Tabanus taeniola variatus Oldroyd, 1954

Mugasa, Claire M., Villinger, Jandouwe, Gitau, Joseph, Ndungu, Nelly, Marc Ciosi, & Masiga, Daniel, 2018, Morphological re-description and molecular identification of Tabanidae (Diptera) in East Africa, ZooKeys 769, pp. 117-144 : 117

Tabanus taeniola variatus Oldroyd, 1954 Fig. 3E

Location.

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Descriprion.

Head. Head wide, posterior vertex slightly concave (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5A). Eyes black without bands, separated by greyish frons with white hair and black hair posteriorly. Bell-shaped callus; dark brown basal callus joined to upper callus by narrow constriction (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5B). Distinct white parafacial hair as seen in T. taeniola described by Oldroyd (1954) (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4A), but with a different callus shape, where upper callus ends flat (not tapering), thus a different subspecies ( T. taeniola variatus ). Antennae with two shades of brown; scape is light brown with white hair at base and black hair at anterior. Anterior-most point of scapes has brownish orange tinge. Pedicel also light brown, small, appears engulfed between scape and flagellum segment with black hair anteriorly that appear as thorn-like projection. Flagellum light brown at base up to projection, but darkens anteriorly to dark brown; annulations black, similar to T. taeniola (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5A). Second segment of palpus dull white with white hair ventrally, dorsally few black hairs mixed among the white. Labellum black with black hair as described in T. taeniola .

Thorax. Thorax greyish brown with long whitish grey hair mixed with black hair. Median stripe distinctly whitish grey reaching posterior thorax. Sublateral stripes greyish white and less distinct, but nevertheless reach the posterior thorax. Dark brown scutellum with recumbent grey hair, especially at margins. Tufts of white hair at postalar callus wing base. Halteres whitish to golden yellow (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5B). Wing clear and R4 without appendix (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5C). Middle leg same as hind leg. Distal third (1/3) of fore tibia of foreleg is black with black hair; the rest of tibia light brown with white hair interspersed with few black hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5D). Brownish yellow hind tibia with white hair interspersed with few black hair, hind femur ashy grey with long white hair. Tarsus light brown with black hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5E) and each leg has two tarsal claws.

Abdomen. Abdomen golden brown with black and white hair, with dorso-medial black band on first two segments, broad on first segment and narrower on second. Band does not completely traverse second segment. Segments with distinct triangular pattern medially light brown anteriorly and fades into greyish brown posteriorly. Triangular patterns have black hair mixed with white hair. Abdomen with black hair laterally; medial abdomen greyish brown with white and black hair. Ventrally brown surface with whitish hair except for last two black segments (Suppl. material 2: Figure S5A).

Figures

Figure 3. Whole tabanid flies. A Ancala fasciata, discal cell (dc) B Tabanus thoracinus, discal cell (dc), haltare (ht) C Tabanus donaldsoni, distinct R 4 appendix (px) D Tabanus taeniola, median stripe (ms), parafacial hair (pf), antennae (at), labellum (lbl), palpus (lp) E Tabanus taeniola variatus, medial triangles (mt), peri-median bands (pm) F Tabanus gratus, haltares (ht), comma shaped shades (cm) G Tabanus guineensis H Atylotus nigromaculatus, eyes with thin black horizontal line (hl) I Atylotus diurnus, haltares (ht), wing with indistinct appendix (px) J Haematopota duttoni K Haematopota fenestralis, double white streak (ds) L Chrysops distinctipennis, hair tufts (hf), bifurcating band (bf).