Helina nitens, Macquart, 1855

Pont, Adrian C., 2012, Muscoidea (Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae, Muscidae) described by P. J. M. Macquart (Insecta, Diptera), Zoosystema 34 (1), pp. 39-111 : 76

nitens Macquart, 1855 , Spilogaster

Spilogaster nitens Macquart, 1855a: 138 ( 1855b: 118) , pl. 6, fig. 15. Lectotype ♂, “de la Nouvelle-Hollande, Nouvelle-Adélaïde.M. Bigot.” ( Australia, South Australia, Adelaide), by present designation, in OUMNH.

MATERIAL. — There is 1 ♂ syntype in the Bigot collection in OUMNH. It is labelled by Macquart “ Spilogaster / nitens. / ♂. Macq. n. sp.”, and stands over a Bigot drawer label “ S. nitens . ♂. / Australia. / Macq.”. It is in atrocious condition: it is covered in mould, the wings and all legs

except left foreleg and left hind leg are missing. I have labelled it and designate it herewith as lectotype.

CURRENT IDENTITY. — Stein (1907b) did not report on this specimen and presumably did not study it. It is apparently a species of Helina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (see Pont 1989b: 686), and may possibly be an older name for the Australian H. caerulescens (Stein, 1910) , but it is impossible to compare the external characters of H. nitens with those of H. caerulescens . To establish the identity of the species, it will be necessary to compare the terminalia of the lectotype of nitens with those of caerulescens , within the framework of a revision of Australian Helina .