Simulium (Hellichiella) congareenarum (Dyar & Shannon, 1927)

Belqat, Boutaïna, Adler, Peter H., Cherairia, Mouna & Boudghane-Bendiouis, Chafika Chaoui, 2018, Inventory of the Black Flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of North Africa, Zootaxa 4442 (2), pp. 201-220 : 209

Simulium (Hellichiella) congareenarum species group

Simulium (Hellichiella) latipes (Meigen, 1804)

Tunisia: Clergue-Gazeau & Boumaiza (1986: 605–606, 608, 610, 612, 618–619): dichotomous key, illustration of larval hypostoma (as S. yerburyi ). Clergue-Gazeau et al. (1991: 54): listed but locality unspecified. Adler & Crosskey (2018: 52): inventoried but legitimacy of record questioned. Jendouba Province: Bailly- Choumara et al. (1971: 379, 381): brief description of breeding site (as S. latipes and S. yerburyi ).

Comment: We suspect that records of S. latipes (including S. yerburyi ) for North Africa (Tunisia) are based on misidentifications of the S. vernum complex. All Tunisian references to S. latipes (or S. yerburui ) probably trace to the specimens (two?) collected by Bailly-Choumara et al. (1971), which were almost certainly of the S. vernum complex. This was the rationale of Adler & Crosskey (2018) for questioning the records. We note that the illustration and identification key provided by Clergue-Gazeau & Boumaiza (1986) actually pertain to S. latipes (as S. yerburyi ), although the provenance of the specimens used for illustration is not known.