Rhipidocephala obscurata Oldroyd, 1966

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

18. Rhipidocephala obscurata Oldroyd, 1966 Fig. 13

Remarks.

Oldroyd (1966) reviewed the genus and later (1980) catalogued 26 then considered valid species, together with three listed as synonyms. Material collected during the Queen Elizabeth Park survey was keyed out to R. obscurata , an identification that needs confirmation.

Although a single female, swept from grass on week 51 of the Jacana survey, keys out to R. obscurata using Oldroyd’s (1966) key, the identification may be questionable as Oldroyd’s types all come from the Kariba area (ca. 16°31'S, 28°51'E) in Zimbabwe.

The species is probably confined to Londt’s (1994) ecological category 4a (within grass) or 4b (grass tips).

Table 4 provides a comparison of flight information for both the Jacana and Queen Elizabeth Park ( Londt 2002b) surveys. While the only encountered Jacana specimen was collected on week 51, the species was recorded over an eight week period, between weeks 3-5 and 48-52, at Queen Elizabeth Park.

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.