Rhamphomyia (Pararhamphomyia) caudata (Zetterstedt)

Shamshev, Igor V., Sinclair, Bradley J. & Khruleva, Olga A., 2020, The empidoid flies (Diptera: Empidoidea, exclusive of Dolichopodidae) of the Russian Arctic islands and Svalbard Archipelago, Zootaxa 4848 (1), pp. 1-75 : 31

Rhamphomyia (Pararhamphomyia) caudata (Zetterstedt)

Rhamphomyza caudata Zetterstedt, 1838: 565 . Type locality (by lectotype designation): Kardis , Sweden.

Other references: Frey, 1955a: 472 (revision, lectotype designation); Barták & Danielson, 2007: 107 (type material examination).

Rhamphomyza aethiops Zetterstedt, 1838: 568 . Type locality (by lectotype designation): Lapponia Umensi (probably Lycksele) ( Sweden).

Other references: Barták & Danielson, 2007: 108 (lectotype designation).

Remarks. Rhamphomyia caudata has a somewhat complicated taxonomic history. As a consequence, some distributional records of this species may be misleading. Rhamphomyia caudata was identified as the single species of Empididae from Spitsbergen ( Boheman 1866; Holmgren 1869; Collin 1923) and was reflected in Empididae Catalogues and faunal checklists (e.g., Hackman 1968; Chvála & Wagner 1989: 299; Coulson & Refseth 2004: 104; Yang et al. 2007: 169). We have examined the specimens of R. caudata noted by Holmgren (housed in NHRS) and found that, actually, they belong to R. longestylata Frey (see below). It should be noted that Collin was somewhat confused about the synonymy of R. caudata . He believed that R. longestylata Frey was conspecific with R. caudata (Zetterstedt) (see Collin, 1961: 378). However, they are distinctly two different species (see Frey 1955a: 472; Barták & Danielson 2008: 107). A note in Collin’s paper on flies collected from Spitsbergen ( Collin 1923: 116) indicates clearly that he in fact had in front of him a male of R. longestylata rather than R. caudata . Our study does not confirm the presence of R. caudata on the Arctic islands.