Bittacus omega Morgante, 1967

Machado, Renato Jose Pires, Mendes, Diego Matheus De Mello & Rafael, José Albertino, 2018, The genus Bittacus Latreille (Insecta: Mecoptera) in Brazil: key to species, distribution maps, new synonym, and three new species, Zootaxa 4526 (3), pp. 303-330 : 320

Bittacus omega Morgante, 1967

( Figs. 5c , 8o , 12d )

Bittacus omega: Morgante, 1967:55 ; Penny & Byers, 1979b:368; Machado et al., 2009:36; Machado, 2018.

Thyridates omega: Willmann, 1983:51 , Collucci & Amorim, 2000:7.

Holotype. Male: MZSP (examined). Species known from Minas Gerais ( Fig. 12d ).

Bittacus omega is known only by the holotype from Buritis (Minas Gerais State). It is characterized by the shape of the male epandrium, which resembles the Greek letter omega and inspired the species name ( Morgante 1967). This particular shape is shared with B. golbachi , which is known only from two specimens from Tucumán, Argentina ( Williner 1990). In this sense, a detailed study of the holotypes of B. golbachi and B. omega is of particular interest to determine their taxonomic status. The inclusion of B. femoralis in this study would be interesting, as well, since the lateral elongation of its epandrium presents a large variation, suggesting that both B. golbachi and B. omega could be only an extreme variation within a complex species.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Bittacus wings. a) B. brunipennis, holotype; b) B. froehlichi, holotype; c) B. omega, holotype. Scale bars = 1mm. Type specimen photos of B. brunipennis and B. froehlichi provided by Caleb Martins (LMED).

FIGURE 8. Brazilian Bittacus male epandria, dorsal view. a) B. angrensis; b) B. aripuanensis; c) B. blancheti; d) B. boraceiensis; e) B. brasiliensis; f) B. cruzi sp. n.; g) B. diversinervis; h) B. femoralis; i) B. ferreirai sp. n.; j) B. flavescens; k) B. froehlichi; l) B. genicutalus; m) B. latreillei; n) B. maculosus; o) B. omega; p) B. pintoi; q) B. varzeanus sp. n.

FIGURE 12. Distribution records of Bittacus species in Brazil. a) B. angrensis, B. aripuanensis, B. blancheti, B. brasiliensis, B. brunipennis; b) B. boraceiensis, B. cruzi sp. n., B. diversinervis, B. femoralis; c) B. ferreirai sp. n., B. flavescens, B. froehlichi, B. latreillei; d) B. maculosus, B. omega, B. pintoi, B. varzeanus sp. n. Bittacus geniculatus is not represented because of its imprecise location.