Chonocephalus dorsalis Wandolleck

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 : 18-19

Chonocephalus dorsalis Wandolleck

Chonocephalus dorsalis Wandolleck, 1898: 448 .

Chonocephalus bispinosus Borgmeier, 1967: 207 . Syn. nov.

This is the type species of the genus. It was described from females only. The type material was apparently destroyed by Wandolleck during the course of the dissections undertaken in order to make his detailed anatomical and morphological studies. Schmitz (1928) realised that Wandolleck’s description indicated that C. dorsalis is very close to C. secundus , but with larger eyes. An evidently misleading feature of Wandolleck’s Fig. 7 is an excessive number of hairs at the rear margins of the abdominal tergites. This is now interpreted as artistic license, as figures of the other two flightless female phorids in the same paper also exhibit just such an error (as evidenced by comparison with slide mounted specimens of these two species). Otherwise Wandolleck’s description, in the light of current knowledge, does not allow unequivocal recognition. However, a series of females, from islands adjacent to the type locality, seem most likely to be Wandolleck’s species. I have therefore designated one such female from Fiji as the NEOTYPE of C. dorsalis (see below).

With clarification of the recognition of the females of this species, it has become evident that the hitherto unknown male of C. dorsalis is Borgmeier’s species C. bispinosus , which was described from males only. I therefore formally propose the synonymy of C. bispinosus with C. dorsalis . The males attributed to C. dorsalis by Malloch (1935) have proved to be C. heymonsi (see below).

Wandolleck provided no data relating to locality, etc. of the type material. However, Brues (1915b) gives the type locality as the Bismarck Archipelago on the basis that Wandolleck’s material was part of the same series of specimens that included the type material of Puliciphora lucifera Dahl (1897) .

Material

Type series females, Bismarck Archipelago (destroyed). Female neotype, Fiji, Suva, November­December 1994, A. van Harten (151) ( CUMZ ­ 2­61). Holotype male, 4 male paratypes of C. bispinosus , Samoa, Pago Pago, light, January 1958, W. R. Kellen ( USNM ­ 26­64).

Figures

FIGURES 5 ­ 8. Chonocephalus americanus male, details of hypopygium: (5) left side of epandrium from below; (6) hypandrial lobes, deflected forwards so that upper (inner) face is exposed to view; (7) left gonopod; (8) right gonopod. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.