Diopsis apicalis Dalman, 1817

Feijen, Hans R. & Feijen, Cobi, 2012, A new species of Diopsis L. (Diptera: Diopsidae) from South Africa and Swaziland, and brief review of African species with a large apical wing spot, African Invertebrates 53 (1), pp. 125-125 : 138

Diopsis apicalis Dalman, 1817

Diopsis apicalis: Dalman 1817: 216 (Type locality: Sierra Leone); Lindner 1962: 7 (in part); Steyskal 1972: 7 (in part); Feijen 1987: 410.

Diopsis tenuipes Westwood, 1837 a: 298 (Type locality: Senegal).

Distribution: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Notes: Diopsis apicalis does not occur in Egypt as reported by Ebrahim (2009). The Diopsis sp. that occurs there belongs to a different species of the D. apicalis -group. Ebrahim’s paper is anyway remarkable as it copies six pages of Feijen and Feijen 2009 to the extent even of copying descriptions for wing, thorax and terminalia of Diopsis malawiensis Feijen & Feijen in order to ‘describe’ the Egyptian ‘ D. apicalis .’ Diopsis apicalis also does not occur in South Africa. The molecular data set for “ D. apicalis ” reported on by Baker et al. (2001) and the egg morphology of “ D. apicalis ” described by Meier and Hilger (2000) represent a different species of the D. apicalis -group. Study of specimens from the same laboratory culture used proved this to be conspecific with a very common, but as yet undescribed species, occurring from South Africa to East Africa as far north as the Arabian Peninsula. True D. apicalis is characterised (Feijen 1987) by the smooth central frons, glossy dorsal collar, except for some pruinosity posterior to the central knob, pruinosity pattern of scutum (some pruinosity medially behind collar, lateral pruinosity between humeral callus and intrascutal suture not extending medially along the intrascutal suture, pruinose edge anteriorly of scutellum), pruinose black scutellum, proximally rounded apical wing spot, broad, apically rounded surstyli with only microtrichia apically and some small setulae, rather short ♂ cerci, ♀ tergum 8 with anteriorly a broad medial gap, posteriorly tapering ♀ sternum 7 with more sclerotised V-shaped central section and rounded spermathecae.