Apolysis bicolor ( Efflatoun, 1945 ) Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 148-149

Apolysis bicolor ( Efflatoun, 1945) comb. nov.

Usia bicolor Efflatoun, 1945: 206 .

Usia efflatouni Venturi, 1948: 129 (new replacement name, preoccupied by bicolor Macquart, 1855 when in Usia ).

Type material (not examined)

Syntypes

EGYPT • 2 ♀♀; “Kewal El Nedayet (S.E. Desert), 23 February 1938 ( Efflatoun 1945)”; ESEC .

Photographs indicate that both are destroyed or almost so.

Remarks

Because Efflatoun (1945) described this species from two females only, and the key uses characters that are highly likely to be variable (leg colour), identifying any non-type material with A. bicolor is exceedingly problematical.

None of the specimens available to me can confidently be assigned to this species, although some are exceedingly close, agreeing in nearly all features. It seems clear that this tiny fly with very short mesonotal vestiture has many of the characters of Apolysis but few characters that would point towards Parageron s. lat. The illustration of the head laterally in Efflatoun (1945: pl. 19 fig. 303) clearly seems to show the apico-dorsal arista diagnostic of Apolysis . This tiny feature, often going unnoticed by former workers, and difficult to see even in specimens under the microscope, could be dismissed as an artefact. However, in pls 19–21, where heads of certain Apolysis are depicted this arista is apparent, but where certain Protypusia gen. nov. are depicted it is absent. In some illustrations the basal sensilla can be seen (e.g., pl. 20 figs 322, 327, Usia (Micrusia) ignorata Becker ) illustrated quite differently to the apical arista of Apolysis . At the time, Apolysis included only species lacking vein m-m, species with this crossvein being placed in Oligodranes or Usia and the taxonomic importance of the articulating arista had not been recognised. It would seem that even if Efflatoun was unaware of the value of this character, such was his attention to detail that he illustrated it.

Judging from the type description and the plate in the Smithsonian Institution Archives [Image no. SIA2012-7879], specimens from Israel that were examined are very close to this species and certainly belong in Apolysis , and so I am confident A. bicolor should also be placed there.

This action causes the preoccupation of Oligodranes bicolor Melander, 1946 , currently in Apolysis , so a new replacement name for the former is erected in the next section.

Distribution

Egypt (Kewal El Nedayet, Southeast Desert)