Rhinia apicalis (Wiedemann, 1830)

Thomas-Cabianca, Arianna, Villet, Martin H., Martinez-Sanchez, Anabel & Rojo, Santos, 2023, South African nose flies (Diptera, Calliphoridae, Rhiniinae): taxonomy, diversity, distribution and biology, Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 72764-72764 : 72764

Rhinia apicalis (Wiedemann, 1830)

= Idia apicalis Wiedemann, 1830: 354. Type locality: Canary Island, Tenerife.

= Rhinia testacea Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830: 423. Type locality: France, I'lle de France [= Mauritius].

= Idia flavipennis Macquart, 1844: 125. Type locality: Indonesia, Java.

= Idia simulatrix Loew, 1852: 660. Type locality: Olifant-River, South Africa.

= Idia punctata Bigot, 1858: 369. Type locality: Gabon.

= Idia bigoti Coquere, 1862: 96. Type locality: Senegal.

= Idia pleuralis Thomson, 1869: 542. Type locality: Australia, Keeling [= Cocos (Keeling)] Islands.

= Beccarimyia glossina Rondani, 1873: 287. Type locality: Abyssinia [= Ethiopia].

= Rhinia fulvipes Bigot, 1874: 239. Type locality: Ceylon [= Sri Lanka].

= Idiella trineuriformis Speiser, 1910: 153. Type locality: Tanzania, Kilimandjaro.

Distribution

Afrotropical: Aldabra Island (Seychelles), Amirante Island (Seychelles), Angola, Benin*, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cosmoledo Island (Seychelles), Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Réunion Island (France)*, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritus Island (Mauritius), Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Rodriguez Island (Mauritius), Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Socotra Island (Yemen), South Africa (Fig. 5 ), Tanzania, Togo*, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zanzibar Island (Tanzania) and Zimbabwe. Australasian: Australia, French Polynesia, Fiji, Hawaiian Islands, Micronesia Islands, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanatu. Palaearctic: Azores Islands (Portugal), Canary Islands (Spain), China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. Oriental: China, Hong-Kong, India, Indian Ocean Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Notes

Preferred environment: associated with a variety of anthropogenic and natural environments including poultry farms and gardens, dune and sand forests, dry scrub forests, Ficus forest, grassy floodplain, woodland savannah, broad-leaved deciduous woodland and Succulent Karoo. In Namibia, it occurs in all biomes, being especially abundant in the Mesic Savannah Biome ( Kurahashi and Kirk-Spriggs 2006). In Burundi, the species was collected on the shore of Lake Tanganyika and in Benin. It was associated with mature secondary forest, remnant forest, agricultural plots, lowland gallery forest and streambeds. In Cameroon, the species was associated with cultivated plots, degraded savannah forest, grasses and other vegetation environments and in Réunion Island, with lowland tropical rainforest. Recorded elevation: 15-1000 m a.s.l. Seasonality: common species collected year-round, being most abundant in November, December and April and less abundant in August. In Namibia, abundance peaked in January and February ( Kurahashi and Kirk-Spriggs 2006). Behaviour and ecology: considered a common flower visitor. Males and females have been observed feeding on pollen at flowers ( Peris 1952a, Dear 1977) in Harare and Mutare, Zimbabwe (formerly Salisbury and Umtali, Rhodesia) during the late dry season ( Cuthbertson 1933). A female was reported attending the nests of sphecoid and Pompilidae wasps (KwaZulu-Natal) and another one on the beach around a barbeque fire (Eastern Cape). Hulley (1983) reared adults from accumulated chicken manure in poultry houses from several locations in Eastern Cape. Additionally, adults have been observed at nests of Bembix Fabricius and Cerceris yngvei Cameron (as Cerceris vumbui Arn) ( Hymenoptera ) and larvae were obtained from nests of Bembix melanopa Handlirsh ( Cuthbertson 1938). Adults were attracted to freshly-removed soil during gardening in Grahamstown (Eastern Cape) (Martin Villet, personal observation 2016). A male was caught hovering in a group of males of F. albitarsis in the Amatigulu Nature Reserve, north of Tugela Mouth, KwaZulu-Natal. In Namibia, specimens have been collected from fresh elephant dung in the Caprivi Strip ( Kurahashi and Kirk-Spriggs 2006). Cuthbertson (1933) reported females laying eggs in the soil at the bottom of aardvark burrows in Mbalabala (as Balla Balla, Zimbabwe) and in rich humus soil in thickets (Umzingwane, Zimbabwe). Cuthbertson (1938) also reports that females oviposit in soft earth excavated by driver ants ( Dorylus Fabricius ( Hymenoptera ). Life cycle and developmental stages: oviparous species. Eggs, 3rd-instar larvae and puparia described and illustrated ( Cuthbertson 1938). Collection methods: usually not reported, but Malaise traps seem to be the most common. Collected by sweeping in Burundi, Malaise traps in Benin and Réunion Island, Malaise traps and sweeping in Cameroon and UV-light, Malaise, yellow pans and pitfall traps in Namibia ( Kurahashi and Kirk-Spriggs 2006). Illustrations and photographs: male habitus as in Fig. 6 . Wing fig. 7 in Dear (1977). Male terminalia as in fig. 35 in Zumpt (1958), figs. IV. a, b, f in Baez and Santos-Pinto 1975, figs. 9, 21, 29, 37 in Dear (1977), slide 4 in González-Mora and Peris (1988) and figs. 93-101 in Rognes (2002). Female terminalia as in figs. 102, 103 in Rognes (2002).

Material examined: Suppl. materials 1, 2.

Figures

Figure 5. Rhinia apicalis occurrence map in South Africa, including eSwatini (eSw) and Lesotho (Le); horizontal axis longitude east and vertical axis latitude south.

Figure 6. Habitus, left lateral view of Rhinia apicalis male MZSUR from Kenya; scale bar = 2 mm.