Bulletin of Entomological Research Two New Ethiopian Lonchaeidae
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Bulletin of Entomological Research http://journals.cambridge.org/BER Additional services for Bulletin of Entomological Research: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Two New Ethiopian Lonchaeidae, with Notes on other Species (Dipt.) M. Bezzi Bulletin of Entomological Research / Volume 9 / Issue 03 / February 1919, pp 241 254 DOI: 10.1017/S0007485300037962, Published online: 10 July 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0007485300037962 How to cite this article: M. Bezzi (1919). Two New Ethiopian Lonchaeidae, with Notes on other Species (Dipt.). Bulletin of Entomological Research,9, pp 241254 doi:10.1017/S0007485300037962 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/BER, IP address: 139.184.30.131 on 02 Sep 2012 241 TWO NEW ETHIOPIAN LONCHAEIDAE, WITH NOTES ON OTHEE SPECIES (DIPT.). By Prof. M. BEZZI, Turin, Italy. Very little is known about the Dipterous Family LONCHAEIDAE in the Ethiopian Region, notwithstanding the small extension of the group (almost limited to the two main genera Lonchaea, Fallen, and Palloptera, Fallen), and in spite of its economic importance. Some tropical or sub-tropical species of Lonchaea pass their larval stage in fruits, in which they sometimes occur in company with Trypaneids, and are often mistaken for them, being thus comprised under the same name of " fruit- flies." The general aspect of the flies, as can be seen from the accompanying figure (fig. 1), is not unlike that of the true fruit-flies, chiefly owing to the presence of a corneous ovipositor in the female; but they may at once be distinguished by their smaller size; their dark and unicolorous bodies, which are mostly metallic; their unmarked wings, which have all the veins quite bare ; and by the frons, which lacks Fig. 1. Lonchaea plumosissima, Bezzi, sp. n., $!, the lower orbital bristles. Moreover it must be recognised that the species of Lonchaea show more resemblance to the higher Myiodaria, than to the TRYPANEIDAE ; they have been sometimes mistaken for ANTHOMYIDAE, and some care is necessary to avoid confusing them with the species of the genus Ophyra. Even the maggots are very like those of the true fruit-flies, and require micro- copical examination for their discrimination; but as a rule, they are smaller and more slender, and have the posterior spiracles more prominent; the stigmal plates of these spiracles are more rounded, are often beset with ramified setae, and bear a tubercle inside ; the ventral or pseudopodial protuberances are less developed, much narrower and less spinose. The puparia are also recognisable by their smaller size, and more elongate and slender shape. ETHIOPIAN SPECIES OF LONCHAEA. While the genus Lonchaea is plentiful in the warmer countries of Asia and America, from the Ethiopian Region two species only are recorded in the catalogues, both described by Macquart. One of them, Lonchaea claripennis, is described as a small fly of shining black colour, with short antennae and bare arista, with yellow tarsi (C507) E 242 PROF. M. BEZZI. and yellowish hyaline wings. The other, Lonchaea aurea, in spite of its short description, is at once recognisable as the widely spread Lonchaea splendida, Loew. The third species of the family was described from West Africa, Assinia, by Bigot under the name of Palloptera pantherina (Bull. Soc. Ent., France, lx, 1891, p. 382); but as the genus Palloptera is exclusively palearctic and nearctic the species was wrongly assigned to it. Bigot was himself in doubt about its systematic position; and the insect is actually an Ortalid, recognisable by its peculiar body and wing-pattern, and now known as Simomesia pantherina, Big. More recently Mr. C. G. Lamb, in dealing with the rich material collected by the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1905, under the leadership of Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, has notably increased our knowledge of the genus Lonchaea. In his work, published in 1912, there are four species. The first is the well known L. splendida, which however must be called aurea, Macq. The second is described as new under the name of L. plumata, but is evidently the same as the Oriental L. excisa, Kert&z (1901). The third is described under the name of L. longicornis ; but as there is already another species of the same name described from the West Indies by Prof. Williston (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1896, d. 378), and recorded also from Porto Rico by Coquillett, a new name is necessary for it. The fourth is described as L. vibrissifer. Finally, I have myself in a note in my second paper on the Geratitis bred in Africa by Prof. Silvestri (Boll. Lab. Zool. Portici, vii, 1913, p. 