Chonocephalus aduncus Schmitz

Disney, R. Henry L., 2002, Revisionary notes on Chonocephalus Wandolleck (Diptera: Phoridae) with keys to species of the Holarctic Region, Zootaxa 60, pp. 1-36 : 7-9

Chonocephalus aduncus Schmitz

(Figs 2­4, 43)

Chonocephalus aduncus Schmitz, 1928: 92 (part). Chonocephalus hirsutus Bohart, 1947: 409 . Syn. nov. Chonocephalus sp. C Disney, 1986: 80.

In the Schmitz Collection (MKB) there are two slides labelled Chonocephalus aduncus , but the second slide has two males and a second label for C. dahli . The single intact male on the first slide has been designated the LECTOTYPE in order to stablise its nomenclature. On the second slide there is a headless, but otherwise intact, male C. dahli . The other male, which has the hypopygium detached and badly damaged, is C. aduncus .

The holotype of C. hirsutus is a female collected from pig dung. The females from Sulawesi designated species C ( Disney, 1986) are evidently the same species. These females were reared from the frass of a cerambycid beetle in a log and from rotting wild figs.

FIGURES 2­4. Chonocephalus aduncus male, details of hypopygium: (2) left gonopod; (3) right gonopod; (4) right process of epandrium. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.

In the USNM there is a slide of a paratype male of C. hirsutus labelled ‘Allotype no. 57994’, which is the same number on the label of the holotype female, and second label indicates it was from Guam, reared from banana by J. Gressitt in November 1945. However, Bohart (1947) cites the same allotype code number but states that it was swept from a pig pen in October1945! The November label is evidently an error, as this should have been attached to a slide mount of a C. subglaber male, except the month given by Bohart is December (see below). Perhaps the larva infested banana was collected in November and the adults emerged in December.

Bohart concluded that this species was undescribed because it did not agree with any of the figures in the paper by Schmitz. However, Schmitz provided no figures for C. aduncus . Comparison of the hypopygium of the lectotype of C. aduncus with that of the paratype of C. hirsutus indicates that these are conspecific. I therefore formally propose that C. hirsutus is a synonym of C. aduncus .

Material

Lectotype male, Bismarck Archipelago, Neupommern (MKB ­ 27­134). Holotype female and allotype male of C. hirsutus , Guam, near Agana, October 1945, from pig dung, G. E. Bohart and J. Gressitt ( USNM 57994 ­ 26­64). 1 male, Japan, Aichi, Misawa, 40.68oN, 141.4 1o, 22­28 August 1989, A. Takeno ( LACM ­ Ent. 042345). Also recorded from Australia and Papua New Guinea.