Frontina instabilis Rondani, 1861

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 318

Frontina instabilis Rondani, 1861

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1861e: 37 (key), 39 (description).

TYPE LOCALITY: “ in planitie parmensi … … in Insubria … prope Mantuana [ Parmese plains … Insubria (= Lombardy) … near Mantova ( Italy)]” .

TYPE MATERIAL: 7 ♂♂, syntypes (one missing right fore-leg; one missing left mid-leg; one missing left hind-leg; one missing right mid-leg) ( MZUF: Box 15): Prosopina [sic!] Rnd. / instabilis Rnd. , ♂ / 773; 2 ♀♀, syntypes (one missing right mid-leg) ( MZUF: Box 15): Prosopina [sic!] Rnd. / instabilis Rnd. , ♀ / 773; 1 ♀, syntype ( MZUF: Box 15): Prosopina [sic!] Rnd. / instabilis Rnd. , ♀ / 773 / [illegible label]; 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, syntypes (couples pinned together) ( MZUF: Box 15): Prosopina [sic!] Rnd. / instabilis Rnd. , ♂, ♀ / 773; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, syntypes (missing left fore- and mid-legs) ( MZUF: Box D): Frontina Mgn instabilis R., 288, ♂ ♀, Parma / 393 288; 1 ♂, syntype (missing right mid-leg) ( MSNC: Box DIPTERA Ex collezione Rondani - I): Frontina instabilis R. 107 ♂ ♀ Parma / Coll. Rondani, scatola n° 2, posiz. A-15 / Museo di Storia Naturale Università di Pisa, Calci ( PI) ex collezione Rondani; 1 ♀, syntype ( MSNC: Box DIPTERA Ex collezione Rondani - I): Frontina instabilis R. ♀ Parm. / Coll. Rondani, scatola n° 2, posiz. A-16 / Museo di Storia Naturale Università di Pisa, Calci ( PI) ex collezione Rondani; 1 ♀, syntype ( MSNPV: Box 96): Frontina instabilis Rnd. , 178, ♂ ♀, Parma; 1 ♂, syntype ( OUMNH General Collection: Box 167.6): syntype / Type / P. instabilis Ex. Coll. Big. / Prosopea nigricans (Egger, 1861) det. Herting / Verrall-Collin Palaearctic coll. Ox. Uni. Mus. Nat. Hist. ( OUMNH) OUMNH- 1967-018 / Tachinidae Prosopea nigricans (Egger, 1861) , Palaearctic.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Prosopea nigricans (Egger, 1861) ( Herting & Dely-Draskovits 1993: 252) .

REMARKS: Rondani (1861e: 39) described both sexes of Frontina instabilis without specifying the exact number of specimens and not giving a range of lengths, from material he had collected and also received from D’Arco. We found 20 syntypes in this study. Rondani placed this nominal species in the subgenus Prosopea Rondani, 1861 , which is now considered as a valid genus ( O’Hara et al. 2011: 151).