21) recorded a species from West Africa under the name of L. glaberrima, Wied. I have now before me five Ethiopian species of Lonchaea, two of which are to be described here as new; and adding those recorded by other authors, I propose the following table of distinction :— 1(2). Eyes hairy; head considerably broader than the thorax, with a very broad frons in the female, and with short and thin macrochaetae; lunula very broad, open and roughly hairy; antennae very short, widely separated at base, with bare arista; cheeks and jowls broad; only one strong sternopleural macrochaeta present.. mochii, sp. n. 2(1). Eyes bare ; head not or only a little broader than the thorax, with less widened frons in the female and with well developed macrochaetae; lunula small, usually less visible and less or not hairy; antennae usually longer and closer together at base ; cheeks and jowls narrow. 3(10).. Arista bare or only microscopically pubescent; (all the species here distinguished have moreover the tarsi with yellow base and the squamulae white and with pale cilia). 4(7). Antennae short, extending only a little below the middle of the face; jowls rather broad, 5(6). Vibrissae not longer than usual; wings yellowish hyaline.. claripennis, Macq. 6(5). Vibrissae very long ; wings brownish .. .. .. vibrissifer, Lamb. 7(4). Antennae long, extending much below the middle of the face ; jowls narrow. 8(9). Entire body, except head, of a very glistening green, more or less golden; third antennal joint not reaching the mouth-border ; only one sternopleural macrochaeta .. .. .. .. .. .. aurea, Macq. TWO NEW ETHIOPIAN LONOHAEIDAE. 243 9(8). Body of a shining, bluish-black colour ; third antennal joint extending a little below the mouth-border .. .. .. .. lambiana, nom. nov. 10(3). Arista plumose or at least long-haired; antennae always extending to the mouth-border ; (in all the species here comprised there are always two strong sternopleural macrochaetae, the tarsi are entirely black, and the squamulae are white and pale-haired). 11(12). Last abdominal segment of the male longer than the two preceding ones together, deeply excised at end and there with the two points clothed with dense and long, bristly hairs; plumosity of the arista of medium length excisa, Kert. 12(11). Last abdominal segment of the male quite simple, and not much longer than the preceding one. 13(14). Scutellum quite bare, except the usual macrochaetae; plumosity of the arista only a little longer than the breadth of the third antennal joint gibbosa, De Meij. 14(13). Scutellum with some hairs between the macrochaetae; plumosity of the arista nearly twice the breadth of third antennal joint .. plumosissima, sp. n. l. Lonchaea mochii, sp. nov. (fig. 2). A short and stout species, with a broad head, and of a more aeneous colour, closely allied to the European parvicornis, Mg., and lasiophthalma, Macq., but smaller and distinguished by the quite bare scutellum, and by the presence of a third middle keel on the face. Fig. 2. Lateral view of head of Lonchaea mochii, Bozzi, sp. n., ?. cj $. Length of the body, 3-8-4-2 mm. ; of the wing, 3*7-4 mm. Head (fig. 2) entirely black, rather shining on the occiput, with sericeous, greenish or bluish reflections on the frons, and with white shining dust on the cheeks and on the face below. It is of a large size, being distinctly broader than the thorax, chiefly in the female, which has the frons about twice as broad as that of the male. On the vertex there are no distinct shining plates. The frons is not at all prominent, and is parallel-sided in both sexes ; but in the male it is twice as long as broad, while in the female it is only as long as broad ; the vertical and ocellar bristles are short and thin, like the single orbital pair; all these bristles are black, like the rather (C507) E2 244 PROF. M. BBZZI. long and rough hairs which cover the whole frontal stripe ; these hairs in the male are irregularly disposed in four, in the female in eight rows. Lunula very broad, rounded above, clothed on the sides with hairs like those of the frontal stripe ; it is moreover clothed with shining white dust, the contrast between it and the deep black frons being in certain lights very striking, chiefly in the male. Cheeks about as broad as the breadth of the third antennal joint, and clothed with greyish dust, which is chiefly shining white in the male; jowls about one-third of the height of the eye, clothed with black hairs, which are longer on the lower part of the occiput. Face flat, not at all prominent at the mouth-border, clothed with greyish dust and shining white in the male; it has along the middle a distinct, vertical keel, which is not visible in the allied species, in which the broad prominence between the antennal grooves is flat or even furrowed in the middle.