Bombyliini, Latreille, 1802

Greathead, D. J. & Evenhuis, N. L., 2001, Annotated keys to the genera of African Bombylioidea (Diptera: Bombyliidae; Mythicomyiidae), African Invertebrates 42 (1820), pp. 105-224 : 148-150

Key to the genera of Bombyliini

1 Head usually distinctly narrower than thorax; laterotergites always with hair and cell r 5 (first posterior) usually closed at a distance from the wing margin ( Figs 81– 83 ); wings usually large, broad at base with anal lobe, alula and squama well developed; hind femora always with well developed bristles on underside; body always broad, bristles usually well developed; male genitalia with narrow or leaf-like gonostyli, aedeagus sheathed by epiphallus which only rarely has clasper-like outgrowths, phallosome projecting from middle of gonocoxae, apodemes usually large ( Fig. 101 ) ..................................................................................................... 2

– Head usually as broad as thorax; laterotergites bare and/or cell r 5 broadly open at wing margin (cf. Figs 84–85 ); wings often small, narrowed at base with at least alula reduced; hind femora often without bristles; body usually more elongate even narrow conical or cylindrical, bristles usually weak, often hair-like, especially those posterior to the wings; often with long robust gonostyli ending in a curved point; phallosome usually with a large blunt epiphallus and originating near base of gonocoxae, apodemes usually small ( Figs 102–103 ) ......................................... 10

2 Head as wide as thorax; hind margin of eye indented; cell r 5 (first posterior) pointed and closed near the wing margin; with strong bristles on head and body, including hind margins of abdominal terga; with gold scaling on head and body with a pattern of short black and white hair and scales ( Fig. 76 ); male genitalia ( Fig. 104 ) with a crest of strong spines at apex of gonocoxae which also bear a tuft of long hairs on the dorsal surface, phallosome long and slender without an epiphallus .................. Eurycarenus Bezzi

– Head usually narrower than thorax; hind margin of eye not indented; cell r 5 closed and stalked; hair long and dense; gonocoxae without a crest of strong spines or a tuft of long hairs on the dorsal surface, phallosome with or without a prominent epiphallus .............................................................................................................. 3

3 Cell br (first basal) longer than cell bm (second basal) ( Fig. 79 ), r-m sometimes equal to m-m; vestiture various, often with black hair and/or scale patches; wing pattern various, sometimes with a clear-cut dark infuscation and/or with isolated dark spots; phallosome usually without clasper-like outgrowths ( Fig. 101 ) .............................................................................................................. 4

– Cell br equal in length to bm; r-m usually much shorter than m-m, occasionally almost as long; vestiture fine and silky with a clipped appearance at least on occiput and thorax, hair white to straw-yellow or brown shading to paler on underside; wing infuscation, if present, diffuse and darker along fore border ( Figs 80–81 ); male with phallosome compact often with clasper-like outgrowths ( Fig. 105 ) ................................................................................... Systoechus Loew

4 Abdomen appears truncated, rapidly tapered from tergum 4; terminalia appear similar in both sexes with cerci in female and processes on gonocoxae in males projecting; frons of female narrow, with eyes separated by less than width of ocellar triangle; gonocoxae with robust elongate terminal lobes, gonostyli thick, parallelsided blunt or with a small point and with short hairs only ( Fig. 106 ); female with a tubular ovipositor and vestigial sand-chamber, unlaid eggs large spherical and pigmented .......................................................................... Beckerellus Greathead

– Abdomen ovate, tapered beyond tergum 4; terminalia normal; frons of female at least as broad as ocellar triangle; gonocoxae with terminal lobes no longer than wide, gonostyli slender, pointed and crowned with long hairs at base or broad with short upright hairs, female with a sand-chamber guarded by long silky hairs, unlaid eggs ellipsoidal, thin-walled, unpigmented .......................................................... 5

5 Eyes of males in contact for a distance at least equal to length of ocellar triangle; head always distinctly narrower than thorax; palpi unsegmented; legs usually very dark or black and at least bristles black; body cuticle mainly or entirely black; gonocoxae slender, gonostyli elongate slender with a tuft of long black hairs at base, phallosome usually without accessory structures ........................................ 6

– Eyes of males in contact for less than length of ocellar triangle; head broad, sometimes as wide as thorax; palpi with two segments; legs pale but bases of femora and tarsi may be darkened; bristles almost always pale at least on males; body cuticle tending to have paler reddish or yellowish areas on calli; scutellum and sides of anterior abdominal terga; gonocoxae broad, gonostyli tending to be broader and shorter and without long black hairs, phallosome often with accessory structures ( Fig.108 ) ........................................................................................ Parisus Walker

Figures

Figs 79–82. Bombyliidae wings. 79. Systropus leptogaster Loew (from Bezzi 1924). 80. Heterotropus sp. (Namibia) (original) 81. Australoechus punctifer (Bezzi). 82. Systoechus robustus Bezzi (all from Bezzi 1924).

Figs 83–85. Bombyliidae wings. 83. Anisotamia ruficornis Macquart (from Austen 1937). 84. Othniomyia tylopelta Hesse. 85. Prorachthes conspersipennis Hesse (all from Hesse 1938).

Figs 101–106. Bombyliidae male genitalia. 101. Bombomyia bombiformis (Bezzi). a. lateral view. b. ventral view.102. Bombylisoma senegalense (Macquart). a. lateral view. b. ventral view. 103. Gonarthrus kalaharicus Hesse. 104. Eurycarenus dichopticum Bezzi. a. lateral view. b. ventral view. 105. Systoechus mixtus (Wiedemann). 106. Beckerellus terminatus (Becker). a. lateral view. b. ventral view (all from Hesse 1938).

Figs 76–77. Bombyliidae habitus drawings. 76. Eurycarenus melanurus Bezzi, male (from Bezzi 1924). 77. Stomylomyia europaea (Loew), female (from Austen 1937).

Figs 108–112. Bombyliidae male genitalia. 108. Parisus aurantiacus (Macquart). a. ventral view. b. lateral view (from Hesse 1938). 109. Desmatoneura meridionalis (Hesse). 110. Xeramoeba apricaria Hesse. 111. Anthrax pithecius Fabricius. 112. Anthrax aygulus Fabricius (all from Hesse 1956).