Bittacus omega Morgante, 1967,

Machado, Renato Jose Pires, Mendes, Diego Matheus De Mello & Rafael, José Albertino, 2018, The genus Bittacus Latreille (Insecta: Mecoptera) in Brazil: key to species, distribution maps, new synonym, and three new species, Zootaxa 4526 (3), pp. 303-330: 320

Bittacus omega Morgante, 1967  Edit

( Figs. 5c, 8o, 12d)

Bittacus omega: Morgante, 1967:55  Edit ; Penny & Byers, 1979b:368; Machado et al., 2009:36; Machado, 2018.

Thyridates omega: Willmann, 1983:51  Edit , Collucci & Amorim, 2000:7.

Holotype. Male: MZSP (examined). Species known from Minas Gerais ( Fig. 12d).  Edit

Bittacus omega  Edit is known only by the holotype from Buritis (Minas Gerais State). It is characterized by the shape of the male epandrium, which resembles the Greek letter omega and inspired the species name ( Morgante 1967). This particular shape is shared with B. golbachi  Edit , which is known only from two specimens from Tucumán, Argentina ( Williner 1990). In this sense, a detailed study of the holotypes of B. golbachi  Edit and B. omega  Edit is of particular interest to determine their taxonomic status. The inclusion of B. femoralis  Edit in this study would be interesting, as well, since the lateral elongation of its epandrium presents a large variation, suggesting that both B. golbachi  Edit and B. omega  Edit could be only an extreme variation within a complex species.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Bittacus wings. a) B. brunipennis, holotype; b) B. froehlichi, holotype; c) B. omega, holotype. Scale bars = 1mm. Type specimen photos of B. brunipennis and B. froehlichi provided by Caleb Martins (LMED).

FIGURE 8. Brazilian Bittacus male epandria, dorsal view. a) B. angrensis; b) B. aripuanensis; c) B. blancheti; d) B. boraceiensis; e) B. brasiliensis; f) B. cruzi sp. n.; g) B. diversinervis; h) B. femoralis; i) B. ferreirai sp. n.; j) B. flavescens; k) B. froehlichi; l) B. genicutalus; m) B. latreillei; n) B. maculosus; o) B. omega; p) B. pintoi; q) B. varzeanus sp. n.

FIGURE 12. Distribution records of Bittacus species in Brazil. a) B. angrensis, B. aripuanensis, B. blancheti, B. brasiliensis, B. brunipennis; b) B. boraceiensis, B. cruzi sp. n., B. diversinervis, B. femoralis; c) B. ferreirai sp. n., B. flavescens, B. froehlichi, B. latreillei; d) B. maculosus, B. omega, B. pintoi, B. varzeanus sp. n. Bittacus geniculatus is not represented because of its imprecise location.