Protypusia grisea ( Paramonov, 1947 ) 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 : 80-82

Protypusia grisea ( Paramonov, 1947) gen. et comb. nov.

Fig. 47

Parageron griseus Paramonov, 1947: 218 [preoccupied by Usia grisea Efflatoun, 1945 ].

Usia glauca Evenhuis, 1978: 103 (replacement name for Parageron griseus Paramonov, 1947 , at the time preoccupied by Usia grisea Efflatoun, 1945 when transferred to Parageron by Evenhuis 1978: 103; the latter now of indeterminate genus in unplaced Usiinae ).

Etymology

From Latin ‘ griseo ’ = ‘grey’.

Type material

Lectotype (here designated)

TURKMENISTAN • ♂; “Utsh-Adzhi, distr. Merv., 3 May [19]26 1 ♂ (leg. S.J. Paramonov)/ Parageron griseus sp. nov. ♂ S. Paramonov det./ Typus /Zool. Mus. Berlin”; ZMHB.

Paralectotype

UZBEKISTAN • 1 ♀; “С.З. Бухара [northwest Bukhara], Tshangyr [in Cyrillic, not readable, translation taken from type description], 27 May [1]930 1 ♀ (leg. L.S. Zimin [in Cyrillic])/ Typus /Zool. Mus. Berlin”; ZMHB .

Other material examined

None.

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.9–3.4 mm. Wing length: 2.5–3.0 mm.

Male

HEAD. Gena about as broad as the depth of the postpedicel, very pale matt yellow-white. Frons somewhat swollen, silky white with a yellowish tinge, lacking long hairs. Eyes meeting for about seven facets, less than the length of the vertex. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, densely dove-grey dusted, all ocelli contiguous with the eye margins. White hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as width of vertex at its broadest. Eye facets large in upper half, small in lower half, the division between them fairly well marked. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with dove-grey dust, laterally with whitish hairs, those below twice as long as the upper ones. Antennae blackish with a rather grey cast, postpedicel significantly longer than scape and pedicel together, a distinct sharp, triangular point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus (this could be mistaken for an articulating style as seen in Apolysis ). Palps small and slender, white with a few inconspicuous white hairs apically. Proboscis very long, a little shorter than the body length, hairless dorsally, the baso-ventral membrane dirty white.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dove-grey dust, the paramedian vittae extending back two thirds the length of the mesonotum, also faint, obscurely defined, darker antehumeral vittae broken at thoracic suture. Hairs of mesonotum white, fairly long, acrostichals and dorsocentrals irregularly biserial, hairs on hind third and lateral parts of mesonotum more general, but area above wing bare. Scutellum concolourous with mesonotum, white hairs longer than those on mesonotum, a longitudinal middle part

of scutellum bare. Pleura concolourous with mesonotum, posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum with long, white hairs. Metepimeron becoming dirty yellow posteriorly, hairless.

WING. Membrane hyaline, the veins pale yellow. Crossvein r-m a little beyond basal third of the discal cell, clearly beyond m-cu. Anal lobe very well developed with conspicuously convex margin, much broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated.

LEGS. Coxae concolourous with pleura. Femora and tibia rather more brown, not densely dusted, very tip of femora and narrow base of tibia yellow. Legs covered with white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally and hind tibia dorsally.

ABDOMEN. Tergite one yellow laterally, dark brownish grey with clear yellow margins dorsally, remaining tergites brownish-grey with narrow dull yellow posterior margins. All tergites with long white hairs on reflexed lateral margins, dorsally hairs shorter and largely confined to the posterior half of each tergite. Sternites similar to tergites.

GENITALIA. Mid-size compared to other Protypusia gen. nov., dark in ground colour, tip of gonocoxite yellower, densely covered in grey dust, covered in white hairs.

Female

Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons dove-grey becoming more yellow anteriorly. At its narrowest part frons as wide as (or slightly wider than) length of postpedicel. Yellow margins to tergite less well defined, hairs on tergites and sternites conspicuously shorter. Hairs on legs shorter, hind femora and tibia lacking longer hairs.

Remarks

Only the male holotype and female paratype seen. A very small species, conforming closely in external characters to many species of Protypusia gen. nov. The female genitalia are typical of Protypusia with well sclerotised, sharply bent tip of genital fork and sclerotised vaginal plate. However, male genitalia rather divergent from the typical Protypusia , tip of epiphallus lacking the spiny membranous structure. Possibly allied to Pro. flavipalpis gen. et sp. nov. based on genitalia, but not very closely. Likely to be close to Pro. modesta but the male of that species is not known so this cannot be confirmed.

Zaitzev (1966) reported this species from Georgia, but the accompanying illustrations show that this is an error. Zaitzev’s material almost certainly belongs with either Pro. negevi or the closely related Pro. zimini .

Distribution

Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

Figures

Fig. 47. Protypusia grisea (Paramonov, 1947) gen. et comb. nov. a. Epiphallic complex ventral. b. Epiphallic complex lateral. c. Gonocoxite ventral. d. Epandrium dorsal. e. Female genitalia ventral. f. Female genitalia lateral.