Megaselia impariseta Bridarolli, 1937

DISNEY, R. H. L., 2003, Tasmanian Phoridae (Diptera) and some additional Australasian species, Journal of Natural History 37 (5), pp. 505-639 : 559

Megaselia impariseta Bridarolli, 1937

(figure 25)

Megaselia impariseta Bridarolli, 1937: 68 .

This species has previously been reported from New Zealand and mainland Australia ( ACT, NSW). I now report it from Tasmania and Western Australia. It is somewhat more variable in size than has been previously thought .

Bridarolli (1937) described the previously unknown male of the New Zealand species M. comparabilis Schmitz. I have remounted one of his reported series of four males. It is labelled ‘ Megaselia (Aphiochaeta) comparabilis Schmitz male, Nelson N. Z. 23.V.22 A. Tonnoir cotype’. It has proved to be a female of M. impariseta . Furthermore, it cannot be a cotype of M. comparabilis as the date, locality and collector are listed by Bridarolli and not among the listings for the type series of Schmitz.

Material

Thirty-five males, 10 females, Tasmania, Hobart, Battery Point, De Witt Street, garden, 23–31 December 1991, 1–11 January 1992 ( R. H. L. Disney —25-4, 7, 34, 39). Male, Western Australia, 33°50∞S, 116°23∞E, 9–10 November 1996 (Cindy Brown, 25-12); female, 34°20∞S, 116°10∞E, 14–15 September 1996 (Cindy Brown, 25-10) .

Natural history

Gravid females had 8–20 nearly mature eggs, the larger specimens having the larger number.