Dipodium apiarium, Bosc d'Antic, 1812

Stuke, Jens-Hermann, 2016, Taxonomic notes on Western Palaearctic Conopidae (Diptera), Zootaxa 4178 (4), pp. 521-534 : 524

D. apiarium Bosc d’Antic, 1812

Dipodium apiarium Bosc d’Antic, 1812: 72 –73 + 1 plate; locus typicus not given; syntypes of unknown number of larvae [depository unknown]

Bosc d’Antic (1812) described a species of “intestinal worm” found within the abdomen of a bee (“abeille“) from a beehive (“rucher“), not realising that he had the larva of a dipteran before him. His description of the morphology and biology of D. apiarum fits completely to the larva of a conopid, the host of which must have been the honeybee Apis mellifera L. Because Dipodium was stated to lack anterior spiracles, the genus Sicus can probably be excluded, but there are several other conopid species which have been reported to develop in Apis —in central Europe , for example, conopid parasitoids of Apis are reported to include Merziella , Physocephala , Thecophora and Zodion . Therefore, it is not possible to come to any conclusion concerning the true identity of D. apiarium . The depository of the syntypes (which were larvae) is unknown, but even if these could be found it is unlikely that they could be identified reliably to genus level given the present state of our knowledge. Therefore, unfortunately, D. apiarium has to be treated as an unrecognised species of Conopidae for the time being, and Dipodium Bosc d’Antic, 1812 as an unrecognised genus of Conopidae .