Anthomyia constantina, Macquart, 1843

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 56

constantina Macquart, 1843 , Anthomyia

Anthomyia constantina Macquart, 1843: 170 ( 1844: 327) , pl. 23, fig. 6. Syntype (s) ♀ (♀), “Afrique, de Constantine. M. Guyon.” ( Algeria, Constantine), not in MNHN or MHNL, and presumed destroyed.

MATERIAL. — Macquart described this species from material collected by Guyon, without stating the location. Other Guyon material survives in his personal collection in MHNL, but I found no specimens of constantina there. The syntypes are therefore presumed to have been destroyed.

It should be noted that although Macquart described this species from the ♀ sex,his fig.6 shows a ♂ head on a ♀ body. In the Macquart collection in MNHN under no. 238, there is a ♀ fragment identified by Macquart as constantina . This cannot be part of the type-series since it was collected by Lucas, not by Guyon, and in fact it is part of the material subsequently recorded from Algeria by Macquart (1849: 492).

CURRENT IDENTITY. — Anthomyia constantina has been treated as a junior synonym of Fannia canicularis (Linnaeus, 1761) in the standard works ( Bezzi & Stein 1907: 657; Hennig 1955a: 33; Pont 1986a: 46), and there is no reason to dispute this synonymy. Although only a fragment, the Lucas ♀ has a typical Fannia head and has the fronto-orbital setulae descending down on to the parafacial; there is little doubt that it too is a ♀ of Fannia canicularis .