Exoprosopa rufina Bezzi, 1924

Greathead, David J. & Evenhuis, Neal L., 2004, New species of Bombylioidea in Mario Bezzi’s Unpublished Hungarian Museum Manuscript, Zootaxa 773, pp. 1-56 : 35

Exoprosopa rufina Bezzi, 1924

87. Exoprosopa (Exoprosopa) rufina 1Ψ Tanzania: Shirati, v.1909 (Katona). MS page [86].

Bezzi, 1924: 280 – key only.

Evenhuis & Greathead, 1999: 377 – location of type material unknown. Types: The holotype in HNHM was destroyed in 1956 and no others are known.

Remarks: No specimens have been found identified by Bezzi as E. rufina and no specimens have been seen that correspond with the following characters given in the key in Bezzi (1924) that distinguish it from E. contorta Bezzi and E. restricta Bezzi : “Face bluntly convex; body and legs in great part red; marginal cell [r1] infuscated to marginal crossvein [interradial]; third [m2] and fourth posterior [cua1] cells infuscated at base”. The manuscript diagnosis specifies that it differs from these two species by the distinct red colour of the legs and the abdomen, which is like that of E. punctulata Macquart.

Description. The manuscript description is difficult to read but is approximately as follows:

“Length of body, 12 mm; of wing, 12 mm

Occiput black, grey pollinose, postvertical sulcus narrow, vitta broadly … shining in inferior margin of eyes; frons at vertex narrow, twice width of antennal tubercle darkened, being all dark red, very blackened around vertex erect black hair and dense shining scales present on the fore part; face not produced, rounded, bare[?] below; covered in white scales and hairs, antennae short, all black, basal joint short black haired, third[?] … … shorter than 1 & 2, style of equal length very slender; palpi pale yellowish white haired, proboscis black, scarcely projecting. Thorax black, posterior calli red; hair of collar and lateral line in front part all yellowish in the sides above the wing base a narrow stripe of short whitish hairs; macrochetae [= bristles] black, pleura testaceous, above greyish­black hair, below white, notopleura and metapleura yellowish, sternopleuron white scaled; scutellum all red, yellowish tomentose and black bristles, squamae brownish­red and yellow fringed, halteres pale yellowish, plumula white. Abdomen broad, obtuse, black, sides of segments 2–4 broadly red maculate, posterior borders of segments all reddened, hair at sides of 1–2 white, remainder yellowish on posterior angle, a tuft of black hair, above black white and yellowish scales, spines black, bristles yellowish red shining; venter all reddish silvery scaled and white haired. Legs all red, coxae at base and tarsi blackened at apex, anterior legs abbreviated, tibiae more …; tarsi sparsely short pubescent; femora with white scales and hairs, bristles black, middle 2–3, posterior 6–7; front coxae white tomentose and haired; claws red at base then black, basal tooth not very sharp, red. Wings …. light fascia … truncated in marginal cell little before end above transverse marginal vein, broad short submarginal …, first posterior discal and also bases of posterior cells 3 and 4 infuscated, anal cell and axillary cell almost all hyaline, … base so much infuscated. Hook [basicostal hook] black, and comb red with black hairs and yellow tomentum, veins dark reddish, …. at apex little …, first posterior cell not narrowed, second narrow, third a little shorter, fourth at base; vein located little before middle, discal cell outwardly acute, apical vein sinuous and oblique, axillary lobe short and broad, alula smoky and with a yellowish fringe.”