Orthellia coerulea, Macquart, 1843

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 55

coerulea Macquart, 1843 , Ophyra

Ophyra coerulea Macquart, 1843: 165 ( 1844: 322) , pl. 22, figs 5, 5a. Lectotype ♂, “du Chili. M. Gay. Muséum.” ( Chile), by present designation, in MNHN.

MATERIAL. — Described from both sexes from a collection from Chile sent to MNHN by Gay. Séguy (1938: 114) wrote that the type was lost, but there are 1 ♂ and 1 ♀ syntypes under no. 1874 of the Macquart collection. The ♂ has the accession no. 670.37 ( Chile, collector Gay), and has also been labelled by Macquart “N°. 82. / Ophyra / coerulea”. It is rather dirty, with left mid tarsomeres missing. I have labelled it and designate it herewith as lectotype. The ♀, which has the accession no. 835.36 ( Chile, collector Gay), has been labelled as paralectotype.

In the Bigot collection in OUMNH, there are 16 specimens under the name Ophyra coerulea from Cape Horn and Buenos Aires ( Stein 1907a:215; 1911: 73): none is a syntype. CURRENT IDENTITY. — Both syntypes are conspecific, and belong to the species Psilochaeta chalybea (Wiedemann, 1830) , a synonymy first established by Stein (1902: 130). The lectotype has the frons much broader than the width of postpedicel, a character used by Malloch (1934: 314) and Carvalho (1989c: 487) for distinguishing P. chalybea from the closely related P. pampeana Shannon & del Ponte, 1926. I have redetermined the OUMNH specimens as Psilochaeta chalybea (Wiedemann, 1830) (5 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀), Brachygasterina violaceiventris Macquart, 1851 (3 ♀♀), and Myospila cyanea ( Macquart, 1843) (4 ♀♀).