Lucilia rica Shannon, 1926

Whitworth, Terry, 2014, A revision of the Neotropical species of Lucilia Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Zootaxa 3810 (1), pp. 1-76 : 45-46

18. Lucilia rica Shannon, 1926

Fig. 161 , Tables 1, 2

Lucilia rica Shannon, 1926: 132 . Holotype male (USNM,, examined). Type locality: West Indies , Antigua.

Lucilia rica: Curran 1934a: 471 (misidentification?; see comments below); Woodley & Hilburn 1994: 13; Whitworth 2010: 30 ; Kosmann et al. 2013: 77.

Phaenicia rica: Hall 1948: 257 ; James 1970: 11.

Type information. The holotype, allotype, and one paratype of this species were examined ( USNM). The labels for the holotype male say “ Lucilia rica Shannon ”, the allotype female and a paratype have labels with the same data. The holotype has been dissected and the genitalia are in a vial on the pin, all specimens are in good condition .

Diagnosis. This species is known only from the West Indies. It has pale setae on the gena, a character shared only with L. cluvia in that region. To separate the two, L. rica has a tan basicosta and males have a narrow frons (0.026) of head width at narrowest, while L. cluvia has a pale orange basicosta and broad frons to head ratio, about 0.12 of head width at narrowest in males.

Description. For details on this species see Whitworth (2010).

Specimens barcoded. West Indies, Antigua: 4 females [BNNR042–44, 046], 17°01'98''N 61°50'22'', March 17, 2009, T.L. Whitworth ( TW) .

Discussion. Curran (1934a) listed L. rica from Guyana (as British Guiana), this is almost certainly a misidentification. This species is known only from the West Indies. Lucilia albofusca is found in Guyana and has pale setae on the gena like L. rica ; this may be the species he was seeing. Four specimens from Antigua were barcoded and they formed a distinct group ( Fig. 161 ). It would be interesting to compare barcodes of this species from Antigua to those found in Bermuda, morphologically they appear very similar.

Figures

FIGURE 161. A neighbor joining tree of specimens and species of Neotropical Lucilia using CO1 DNA barcode, made with K2P distance and generated in BOLD.