Plecia nigrita (Perty), 1830

Fitzgerald, Scott J., 2021, Penthetria Meigen (Diptera: Bibionidae): Revision of the New World species and world catalog, Zootaxa 4926 (4), pp. 451-500 : 492

Plecia nigrita (Perty), 1830

Type Material. Syntypes: The Perty Collection (housed at ZSMC) includes two pairs (male and female on a single pin) of specimens that were identified as syntypes of Penthetria nigrita Perty by Reiss & Schacht (1983); several additional, apparently conspecific, specimens without labels are also present in the collection (Dieter Doczkal ( ZSMC) pers. comm. 2019). Through the kindness of Marion Kotrba ( ZSMC), photographs of the two pairs of syntypes were provided, including a photograph of one of the labels (“1. / Brasil. / P. / nigrita Pty. ”). While the label does not explicitly identify it has a type, it does identify it as P. nigrita Perty as well as indicate that it came from Brazil, which is the type locality given by Perty (1830); concurring with Reiss & Schacht (1983), these specimens are here treated as the syntypes of Penthetria nigrita Perty.

Remarks. Hardy (1945) noted: “The description of nigrita is insufficient to positively identify the species, however, if Perty actually had a Penthetria before him there can be little doubt but that it was the common South American species.” However, based on the aforementioned photographs (habitus, wing, head, antennae, mouthparts, and male terminalia) of the syntypes of Penthetria nigrita Perty , it is clear that the specimens that Perty had before him were, in fact, not Penthetria , but are conspecific with Plecia plagiata Wiedemann. As P. nigrita was described in 1830 and P. plagiata was described in 1824, nigrita is transferred to Plecia and becomes a junior synonym of P. plagiata . Considering this, the Neotropical Penthetria species previously treated by Hardy (1945) and subsequent authors as Penthetria nigrita Perty is described under the new name Penthetria neonigrita Fitzgerald (see above).