Musca suilla Fabricius, 1794: 343

Michelsen, Verner & O’Hara, James E., 2014, A review of genus-group names in Diptera (Insecta) that J. C. Fabricius “ borrowed ” from other dipterists and proposed as new in his systematic works from 1775 to 1805, Zootaxa 3873 (1), pp. 73-81 : 77-78

Musca suilla Fabricius, 1794: 343 .

Type material ( Figs. 1–3 ). Fabricius (1794) stated only the origin ‘in Germaniae’ [= in Germany], and collector ‘Smidt’ [= A. L. Smidt?] of the type material of Musca suilla . Accordingly, the only specimen (1♀) found in Coll. Fabricius [= ‘Kiel’ of Zimsen 1964: 475] of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, may be regarded as a syntype. It is here designated as lectotype and labelled as such, in order to fix the identity of the name suilla . Only the wings, posterior part of the mesonotum and distal part of the coxa + trochanter + basal part of femur of the left hind leg remain of the lectotype, attached to a short pin with a Fabrician label reading ‘suilla’.

Identity. Musca suilla Fabricius, 1794 is not a species of Scathophaga Meigen, 1803 as first surmised by Fallén’s (1819) placement of the species in his equivalent genus Scatomyza Fallén, 1810 . Accordingly, Musca suilla is not a senior synonym of Scathophaga spurca Meigen, 1826 (published as “ Scatophaga ” spurca ) as first proposed by Becker (1894: 167) and accepted by subsequent authors (e.g., Thompson & Pont 1994). The colour, the pale setae on the hind leg fragment, the scutellum with only one pair of strong setae (two pairs in relevant species of Scathophaga !), the wing venation including a costal vein with humeral and subcostal breaks and uniform, fine setulae leave no doubt that the remains of the lectotype ( Figs. 1, 2 ) belong to a common European scathophagid originally described as Cordylura spinimana Fallén, 1819 and currently known as Norellisoma spinimanum (Fallén) , syn. n. The presence of a black seta among the pale setae on the distal part of the hind coxa further indicates that the lectotype remains belong to a female.

The nominal species Musca suilla Fabricius, 1794 has not previously been synonymized with Norellisoma spinimanum ( Fallén, 1819) , but has since 1894 consistently been misinterpreted as a species of Scathophaga Meigen. The junior synonym Cordylura spinimana Fallén, 1819 has been used as valid as either Norellia (Norellisoma) spinimana (Fallén) or Norellisoma spinimanum (Fallén) in more than 25 works by at least 10 authors in the last 50 years and encompassing a span of not less than 10 years as documented in Appendix 1. We hereby invoke, in the interests of nomenclatural stability, reversal of precedence (Code Article 23.9), and declare Musca suilla Fabricius, 1794 as a nomen oblitum and Cordylura spinimana Fallén, 1819 as a nomen protectum.

As discussed in the above catalogue, Fabricius (1805) proposed the name Scatophaga for species of Sciomyzidae and similar flies with a short and porrect antennal postpedicel. Meigen (1803) proposed the name Scathophaga [misspelled later by Meigen (1826) as Scatophaga ], for scathophagid dung flies: i.e., hairy species with a longer and deflexed postpedicel. Fabricius consistently classified species of scathophagid dung flies in the genus Musca Linnaeus.

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Musca suilla Fabricius, 1794: lectotype ♀. 1. Remains of mesonotum, left distal part of coxa + trochanter + basal part of femur and basal half of wings in lateral view. 2. Remains of mesonotum and wings in dorsal view. 3. Original label in Fabricius’s hand reading “suilla”. Scale bars (1, 2) = 1 mm.