<Unknown Taxon>

Colless, Donald H., 2012, The Froggattimyia-Anagonia Genus Group (Diptera: Tachinidae), Records of the Australian Museum 64 (3), pp. 167-211 : 190-191

Anagonia tillyardi (Malloch) comb. nov.

Figs 32–34 , 83

Froggattimyia tillyardi Malloch, 1934:6

Type. Holotype male in ANIC, no. 5886, Blundell’s, ACT.

Male. Moderate to small in size. Generally resembling the dark form of A. rufifacies, differing as follows:

Head. Width 2.2–3.2, mean 2.7 mm, Frw/Hdw 0.2–0.3, mean 0.19; Gnw/Eyh 0.2–0.3, mean 0.22; Ivb/Vb-E 1.0–1.4, mean 1.2; Frw almost always a little less than Gnw, ratio 0.8–1.0, mean 0.9. Parafacial pale brown, but with a dark band of variable extent along the eye margins, and moderately profuse setulae, short on the dorsal half. Reclinate upper frontal hairs all well differentiated, inclinate, mostly cruciate; soft hairs relatively short, straight, or gently inclinate. Eye at most very sparsely haired, mainly on ventral parts. Ocellar hairs almost always differentiated, but fine.

Thorax. Median dark vitta highly variable, occasionally lacking, usually at least partly developed before and/or after the suture. Presutural dorsocentral bristles with 3 (or 4) on at least one side in about 40 % of specimens. Intrapostalar seta almost always present, but extremely fine, barely differentiated. Scutellum relatively narrower at base, Sbs/Ssa 2.5–3.0; mean 2.74, apicals straight, directed from slightly upwards to slightly downwards.

Legs. Foretarsus conspicuously pale brown, usually on all segments, but on segments 1–3 only in occasional specimens from arid regions. Hind, and to a lesser extent mid, tarsi usually pale brown on at least segments 4 and 5. Foretibia with preapical ad spine only a little finer and shorter than the subapical d spine. Hindtibia with Pd1 seta conspicuously long, ratio Pd1/Sdd 1.08–1.33, mean 1.22.

Abdomen. Tergite 3 with well-developed pair of submedian marginal bristles.

Terminalia ( Figs 32–34 ). Characteristic features are (in lateral view) the gently tapering cerci, digitate surstyli with minute, socketed setulae on the apical ½– 2 ⁄ 3, and (especially) the strongly microtrichiose anteroventral lobe of the hypandrium. In posterior view, surstyli only partly obscured by the cerci, their lateral margins usually visible from base to apex.

Female. Generally similar to the male, differing (as usual in the genus) in the much stouter, grey dusting of the scutum; and as follows:

Head. Frons about 0.3 of head width; gena about 0.3 of eye height; Ivb/Vb-E 1.2–1.7, mean 1.4.

Thorax. Prescutal median vitta of scutum usually lacking, postscutal present in about 50% of specimens. Proepisternal setulae almost always pale.

Legs. Foretarsus usually brown, paler than tibia, but difference much less conspicuous than in male, best seen on posterior surface, and sometimes barely, if at all, perceptible (especially in specimens from arid areas); difference rarely perceptible on mid- and hindtarsi. Tarsal segments often (but not always!) apparently narrower than usual.

Abdomen. Tergites all dark. Tergite 5 usually with short stout spiny bristles on disc.

Terminalia ( Fig. 83 ). Telescopic, a little longer than segment 5, intersegmental membranes between segments 6 and 7 and 7and 8 about as long as succeeding segment. Sternite 6 about twice as long as deep, its posterior margin more or less straight, with usual small median cluster of tiny setulae; tergite 6 completely divided into 2 hemitergites; both tergite and sternite very finely sclerotized laterally. Tergite 7 with narrow parallel-sided hemitergites, rounded apically, slightly expanded basally; sternite 7 elongate, with apical sclerotized part scoop-like, tapering, in lateral view slightly sinuous, with apex curved in a slight but very characteristic, dorsal direction; basal, finely sclerotized part narrowed, “handlelike”; both sternite 7 and tergite 7 with tiny curved setulae on the apical sclerotized part.

Distribution. Widespread, in all states and climates except for the wet tropics and Tasmania (I have one unconfirmed report from that state also).

Biology. Taken regularly at light, and reared from a variety of paropsine Chrysomelidae, including Chrysophtharta variicollis, C. amoena, C. obovata, Paropsis atomaria, Chrysolina hyperici, and Peltoschema suturalis (Germar).

Notes. This is certainly the species described as F. tillyardi by Malloch (1934). However, it remains possible that the very similar A. scutellata, may be an earlier synonym (see below under that species). There is also Delta grisea Malloch, which is not only a typical Anagonia (as recognized by Crosskey [1973]), but seems to have slightly paler foretarsi as in A. tillyardi. The name grisea may therefore have priority. However, the holotype of grisea is a female, and colours can be unreliable and hard to evaluate in such old specimens; moreover, it has the ocellar bristles quite undifferentiated, a feature that I have never seen in numerous specimens of A. tillyardi. I am therefore unwilling to base a synonymy on the existing evidence.

Figures

Figs 32–34. Anagonia tillyardi, male terminalia, (32) lateral, and (33) posterior views, (34) aedeagus.

Figs 82–86. Anagonia female terminalia, lateral views. (82) Anagonia rufifacies, (83) A. tillyardi, (84) A. lasiophthalma, (85) A. dayi sp. nov., and (86) A. commoni sp. nov.