Chonocephalus depressus Meijere

Disney, R. Henry L., 2002, Revisionary notes on Chonocephalus Wandolleck (Diptera: Phoridae) with keys to species of the Holarctic Region, Zootaxa 60, pp. 1-36 : 14-17

Chonocephalus depressus Meijere

(Figs 17­19, 36, 38)

Chonocephalus depressus Meijere, 1912: 151 (female only). Disney, 1991: 208 (male). Chonocephalus similis Collin, 1912: 105 (part) nec Brues, 1905. Misidentification. Chonocephalus ecitophilus Borgmeier & Schmitz, 1923: 145 . Syn. nov.

Chonocephalus japonicus Schmitz, 1941: 82 , fig. of male wing only. Syn. nov. Chonocephalus pallidulus Beyer, 1964 in Hardy & Beyer, 1964: 298. Syn. nov. Chonocephalus simiolus Beyer, 1964 in Hardy & Beyer, 1964: 300. Syn. nov.

The type series was obtained from a rotten caterpillar of Prodenia from Medan, Sumatra, collected by de Bussy. I have previously reported ( Disney, 1981) that the type material of this species was not in the Zoölogisch Museum of the University of Amsterdam. De Jong (2000) reiterated that there was no type material, but then listed two slides (with three females on one and two females on the other) which “possibly belong to the type series of Chonocephalus depressus ”. I have borrowed these two slides, which are labelled “ Chonocephalus depressus de Meij. Medan, Sumatra de Bussy leg.”. These specimens are indeed C. depressus and are evidently the lost type material of this species. I have therefore labelled one of the females (on the slide with two specimens) as the LECTOTYPE of C. depressus in order to stablise its nomenclature. I have labelled the other slide as paralectotypes. Other specimens of ‘C. depressus’ in the museum in Amsterdam, especially those referred to by Rao (1961), are misidentifications (see below). Schmitz (1941) figured the wing of “ Chonocephalus japonicus Schmitz in lit.”. I have remounted his holotype and find it to be C. depressus . I therefore formally synonymise Schmitz’s species with C. depressus and thereby add this species to the Eastern Palaearctic fauna.

FIGURES 17­19. Chonocephalus depressus male, hypopygium: (17) from below, with left gonopod from another angle to left and with anterior process from another angle to right; (18) right gonopod from another angle; (19) left face of hypopygium. Scale bars = 0.1 mm.

Four cotype females of C. ecitophilus prove to be C. depressus and the putative male referred to by Borgmeier & Schmitz (1923) is also C. depressus . I therefore formally synonymise C. ecitophilus with C. depressus .

I have remounted the male holotypes of C. pallidulus and C. simiolus . Both have proved to be C. depressus . I thus formally propose the synonymy of both these species with C. depressus . The female allotype of C. pallidulus has also been remounted. It proved to be Puliciphora borinquenensis Wheeler , but with its antial bristles greatly reduced. These specimens were reported from bread fruit. A female in the USNM from Hawaii (Lanikai Oahu, 30 Sep. 1945, W. W. Wirth) is labelled Chonocephalus pallidulus Beyer , but it proves to be C. depressus .

Material

4 female syntypes and 1 putative male of C. ecitophilus , Brazil, Blumenau (Santa Catarina), 16 March 1922 (MKB ­ 27­134). Holotype male of C. pallidulus , Hawaii, Oahu, Honolulu ( BPBM ­ 8­138); holotype male of C. simiolus, Oahu, Ewa ( BPBM). Lectotype female, 4 paralectotype females, Indonesia,Sumatra, Medan, de Bussy ( ZMUA ­ 29­66). Holotype male of C. japonicus , Japan, Tokyo (MKB ­ Type 385 ­ 27­121). 2 males, Malta, Xaghra, 10 December 1994, 4 December 1999, on chicken meal and farmyard manure, P. Gatt (Gatt Coll., CUMZ ­ 22­75); 2 males, 12 females, Rabat, 7 October 2001, on rotting plant stem, P. Gatt (Gatt Coll., CUMZ ­ 22­75). 1 male, 2 females Seychelles, Mahé, 1908­1909 (Collin ­ 103, 120, misidentified as C. similis ) (male 120 in UMO ­ 8­140, females 103 in CUMZ ­ 8­121). As yet unrecorded for the Australasian and Nearctic Regions

Natural history

The original type series was reared from a rotting caterpillar of Prodenia . A series of females caught on the edible paddy straw mushrooms Volvariella (Plutaceae) were probably ovipositing on over ripe sporophores ( Disney, 1994). A female caught on turmeric ( Curcuma longa L., Zingiberaceae ) infested with larval Dichocrocis punctiferalis (Guenée) ( Lepidoptera , Pyralidae ) in India was possibly attracted to diseased or moribund caterpillars. It has also been reared from bread fruit ( Artocarpus altilis (Z.) Frost, Moraceae ) ( Hardy & Beyer, 1964).