Exoprosopa temnocera Bezzi, 1924

Greathead, David J. & Evenhuis, Neal L., 2004, New species of Bombylioidea in Mario Bezzi’s Unpublished Hungarian Museum Manuscript, Zootaxa 773, pp. 1-56 : 39-40

Exoprosopa temnocera Bezzi, 1924

96. Exoprosopa (Exoprosopa) temnocera 1Ψ Ethiopia: Hurso, iii.1911 (Kovács). MS page [95].

Bezzi, 1924: 350 – key; listed as ‘possibly belonging to this species’ 1ɗ (‘without antennae’ but scape and pedicel are present) Malawi: Ngara, 1.1915 (J.B. Davey) in BMNH.

Evenhuis & Greathead, 1999: 380 – listed one syntype (destroyed) in HNHM and (incorrectly) one syntype in BMNH. The BMNH specimen is one from Malawi that was doubtfully included by Bezzi (1924), thus cannot be a syntype.

Types: The species was based on a single female holotype in HNHM (destroyed in 1956).

Remarks: This species keys out among the species of his E. busiris Jaennicke group in Bezzi’s (1924) key. Along with E. luteicosta and E. fissicornis it is distinguished from other species in the group by the wing having a pale yellowish base and fore border and from these by the very short, thin inconspicuous antennal ‘style’, abdomen with broad red hind borders to segments and smaller size. In the same publication he listed a male specimen from Malawi as ‘possibly belonging to this species’. This is a mistake because the specimen is clearly a specimen of E. stannusi Bezzi (1912; see also correction to description in Bezzi (1921a) and very detailed description in Hesse, 1956), and does not correspond with the manuscript description of E. temnocera .

Description. The manuscript description is difficult to read but is approximately as follows:

“Length of body, 11 mm; of wing 12 mm.

Head black, grey pollinose, sides of mouth dark yellowish, behind the eyes white tomentose, shining; posterior groove ….. narrow, central fringe on occiput pale yellowish; frons at vertex three times width of ocellar tubercle, erect black hair and covered with yellow scales, face well produced but obtuse, scales and hair yellow,.… with white scales and with white hairs; antennae all black, first segment short and with short black hairs, third segment elongate linear twice 1+ 2 in length apex truncated, style terminal scarcely distinguished. Proboscis black, not prominent, palpi black white haired. Thorax black, sides densely tomentose and hair and scales black, hair of collar and on notopleura ochreous, lateral stripe whitish­yellow, bristles strong, black, pleura black, grey pollinose, hair above pale yellowish beneath distinctly whitish; metapleuron white haired, sternopleuron tomentum …. whitish; scutellum red, yellowish tomentose behind and on margins. Squamae brownish, white fringed; plumula white; haltere white, peduncle yellowed. Abdomen elongate oval black, segments with pale posterior margins terminal segments with broad margins; dorsum covered in yellowish white scales broad basal band of segment 2 is at sides black, 3 and 4; white hair at sides long [?as 1], short and pale yellowish on all the remainder, also on posterior margin of last [tergum]; bristles yellow, venter reddish, base black, white scaled and white haired. Legs black, closely yellowish scaled and ….. white covered on femora; front legs abbreviated, tibiae ….. tarsi thick, above middle; front coxae yellow haired, spines of femora and tibiae long and black, middle 3­4, posterior 5­6; claws black, basal spine fine. Wings greyish hyaline, base and costal cell pale yellowish, first basal cell and base of marginal cell scarcely [ink blot]; hook black comb distinctly broad, reddish, bristles black and scales[?] yellowish. Veins reddish, ends at apex infuscated; second at apex not sinuous, third short almost perpendicular, first posterior cell at end as wide as anal, 2 a third narrower, 3 short, 4 very short, transverse vein before middle of discal cell elongated[?], sides parallel, end truncate, not dilated before end, terminal vein short and straight, perpendicular; anal cell broadly open, axillary lobe elongate, alula transverse pale yellowish subhyaline white fringed.”