Bandella montana, Bickel, 2002

Bickel, Daniel J., 2002, Bandella, A New Hilarine Fly Genus from Australia (Diptera: Empididae), Records of the Australian Museum 54, pp. 313-324 : 320

Bandella montana n.sp.

Figs. 2c, 3d

Type material. HOLOTYPE, 3 (K 173137), PARATYPES, 3 (K 173138), ♀ (K 173139), New South Wales: Barrington Tops NP, 5.xii.1976, G. Daniels (all AMS) .

Additional material. NEW SOUTH WALES: NSW: Mt Wilson, Blue Mountains , 33°30'S 150°23'E , 950 m, ♀, 5.xii.1956, ♀, 1.xi.1975, 3, 10.xi.1990 ( AMS); 3, New England NP, 5.xi.1981 ( AMS); 3, Mt Tomah , Blue Mtns, 33°33'S 150°25'E, x.1930 ( MVM) . VICTORIA: ♀, Thomson River , 6 km E of Mt Gregory, 24.xi.1976 ( MVM) .

Description (male): length: 11.0; wing: 8.8×2.7. Head: postcranium laterally and ventrally with dusting of grey pruinosity; dorsal postcranium, vertex and frons shining black with no pruinosity; ventral postcranium with scattered pale setae; postorbitals present as short white setae ventrally, black dorsally; face covered with silvery pruinosity; labrum and labellum entirely yellow; antenna black but pedicel brownish in some specimens.

Thorax: pleura and mesonotum mostly red-yellow, except posterior mesonotum with black area extending almost to scutellum, but varying in extent from large area ( Fig. 2c) to a small black dot, almost absent; scutellum yellow but brownish basally; pleura with some pruinosity, but mesonotum glabrous; scutellum with pair brownish median marginal setae, with some adjacent short setae.

Legs: coxae and remainder of legs yellow; coxae with only short pale vestiture, no strong setae; femora and tibiae with mostly short black vestiture; all tarsi with strong black claws and large yellowish pulvilli; I: 11.5; 11.5; 5.0/ 2.0/ 1.6/ 1.4/ 1.5; TI and each tarsomere It 1–3 with 2–3 pairs of subapical av-pv setae, and It 1–3 with dense ventral vestiture; II: 12.5; 12.0; 5.0/ 2.0/ 1.2/ 1.1/ 1.5; each tarsomere IIt 1–4 with dense ventral vestiture, and with some subapical avpv setae; III: 18.0; 17.0; 6.3/ 2.1/ 1.8/ 1.5/ 1.8; FIII very slightly clavate in distal third; tarsomeres IIIt 1–2 ventrally swollen with dense vestiture.

Abdomen: segments 1–6 shining black with some violet reflections, although tergum 2 yellow in basolaterally; segments 7 and 8 yellowish; tergum 6 dorsally with medianposterior U-shaped excavation, and tergum 7 with lateral flaplike projections; hypopygium yellowish ( Fig. 3d).

Female similar to male except as noted: post-cranium also with grey pruinosity; thorax with similar colour and black patch size variation; leg vestiture somewhat weaker than on male; abdominal tergum 1 with similar colour pattern.

Remarks. Bandella montana occurs along the Great Dividing Range from southern Victoria to the New England escarpment in northern New South Wales. The extent of the black area on the mesonotum appears to vary in size geographically. Specimens from the southern part of the range (Blue Mountains, N.S.W. and Thompson River, Vic.) have the black area reduced to a narrow median strip, whereas specimens from the New England escarpment have a more extensive black area, as in Fig. 2c.