Anthrax Scopoli, 1763

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 : 189-190

Anthrax Scopoli

Anthrax Scopoli, 1763: 358 . Type species: Musca morio Linnaeus, 1758 [misidentification, = Musca anthrax Schrank, 1781 ], by monotypy.

Chalcamoeba Sack, 1909: 522 . Type species: Anthrax virgo Egger, 1859 , by original designation.

Comments: Theodor (1983) recognised two groups of species based on differences in the genitalia. The first has males without spines on the cerci, gonocoxae truncate and epiphallus simple with a hooked apex ( Fig. 111 ) and females with elongate club-shaped spermathecal bulbs with a broad looped duct and short sperm pumps. The second has males with spines on the cerci, gonocoxae with an elongate terminal process, and epiphallus with a complex apical structure ( Fig. 112 ); females with heavily sclerotised spermathecal bulbs of various shapes, usually with narrow, straight ducts and longer sperm pump.

Keys: Palaearctic, Engel (1932 –7), Paramonov (1935); Egypt, El-Hawagry (1999 a); Afrotropical, Bezzi (1924); Eritrea /northern Ethiopia, Greathead (1967); Ghana, Bowden (1964); Senegal, François (1972); southern Africa, Hesse (1956).

Hosts: Ectoparasitoids on the larvae of bees and wasps ( du Merle 1975; Yeates & Greathead 1997).

Distribution: Cosmopolitan. North Africa: about 23 species, including Egypt: 2 recently described species; Anthrax greatheadi El-Hawagry and A. moursyi El-Hawagry (El-Hawagry 1999 b) and Canary Islands: 2 species; A. anthrax (Schrank) , A. bowdeni . Africa South of the Sahara: about 50 species: Aldabra and Socotra: members of the A. dentata (Becker) species complex, Seychelles: A. distigma Wiedemann.

Figures

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).