Pales peregrina Herting, 1975

Cerretti, Pierfilippo, 2005, Revision of the West Palaearctic species of the genus Pales Robineau­Desvoidy (Diptera: Tachinidae), Zootaxa 885, pp. 1-36 : 26

Pales peregrina Herting, 1975 ( Fig. 3 )

Pales peregrina Herting, 1975: 4 . Type locality: Peccia, Val Lavizzara, Tessin [ Switzerland]. Type material. Holotype ɗ: [ SWITZERLAND], Tessin / Peccia / 5.8.[19]69 // TYPUS [Herting leg.] (SMNS). Paratype Ψ: [ SWITZERLAND], Tessin, V[al] Bavona, [Foroglio], 4.8. 1969 [leg. Herting], 1 Ψ (SMNS)

Additional material.— AUSTRIA Obertraun, Ob.­Oest., VIII.1905, S. Rezabek, 1 Ψ ( SMNS). ITALY (mainland) — Toscana, Firenze prov., Salecchio, 500 m, 18.VII.1991, G. Campadelli leg., 3 ΨΨ ( SMNS).

Diagnosis. Thorax (except scutellum) black in ground colour; posterior 1/3 or more of the scutellum dark red. Abdomen black in ground colour, sides of the abdominal tergites 2–4 dark red or brown; abdomen very weakly microtrichose with dark blue reflections. Tibiae black or dark brown. Fifth abdominal tergite 0.65–0.70 times as long as tergite 4. ɗ: frons 0.40–0.46 times as wide as an eye in dorsal view; postpedicel about twice as long as pedicel ( Fig. 3 ); abdominal tergites 3 without, 4 with very short and weak median discal setae. Ψ: frons 0.70–0.76 times as wide as an eye in dorsal view; postpedicel 2.0–2.6 times as long as pedicel; abdominal tergites 3 and 4 with very weak and short median discal setae.

Distribution. Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Greece (cf. Tschorsnig et al. 2004).

Hosts. Unknown.

Remarks. This species is morphologically very similar to P. angustifrons , a species known until now only from Japan. The males of Pales angustifrons are characterized and distinguishable from those of P. p e re g r i n a by: a) very narrow frons, 0.30–0.38 times as wide as an eye, b) postpedicel about 3 times as long as pedicel, c) tibiae at least partially yellow and d) abdominal tergites without median discal setae. The females are much more difficult to identify (cf. Herting 1975: 5) (no females of P. angustifrons were available to me for examination). The few available specimens of P. peregrina did not allow to assess whether these features are constant and truly diagnostic. Moreover, these two species are morphologically close to P. javana (Macquart, 1851) , from the Oriental region (Shima, pers. comm. 2004) and P. coerulea (Jaennicke, 1867) , from the Afrotropical region. These four species belong to a difficult species­group that is in need of a thorough revision. The group has a Paleotropical distributional area, that reaches the south of the Palaearctic region northwards.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. Pales spp. 1. Pales abdita sp. nov. paratype ɗ (Cyprus), habitus. 2. Pales marae sp. nov.