Musca pusilla, Macquart, 1851

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 82

pusilla Macquart, 1851 , Musca

Musca pusilla Macquart, 1851b: 226 ( 1851d: 253) (junior primary homonym of Musca pusilla Gmelin, 1790 ). Lectotype ♂, “de l’Égypte. M. Bigot.” ( Egypt), by present designation, in OUMNH.

MATERIAL. — Described from both sexes from Bigot’s collection. In that part of the Bigot collection now in OUMNH there are four syntypes, which were seen by Brauer (1899: 527), and a fifth syntype (♀) has been located in MHNL. The OUMNH syntypes consist of 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, and one very damaged specimen that is probably ♂. There are no data labels, but the good ♂ has Macquart’s label “ Musca / pusilla / ♂ ♀. Macq. n. sp.”, and they stand over Bigot’s drawer label “ M. pusilla . 2 ♂ s. 2 ♀ s. / J. Bigot. invenit 1847 / Egyptus. Macq.”. The ♂ with Macquart’s label has been labelled and is designated herewith as lectotype, and the remaining syntypes (1 ♂ and 2 ♀♀ in OUMNH, 1 ♀ in MHNL) have been labelled as paralectotypes. The lectotype is not fully hardened ; legs twisted and head rather shrunken; left mid leg missing, but tarsomeres stuck to pin; right foretarsomeres 3-5 and right hind tarsomeres 3-5 missing. The MHNL ♀, in box G.21 of the Macquart collection, is labelled “ M. pusilla . n. / Égypte. Bigot.” .

CURRENT IDENTITY. — The lectotype is a ♂ of the Musca sorbens Wiedemann, 1830 complex with a relatively broad frons, and the name M. pusilla Macquart, 1851 , is therefore a junior synonym of Musca sorbens ( Pont 1986b: 92) . The ♂ paralectotype is Musca domestica Linnaeus, 1758 , whilst the 3 ♀♀ paralectotypes are all Musca sorbens .