Atherigona (Atherigona) bedfordi van Emden, 1940

Dawah, Hassan A., Abdullah, Mohammed A. & Deeming, John C., 2020, The Muscidae (Diptera) of Saudi Arabia, descriptions of two new species, new records and updated list of species, Zootaxa 4869 (1), pp. 1-54 : 22

Atherigona (Atherigona) bedfordi van Emden, 1940 ( Fig. 27 )

Atherigona (Atherigona) bedfordi van Emden, 1940: 120 .

Atherigona humeralis Wiedemann sensu Hennig, 1964 et auctt., non Skidmore 1985 nec Pont 1986.

Specimens examined. 1m, 1f, Asir, Abha, Hay Al-Nusub ( Abha Farm Centre), 9–30.v.2014, Malaise trap, H . A . Dawah ( CERS) ; 1m, 1f, Asir, Maraba, Al-Hudaithy Fruit Farm , 23.xii.2012, Malaise trap, H . A . Dawah ( CERS) ; 2m, same data but 1–30.v.2004, ( CERS) ; 3f, same data but 1–17.vi.2003 ( NMWC) ; 1f, Asir, Abha, Madenate Al-Ameer Sultan , Hay Al-Sad , 25.ii.–25.v.2002, Malaise trap, M . A . Abdullah ( NMWC) .

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Dawah & Abdullah, (2009); El-Hawagry et al. (2017). It was described from Sudan. Pont (1991) recorded it from Oman and Deemig (2000) from Egypt.

Biological remarks. The types were reared from sorghum grown on residual water on the flood plain of the River Nile at Shendi and Shambat in Sudan ( van Emden 1940). The late Dr. El-Serwy reared it from a dead heart in cultivated wheat, Triticum aestivum L., in Egypt ( Deeming 2000: 284).

Taxonomic remarks. The synonymys of A. humeralis Wiedemann and A. bedfordi are very confusing. Hennig wrongly placed A. bedfordi as a junior synonym of humeralis without having seen the type. Drs. A.C. Pont and J.C. Deeming have examined the type of A. humeralis and found it to be the same species as A. ferruginea van Emden. Thus a lot of records from a variety of authors during the intervening period are based upon misidentifications.

Figures

FIGURE. 24–27. Muscidae species habitus: 24) Phaonia virgata Stein, 1913, Female; 25) Dichaetomyia luteiventris (Rondani, 1873), Male; 26) Atherigona (Atherigona) angulata Deeming, 1971, Male; 27) Atherigona (Atherigona) bedfordi Emden, 1940, Male.