Cononedys bilobatoides, A, Magdi S., 2007

A, Magdi S., 2007, Review of the tribe Aphoebantini Becker (Bombyliidae, Diptera) from Egypt, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 1630, pp. 47-54 : 50

Cononedys bilobatoides spec. nov.

Diagnosis: This new species can be easily distinguished from other related species by its shining bilobate scutellum, and by its dark brown antennae which are dusted gray except the brown and undusted apical flagellomere.

Description: Holotype, male: Body length: 9mm, wing length: 10mm.

Head: Frons brownish black in ground color, covered with long black hairs mixed with yellowish white scales become broader and denser at lower half, and mixed with some long yellowish white coarse hairs at lower part; antennae dark brown to black, dusted gray except at brown to yellowish brown apical flagellomere; face with long coarse hairs forming as a beard on oral margin, mixed with few black bristly hairs. Thorax: covered with small coarse yellowish white hairs or scaly hairs; scutellum shiny bilobate, with many coarse yellowish white hairs or scaly hairs at anterior half and on the cleft between lobes; bristles and hairs of thorax and scutellum black at lateral and posterior margins, mixed with more or less 3 yellowish bristles at lateral margins of scutum; anterior margin and corners of scutum with many whitish or yellowish white hairs; legs black covered with some short white scales, with ends of joints faint brown; wings fig. (8): hyaline, with the costal cell and proximal base tinged faint brownish, veins brownish. Abdomen: densely covered with small yellowish white hairs; corners of 1st tergite with a brush of white hairs mixed with some black ones at its posterior half; margins of tergites with many black bristly hairs become dense and mixed with some white hairs at sides. Male genitalia (fig. 10) dark brown; gonocoxae humpbacked, broad in basal half, narrow in apical half, with elongate pear-shaped gonostyli; aedeagus narrow, needle-shaped, longer than aedeagal sheath which has one lateral spine at tip.

Paratype, female: Similar to holotype; spermatheca (fig. 9) with a balloon-shaped bulb having two constrictions dividing it into three parts; the basal part narrower than the middle part which is narrower than the apical part.

Paratypes, males and females: body length: 7-9.5 mm, wing length: 8-11 mm.

Distribution: Egypt, Saudi Arabia.

Remarks: I collected 6 specimens of this species from South Sinai in summer of 1996 and 1997, two of these specimens were sent to late Dr D. Greathead ( UK) who confirmed my identification of them as new species. Another two specimens, male and female, also collected from South Sinai at 1942 and 1943, were amongst many specimens taken from Egyptian collections by Dr John Bowden for study. Before return of these specimens to Egypt, late Greathead checked them in British museum and commented on many of the specimens. On the two specimens of this species, he commented that they appear to be the undescribed Cononedys sp. near bilobatus ( Bezzi, 1924) of Greathead (1980) from Saudi Arabia, and confirmed his previous identification of this species as a new one. In his study on insects of Saudi Arabia (1980), Greathead didn't precisely describe this species because he had only a single female in rather poor condition, but he noted that it in most respects accords Bezzi's (1924) description of A. bilobatus , however it differs in having black legs, knobs of halteres paler than the stalks, no conspicuous anal tuft and is larger.

Material examined: Holotype male, W. Itlah (S. Sinai), 10.7.1943 (Efflatoun); paratypes: 1 female, W. Garagnyia (S. Sinai), 6-8.1942; 2 males, W. Garagnyia (S. Sinai), 24.5.1997 (Magdi); 2 females, W. El- Arbaein (S. Sinai), 25.5.1997 (Magdi); 1 female, W. El-Arbaein (S. Sinai), 22.5.1996 (Magdi); 1 female, W. El-Arbaein (S. Sinai), 14.5.1996 (Magdi). Holotype and paratypes deposited in Cairo University collection [ EFC].