Dasophrys fortis Londt, 1981

Londt, Jason G. H., 2020, A survey of grassland Asilidae (Diptera) at Jacana Eco Estate, Hilton, South Africa, African Invertebrates 61 (1), pp. 29-48 : 29

17. Dasophrys fortis Londt, 1981 Fig. 6

Remarks.

Londt (1981) revised the genus and provided a key for the identification of species. However, the key requires male specimens. Although the single female, swept from grass in week 51 of the survey, cannot be keyed out confidently, its rather short ovipositor (length:breadth ratio ca. 2.3) suggests that it belongs to the grassland species D. fortis Londt, 1981. For the present, this Jacana female will be assigned to D. fortis until this identification can be disproved.

This female is almost certainly confined to Londt’s (1994) ecological category 4a (within grass). Table 4 provides a comparison of flight periods with those recorded from Queen Elizabeth Park ( Londt 2002b) where it was only collected on week 13.

Figures

Figures 4 - 13. Grassland inhabiting Asilidae encountered at Jacana Eco Estate (arranged alphabetically): 4 Caenoura annulitarsis (Loew, 1858) 5 Damalis monochaetes Londt, 1989 6 Dasophrys fortis Londt, 1981 7 Dasophrys tarsalis (Ricardo, 1920) 8 Dysclytus firmatus (Walker, 1857) 9 Euscelidia vallis Dikow, 2003 10 Ischiolobos mesotopos Londt, 2005 11 Leptogaster sp. 12 Microstylum sp. 13 Rhipidocephala obscurata Oldroyd, 1966. Photos: B. Muller.