Panops austrae Neboiss, 1971

Winterton, Shaun L., 2012, Review of Australasian spider flies (Diptera, Acroceridae) with a revision of Panops Lamarck, ZooKeys 172, pp. 7-75 : 24-25

Panops austrae Neboiss, 1971 Figs 21-24

Panops austrae Neboiss, 1971: 209 - Schlinger and Jefferies 1989: 376.

Type material examined.

Holotype female, AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory: nr. Mount Olga [-25.3, 130.73], C.A., Paul Genery, ix.1960, picked up dead in sand (Type- T.4177) (NMV).

Other material examined.

AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: male, Wialki [-30.483, 118.117], R. P. McMillan, 12.x.1983 (WAM); male, W of Norseman, Eucalyptus woodland, dry gully to salt lake, Malaise trap, C. Lambkin et al., ANIC bulk sample 2184, 1-17.xi.2003 271m [-32.186, 121.721] (ANIC).

Diagnosis.

Eye apilose; proboscis equal to head height; body metallic green-blue; antennae yellow-brown; parafacial without marginal pile; postpronotal lobe concolourous with rest of thorax; legs black.

Redescription.

Body length: 8.0-10.0 mm (male), 14.5 mm (female). Head with eye apilose; ocellar tubercle relatively flat, medial ocellus present; occiput metallic green-blue, occipital pile dense, white; postocular ridge and gena overlain with grey pubescence; clypeus length equal to oral cavity, brown-black; palpus white or black; margin of oral cavity (parafacial) glabrous; proboscis equal or slightly longer than head height; flagellum dark yellow-orange, suffused with brown, apex in male tapered, narrow apically; scape and pedicel brown or dark yellow. Thorax postpronotal lobe green; scutum metallic green or metallic blue, scutal vestiture dense white pile; scutellum metallic blue-green; pleuron metallic green or metallic blue; coxae black with metallic blue iridescence; femora black; tibiae black or brown; tarsi black; lower calypter white, with brown margin; wing hyaline (male) or slightly infuscate (female), venation dark; vein R4 with spur vein. Abdomen shape rounded globose, much larger than thorax (female) or rounded to conical, not larger than thorax (male), colour metallic green or metallic blue violet, vestiture as minute setae, dense white-silver elongate setae along anterior margin of tergites 2-5.

Comments.

Panops austrae is a large, metallic coloured species similar to Panops jade sp. n. and Panops schlingeri sp. n. It is easily distinguished from these species by the longer proboscis and dense white thoracic pile. This species is known from remote, arid regions of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.