Tomosvaryella transvaalensis De Meyer, 1993

Motamedinia, Behnam, Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Kelso, Scott, 2021, Revision of Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera: Pipunculidae) in the Middle East, with description of 19 new species, Zootaxa 5002 (1), pp. 1-103 : 76

Tomosvaryella transvaalensis De Meyer, 1993

Figs 42A‒E , 64

Diagnosis: This species can be recognized by the shape of surstyli in dorsal view, constricted in middle, knobshaped apically ( Fig. 42A ); epandrium wider than long in dorsal view ( Fig. 42A ); phallus with three ejaculatory ducts, one longer, coiled, bearing small setae in lateral view ( Fig. 42D‒E ); gonopods equal in height ( Fig. 42B ), hypandrium ovate-shaped with distinct hypandrial apodeme in ventral view ( Fig. 42B ).

Specimens examined: ISRAEL: Nahal Lavan , 30°51’N, 34°36’E, 30.iv.1996, I. Yarom, JSS51786 (1♂, TAU); Sede Halamish, 31°00’N, 35°07’E, 30.iv.1996, A. Freidberg, JSS52093 (1♂, CNC) .

Distribution: Israel, South Africa ( Fig. 64 ).

Note: This sort of disjunct distribution raises some questions. Could this be a crypic pair of species? Is the gap caused by collecting bias? These questions can only be answered by more field work to try to fill gaps, and molecular work to test existing species concepts. We attempted to sequence these specimens but failed. More work is needed.

Figures

FIGURE 42. Male genitalia of Tomosvaryella transvaalensis (JSS52093, CNC) A) dorsal view, B) ventral view, C) ejaculatory apodeme, D, E) lateral view.

FIGURE 64. Distribution of Tomosvaryella subvirescens, T. teligera, T. transvaalensis, T. vicina in the Middle East.