Platypygus lativentris Loew

Gharali, Babak, Evenhuis, Neal L. & Almeida, Jorge, 2013, World synopsis of described species of the genus Platypygus Loew (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae: Platypyginae), Zootaxa 3745 (2), pp. 199-242 : 214-215

Platypygus lativentris Loew

( Fig. 9 )

Platypygus lativentris Loew, 1873: 202 . Becker et al., 1903: 192. Kertész, 1909: 97. Verrall, 1909: 14. Becker & Stein, 1913: 507. Bezzi, 1926: 260. Engel, 1933: 124. Paramonov, 1926: 86; 1934: 20. Hull, 1973: 262. Evenhuis, 1983: 477; 2002: 25. Zaitzev, 1989: 45. Gharali et al., 2011: 27.

Material examined. Types: TAJIKISTAN: 1 female lectotype / Platypygus lativentris Lw./ 9647/ Фань/ Coll. H. Loew/ Zool. Mus. Berlin (ZMHB).

Notes on types. Loew (1873) described Platypygus lativentris based on two females (without selecting a type) that were collected by Alexei Pavlovich Fedschenko in Tajikistan when he explored the region in 1870: one is from “Pjandschikent” [= Panjakent] collected on 23 June; and the other (considered “defectes” by Loew) from “Fan” [= a mountain range in Tajikistan midway between Samarkand and Dushanbe that was the focus of Fedschenko’s 1870 trip] collected on 19 June. Only one of these original two syntypes (from “Fan) apparently still survives in ZMHB and was located by Paramonov (1929: 224) when he visited the ZMHB to study the Loew types and was also seen by Evenhuis (2002) when he visited ZMHB in 1998. Engel (1933: 124) examined the only existing syntype when he made his description, and stated “ Type Loews 9647, Zoolog. Mus. Berlin”. This is enough according to Article 74.5 of the ICZN Code to fix the specimen from Fan (= “9647”) as the lectotype female. Except for the record from Uzbekistan in Zaitzev (1989), no further material of this species has ever been collected.

Diagnostic features. Face yellow; frons yellow with wide black stripe medially; vertex black; occiput black medially, laterally black with wide yellow stripe, extending upwardly to half height of occiput ( Fig. 9 c); mentum yellow; antennae completely black; mesonotum ( Fig. 9 b) yellow with three black dorsal stripes, black spot laterally next to transverse suture, middle stripe extends from anterior margin of mesonotum to scutellum, lateral stripes extend from posterior margin of postpronotal lobes to postalar calli, coalesced posteriorly with median stripe by wide black band, scutellum yellow with small black mark basally; halter stem yellow, knob yellow with a distinct black spot dorsally ( Fig. 9 d); r-m crossvein before middle of cell dm; cell br longer than cell bm; abdominal tergites ( Fig. 9 d) almost all black except posterior margins narrowly yellow.

Distribution. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.

Remarks. This species is easily recognized from other described species of the genus with three mesonotal stripes and the black spot on halter knob. Because the species is only known from type material, we were unable to dissect and examine the genitalia. Zaitzev (1989) and Evenhuis (2002) listed Egypt as part of the distribution of P.

lativentris . However, examination of specimens in this study showed none from Egypt fitting the description of P. lativentris , and we feel this record may well have been based on a misidentification. Further, neither Efflatoun (1945) nor Steyskal & Bialy (1967) treated P. lativentris in their works and El Hawagry (2011) did not include it in his checklist of Egyptian species. We have thus deleted Egypt from the current known range. A female from Goa, India in TAU examined during this study fits near this species in having the dorsal black spot on the halter knob, but differs in other respects and are thus not included under the material examined. We examined the lectotype of P. lativentris during this study. The males of this species are still unknown.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Platypygus lativentris female lectotype: a — adult habitus with labels, b—mesonotum (dorsolateral view), c — head (dorsolateral view), d — abdomen (lateral view).