Hemipenthes chimaera (Osten Sacken)

Ávalos-Hernández, Omar, 2009, A review of the North American species of Hemipenthes Loew, 1869 (Diptera: Bombyliidae), Zootaxa 2074, pp. 1-49 : 17-19

6. Hemipenthes chimaera (Osten Sacken)

(Figs. 7, 43–44)

Anthrax chimaera Osten Sacken, 1886b: 114 (key); 1887: 131 (description). Villa (Hemipenthes) chimaera (Osten Sacken) : Painter & Painter 1962: 96. Hemipenthes chimaera (Osten Sacken) : Hull, 1973: 385.

Lectotype male designated by Painter and Painter (1962: 96) in BMNH.

Diagnosis: Face bluntly projecting; mesopleuron and proepimeron black pilose; cell a with at least basal half infuscated; fourth abdominal tergite with a stripe of white scales.

Description: Male. Body length: 5–7 mm; wing length: 6–7 mm. Head: Eyes separated by a little more than width of ocellar triangle. Front black pilose, yellowish tomentose. Face brown, bluntly projecting, with black hairs and yellowish tomentum. Scape black, swollen on inner apical margin, with black hairs, twice as long as pedicel; pedicel black, twice as wide as long, with short black hairs in dorsal portion, bare in ventral portion; flagellomere black, longer than scape and pedicel combined; base subconical, tapering to styliform apical two-thirds; stylus minute, terminal. Proboscis short, not projecting beyond oral margin. Palpi brown, darker toward the apex with black hairs. Occiput with short black and white hairs and white scales.

Thorax: Mesonotum anterior margin pale yellowish pilose; lateral margin entirely white pilose; tomentum on disc entirely yellowish, long, hairlike, not dense; bristles black. Mesopleuron black pilose on proepisternum and anepisternum, katatergite sometimes with mixed black and white hairs; katepisternum not tomentose, black pilose. Proepimeron with black hairs. Mid coxa with black hairs, tomentum on all coxae hairlike, black. Legs brown, tarsi black, femora black pilose and tomentose; bristles black. Halter steam fulvous, knob yellow to white. Scutellum brown, not pilose, and white tomentose; bristles black. Black setulae on basicosta. Cells c, sc, br, and bm entirely infuscated (Fig. 7); cells cup and a entirely infuscated except tip; cells r1 and dm with basal half infuscated; cell cua1 with basal third infuscated; cells r2+3, r5 and m2, infuscated just at base; color in cell a not reaching hind margin of wing; cell dm infuscated beyond r-m crossvein; r-m crossvein at or slightly behind middle of cell dm; no crossvein between R4 and R2+3; cell r5 not narrowed at wing margin; first section of vein CuA1 two and a half the long of r-m crossvein, second section as long as r-m crossvein, third section one and a half the long of first two sections combined; cell a slightly wider than cell cup; alula well developed.

Abdomen: Abdominal dorsum with whitish pile on tergite one, rest black pilose, pile not dense; black tomentum overall except a broad crossband of white tomentum on fourth and seventh tergites; sides of abdomen with basal half of first tergite whitish pilose, rest black pilose. Venter black pilose, with black tomentum. Genitalia black with black hairs. Epandrium in lateral view, rectangular, lower margin concave in middle, basal corner narrowed; gonocoxite narrow, basal half enlarged; gonostylus small, hooked apically; epiphallus in lateral view narrow ( Fig. 43 ) slightly curved, cap-shaped, apex not swollen, rounded; without a ventral extension; epiphallus in ventral view broad ( Fig. 44 ), lateral margins narrowed at both sides at middle, without spines; aedeagus broad at base narrowed at apex, not swollen dorsally; gonopore terminal.

Female. Nearly identical to male. Eyes separated by three times width of ocellar triangle. Femora with black and white scales.

Distribution: Mexico (Coahuila, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Nuevo León, Sonora), USA (Arizona, New Mexico).

Specimens examined: Mexico. Coahuila: 41 mi S Saltillo, 7-IX-1962, N. Marston (1 male; USNM). Guanajuato: 3 mi Nuevo León, 19-IX-1959, R. H. and E. M. Painter (2 females; USNM). USA. New Mexico: 8 mi W Mescalero, 11-IX-1962, R. H. and E. M. Painter (1 male genitalia; USNM); Gran Quivera, 11-VIII- 1931, R. H. Painter (1 female; USNM).

Remarks: Painter & Painter (1962:96) proposed a synonymy between H. chimaera and H. comanche but these two species can be distinguished by the tomentum in fifth and sixth abdominal tergites being black in H. chimera and white in H. comanche . Hemipenthes chimaera is distinguished from H. bigradata by the black pile on mesopleuron. The genitalia of this species is rare by not having a ventral extension in epiphallus, a character shared only with H. albus ; and the epiphallus being slender in lateral view.

Figures

FIGURES 43 – 44. Hemipenthes chimaera male terminalia. 43, lateral view; 44, ventral view.