower, densely covered in brown dust, covered in white hairs.

Female

Differs from male in having widely separated eyes, frons almost a third head width, densely olive-grey dusted with small median black spot. Laterally, close to eyes and level with anterior ocellus, is a uniserial row of relatively long, proclinate hairs, front half of frons with more generally distributed shorter hairs. Hairs on ocellar tubercle shorter, a little longer than distance across hind ocelli. Hairs of mesonotum, pleura and scutellum very much shorter and rather sparser, dusting with a definite yellow-brown colour. Legs generally with shorter hairs. Infuscation on wing veins can be rather obscure, most conspicuous on crossveins. Abdomen with apical yellow margins of tergites a little broader and more obvious, hairing of tergites and sternites significantly shorter than in male.

Remarks

The male and female genitalia suggest close affinities with Pro. dimonica and Pro. hyalipennis , the shape of the gonostyli especially being very similar in these three species. Protypusia hyalipennis especially is very similar, but the mesonotal pattern and hyaline wings readily distinguish it. Although both species occur in Morocco, Pro. hyalipennis is known north of the Atlas Mountains while Pro. vagans to the south. Protypusia dimonica also occurs on the Saharan side of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, so could be sympatric with Pro. vagans , but is readily identified by its general blue-grey colour and entirely hyaline wings.

Distribution

Morocco, Tunisia.

Figures

Fig. 8. Protypusia vagans (Becker, 1906) gen. et comb. nov., ♂.

Fig. 58. Protypusia vagans (Becker, 1906) gen. etcomb. nov. a. Epiphallic complex ventral.b. Epiphallic complex lateral. c. Gonocoxite ventral. d. Gonocoxite lateral. e. Epandrium dorsal. f. Female genitalia ventral.