Lucilia violacea, Macquart, 1851

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 94

violacea Macquart, 1851 , Pyrellia

Pyrellia violacea Macquart, 1851b: 224 ( 1851d: 251) (junior primary homonym of Pyrellia violacea Robineau- Desvoidy, 1830). Lectotype ♀, “Asie. Muséum.” (actually India, Bombay), by present designation, in MNHN.

MATERIAL. — In the Macquart collection in MNHN, under no. 700, there is a ♀ muscid greenbottle standing over an unpublished Macquart name, whilst under no. 701 directly below there is a label “violacea” but no specimen. I think that the ♀ under no. 700 is in fact the sole syntype of Pyrellia violacea and that Macquart either changed his mind when publishing the name of the species or, subsequently discovering that violacea was preoccupied in Pyrellia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 , gave his species a replacement name which he never published. The ♀ under no. 700 in fact agrees perfectly with the description of violacea . It has a yellow disc (the colour code for Asiatic material) and the accession no. 2108.41, which refers to a collection made in Bombay. It is labelled by Macquart “ Pyrellia / [the MS name] / ♀. Macq. n. sp.”, all of which accords with Macquart’s labelling practice at this time. It is dusty, with right hind leg missing, but otherwise the condition is good. I have labelled it and designate it herewith as lectotype.

CURRENT IDENTITY. — Aubertin (1932: 140) did not find the type of this species, and she synonymized the name Pyrellia violacea with Orthellia chalybea (Wiedemann, 1830) (a junior primary homonym and now known as Neomyia gavisa Walker, 1859 ). The lectotype is in fact identical with Neomyia diffidens (Walker, 1856) (n. syn.), but does not replace this name as it is a junior homonym. It has cross-vein dm-cu in the median position between cross-vein r-m and the upcurved part of vein M (“apical cross-vein”), calypters pale, subcostal and discal cells extensively haired, prescutellar acrostichals not visible, prescutellar intra-alar present.