Protypusia deserticola ( Efflatoun, 1945 ) 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 : 69-72

Protypusia deserticola ( Efflatoun, 1945) gen. et comb. nov.

Fig. 44

Usia deserticola Efflatoun, 1945: 208 .

Etymology

From Latin ‘ dēsertum ’ = ‘desert’ and ‘ colō ’ = ‘to inhabit’, ‘desert dwelling’.

Type material (not examined)

Holotype male in ESEC not seen. Type locality: Wadi El-Lega , South Sinai, 1750 m, 19–27 April 1939 ( Efflatoun 1945).

Photographs show six specimens, two with red labels, at least one of which appears intact or partly so. It is not known if the intact specimen is the holotype. Another ten paratypes in EFC, three with red labels, are in good condition. Photographs of one female paratype from EFC were made available to me during this study by Professor Magdi S. El-Hawagry.

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.7–3.6 mm.

Male (based on Efflatoun 1945).

HEAD. Rather triangular, frons produced forward more than in other species. Frons glistening greyishwhite, this colour extending down the gena. Ocellar tubercle blackish-brown and well raised, occiput brownish-grey to deep olive-buff in upper third, lower two thirds and jowls greyish white. Pubescence sparse, hairs on ocellar tubercle longish, tufted, greyish, shorter greyish hairs on occiput, longer and more shaggy on jowls. Eyes confluent for relatively short distance, less than length of frons. Antennae black, scape and pedicel paler due to thin whitish dust more conspicuous than on postpedicel. Postpedicel relatively stout and deep with convex ventral margin, only a little longer than deep and hardly twice the length of scape and pedicel combined. Palps minute, thin and short, blackish bearing a very few very short, erect yellowish hairs apically. Proboscis rather short, about one and a half times as long as head (including antennae), black except for the obscure yellowish-brown baso-ventral membrane.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dense dust varying from brownish-grey to deep olive-buff. Mesonotum with poorly defined paramedian vittae. [Antehumeral vittae not described but are clear on female so probably present in male.] Whole of mesonotum and scutellum covered with long but not dense, erect pale greyish-yellow hair, sparser and shorter on disc, longer, denser and coarser on the postpronotal lobe and notopleuron. Mesonotum very finely punctured with black pits at points of hair attachments. Scutellum deep olive-buff dusted as on mesonotum with some long, erect pale greyish-yellow hairs around the margin, the longer coarser hairs issuing from minute black pits. Pleura dusted as mesonotum, pale brownish-grey, almost glabrous but for a very few soft, longish white hairs on upper part of the anepisternum.

WING. Membrane hyaline with a weak but characteristic and distinct opaque light brownish tinge, the veins brownish, paler yellowish-brown basally. Crossvein r-m at or before basal third of discal cell, m-m almost straight. Anal cell closed a short distance from wing margin so with short but distinct petiole. Squamae with brown margin and short white fringe.

HALTERE. Ivory white, basal half of stem blackish.

LEGS. Femora, tibia and tarsi, blackish with extreme tips of femora and narrow bases of tibia brownishred, very thinly white dusted giving them a greyish-black appearance. Femora furnished with moderately long whitish hairs, legs otherwise covered with very short, adpressed fairly dense whitish hairs.

ABDOMEN. Tergites dark, the ground colour obscured by uniformly deep olive-buff dust, not quite as dense as on mesonotum. Each tergite with a very narrow pale cream apical margin. Sternites whitish dusted with pale cream-buff apical margins. Tergites and sternites covered with very sparse, short, whitish pubescence, longer and somewhat tufted basally and laterally.

GENITALIA. Relatively small not bulbous [compared to what? difficult to know what Efflatoun means here]. Gonocoxites broad and short, black with thin white dusting and sparse, soft whitish hairs. Epandrium obscure blackish with very short, dense white pubescence. Tips of gonostylus and epiphallus reddishbrown, the former [sic] with microscopic erect reddish-yellow pubescence [pubescent gonostyli would be a completely unique feature, it seems probable that either Efflatoun’s “hooks” are not the gonostyli or he meant “latter” not former and is referring to apex of epiphallus which would make sense].

Female (based on Efflatoun 1945 and photographs of EFC specimen)

Similar to male, abdomen shorter and broader.

Head as long as broad, frons rather prominent, in lateral view distance from eye to base of antennae greater than depth of postpedicel and about twice diameter of scape apically. Frons deep olive-buff dusted, gradually widening from vertex to front of frons, rather less than one third head width at vertex. Frons with small discrete dark spot centrally where dusting thinner so dark cuticle shows through. Gena yellowishwhite, narrow, the more shining mouth margin rather protuberant, wider than dusted gena. Lateral ocelli separated from corner of eye by about twice the diameter of that ocellus. The white to yellowish-grey pubescence on frons rather longer than in related species, scattered along the eye margins and a longer tuft on the feebly raised ocellar tubercle, hairs shorter on front of frons [this from photograph, seems to be contrary to Efflatoun’s description so probably variable]. Minute black punctures visible at hair insertions. Dusting of thorax sometimes deeper, darker colour, paramedian vittae more apparent. Pubescence of thorax much shorter than in male, many hair insertion points visible as minute black punctures. Wings in some specimens with opaque brownish tinge deeper and more pronounced. Legs as male but sometimes with extreme base of basitarsi cream-buff to brownish-red. Paler tips to femora confined to ventral surface. Pubescence as male but a little shorter. Abdomen broader than in male as typical for genus, pubescence whitish and sparser and very short, minute black punctures at points of hair attachments. Ovipositor (apical sternite?) black, covered with white dust and very short, erect whitish hairs.

Remarks

As with most of the species described in Usia by Efflatoun in 1945 with specimens in ESEC, it has not been possible to borrow or visit the types. Photographs of the collection suggest that some specimens survive, at least partially, but also that some of the type series is partially or entirely destroyed. Two specimens in ESEC have red labels, presumably one of these is the male holotype but the resolution of the photograph is insufficient to know. There are also 10 specimens in EFC all of which appear to be in good condition, three with red labels.

Of the eight species described in Usia by Efflatoun (1945), Pro. deserticola is the one that can be placed in Protypusia gen. nov. with greatest confidence. It is larger than any of the species of Efflatoun that can be confidently assigned to Apolysis . Other Parageron -like characters are the relatively short, robust postpedicel, relatively long mesonotal vestiture and wing venation showing relatively short discal cell (from photographs and plate for Efflatoun’s ms but not made explicit in type description) and anal cell closed close to wing margin. Also, Efflatoun’s (1945: pl. 19 fig. 305) illustration shows no sign of an arista arising from the dorsal sulcus of the antennae, and this is borne out in photographs of the postpedicel and confirmed by Professor Magdi El-Hawagry.

In the absence of the opportunity to closely examine the male and female genitalia it is impossible to be confident of the affinities of this species. However, the short, robust postpedicel seems to place it very close to Pro. dimonica . Given that this species is known from Morocco and Israel, it will almost certainly be present in Egypt. Protypusia dimonica is a small pale dove-grey dusted species with barely evident antehumeral vittae. However, across its range there is a degree of variation so Pro. deserticola could potentially be conspecific with Pro. dimonica .

Distribution

Egypt (Wadis Wirak and Agramieh, North Galala Plateau; Wadi El-Lega, South Sinai 1750 m).

Figures

Fig. 44. Protypusia deserticola (Efflatoun, 1945) gen. et comb. nov. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Image SIA2012-7880.