Rhinia giriama (Lehrer, 2007b) Thomas-Cabianca & Martínez-Sánchez & Villet & Rojo, 2021

Thomas-Cabianca, Arianna, Martinez-Sanchez, Anabel, Villet, Martin H. & Rojo, Santos, 2021, Revision of the Afrotropical genus Fainia Zumpt, 1958, with notes on the morphology of Rhiniidae subfamilies (Diptera, Oestroidea), ZooKeys 1033, pp. 127-157 : 127

Rhinia giriama (Lehrer, 2007b) comb. nov. Fig. 14

Fainia giriama ≡ Fainia giriama Lehrer, 2007b: 3

Type locality and repository of primary types.

Fainia giriama : Kenya, HT in SMNHTAU (TAUI) 318987 (examined).

Distribution.

Kenya ( Lehrer 2007b).

Biology.

Ecology, immature stages and life history unknown.

Discussion.

This is the only species described by Lehrer in Fainia that was based on a single female specimen. After examining the HT of F. giriama (Fig. 14 ), we conclude that it belongs to the genus Rhinia . The specimen is characterised by having wing cell r 4+5 closed with a long petiole and apical area darkened, fore and mid first tarsomeres dark and palpi long, narrow and uniform in width, generally yellow (Fig. 14A, C ). These characters fit the concept of the genus Rhinia ( Zumpt 1958; Peris 1992) and not Fainia (see diagnosis above).

Type material examined.

Fainia giriama HT: 1 ♀ KENYA Tambach / 40 km E Eldoret / 12.v.1991 / A. FREIDBERG / & FINI KAPLAN // HOLOTYPE // Fainia / Fainia giriama n. sp / det. Dr A. Z. Lehrer / 2007 // SMNHTAU (TAUI) 318987.

Notes on Rhiniidae classification and potential apomorphies for Rhiniinae

Brauer and von Bergenstamm (1889) split rhiniids into Cosminidae , Rhininiidae and Rhyncomyiidae . Riley and Johansen (1915) then reclassified them as subfamilies ( Cosmininae , Rhininiinae and Rhyncomyiinae ) within Calliphoridae . Malloch (1926) classified all rhiniids in Rhiniinae (within Calliphoridae ), split into two tribes, based on the proepisternal seta, present in Cosminini and absent in Rhiniini . Malloch’s classification was also followed by Senior-White et al. (1940), but Peris (1952) discarded it, arguing that some species of Stegemosa Loew ( Cosmininae ) lack a proepisternal seta, while some species of Chlororhina Townsend ( Rhiniinae ) present it. Other authors classified Rhiniinae (within Calliphoridae ) without using tribes or subfamilies, because of the lack of diagnostic characters and morphological studies ( Dear 1977; James 1977; Rognes 1998) or because they considered the subdivisions unnecessary for a higher taxon with so few genera ( Peris 1952, 1992). Lehrer (1970) proposed a radical approach, dividing Rhiniinae (within Calliphoridae ) into six tribes, based on the morphology of the male terminalia ( Isomyiini , Rhiniini , Rhyncomyiini , Stegosomini , Sokotrini and Trychoberiini ) and, years later, split rhiniids into three subfamilies: Fainiinae , Rhiniinae and Stomorhiniinae (sic) ( Lehrer 2011).

More recently, in addition to the traditional characters used to split the two primary lineages of Rhiniidae ( Peris 1952; Zumpt 1958; Kurahashi and Kirk-Spriggs 2006), Fang and Fan (1988) incorporated characters of the phallus. In Cosmininae , the acrophallus is often connected with the base of the hypophallus (= mid-ventral wall) and the epiphallus is developed, while in Rhiniinae , the acrophallus stretches out from the paraphallus and the epiphallus is undeveloped.

Recent molecular evidence, based on DNA Ultra Conserved Element (UCE) sequence data, reconstructed three Idiella major clades within Rhiniidae , with Cosmininae split into two clades (one containing the exclusive Oriental genus Sumatria and the other, the rest of the Cosmininae genera) and Rhiniinae monophyletic ( Buenaventura et al. 2020). In our examination of all of the Afrotropical rhiniids, two morphological characters in the phallus support potential synapomorphies for the Rhiniinae (Table 1 ). First, the absence of an epiphallus is apomorphic in Rhiniinae , as was also suggested by Fang and Fan (1988) and the epiphallus is present (pleisomorphic state) in other Rhiniidae and its sister group Bengaliinae ( Calliphoridae ) ( Rognes 2009; Cerretti et al. 2019; Kutty et al. 2019; Buenaventura et al. 2020). Second, the basi- and distiphallus are connected by a desclerotised membrane, which is apomorphic in Rhiniinae , whereas they are plesiomorphically fused in other Rhiniidae and Bengaliinae ( Rognes 2009).

Figures

Figure 14. Rhinia giriama Lehrer, 2007 b comb. nov. holotype (SMNHTAU (TAUI) 318987) general body and head views A lateral habitus view B dorsal habitus view and details of cell r 4 + 5 showing long petiole (red square and arrow) and C head frontal view. Scale bars: 2 mm.