Revision of the genus Lichtwardtia Enderlein in Southeast Asia, a tale of highly diverse male terminalia (Diptera, Dolichopodidae)
Author
Tang, Chufei
Author
Yang, Ding
Author
Grootaert, Patrick
text
ZooKeys
2018
798
63
107
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.798.28107
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.798.28107
1313-2970-798-63
A46FB3AA7E3944048C585B81CC21A5D4
A46FB3AA7E3944048C585B81CC21A5D4
Lichtwardtia ziczac (Wiedemann, 1824)
Figure 25
Dolichopus ziczac
Wiedemann, 1824: 40. Female. Type locality: India Orientalis
Dolichopus ziczac
Wiedemann, 1830: 232
Dolichopus zickzack
Wiedemann, 1824. Male in
Becker 1922
: 8, figure 1. Non
ziczac
sensu
Wiedemann 1824
Lichtwardtia ziczac
(Wiedemann, 1824) sensu Zhang, Masunaga & Yang, 2009: 199, figs 11-14.
Material examined.
Holotype female, India Orientalis, on pin in collection ZMUC (Copenhagen).
Diagnosis.
Female. A medium-sized species (body: 4 mm; wing: 3.2 mm). Wing hyaline with anterior border faintly brownish and cross veins brownish seamed. No swelling of the costa before or at the point where R1 joins the costa. The ratio of the proximal section of M1, and the distal section is 0.4/0.6 (Figure 25). Thus the distal section is much longer than the proximal section. Fore coxa yellow, mid coxa brown and hind coxa yellowish.
Comments.
Dolichopus ziczac
was described by
Wiedemann (1824)
on the basis of a female collected in India Orientalis. No precision is given about the locality so that the type locality could be everywhere in the Oriental region ranging from Pakistan to New Guinea at that time. The description of the species in the work of
Wiedemann (1824)
is very short, but fortunately the holotype female is still well preserved in the collections of the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen.
Becker (1922)
knew about this specimen but did not see it. A colleague described it to him in a letter and Becker was sure that the specimens that he had in his own collection or had seen at the Hungarian Museum from Taiwan (China), India, Bangladesh, Rangoon (Myanmar), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and the Bismarck Archipelago (Papua New Guinea) were all the same species. The range is thus also very wide according to Becker. He gave a description of a male but did not mention the origin of the male. Hence we cannot rely on his re-description that fits to quite a number of species. At the same time he put
Rhagoneurus coxalis
Kertesz
, 1901,
Lichtwardtia formosana
Enderlein, 1912 and
Rhagoneurus polychromus
Loew, 1864 all
Lichtwardtia
species as junior synonyms of
L. ziczac
. Now we see that all are good species and we re-establish here their names as valid species. The previous holotype female is examined (Figure 25). It is not clear why
Becker (1922)
changed the name
ziczac
to
zickzack
.
Brownish seams along the cross veins are not very common in
Lichtwardtia
and actually only known in
L. ziczac
and
L. singaporensis
sp. n. The ratio of the proximal section of M1, and the distal section is however 0.435/0.564. Thus the distal section is not as long as in
L. ziczac
. We do not consider both species as conspecific for the moment because in the near future it might be possible to extract ancient DNA from the holotype without using destructive techniques. This can be decisive about the status of both species. We propose to consider
L. ziczac
(Wiedemann) from terra incognita as a nomen dubium and not to complicate again the taxonomy of
Lichtwardtia
by applying the name
ziczac
to the male of
singaporensis
without genetic information. Remarkable is that among the more than 200
Lichtwardtia
specimens belonging to six species that we found in Seam Reap, no specimens with brownish seamed cross veins were found.
Figure 25.
Lichtwardtia ziczac
(Wiedemann, 1824) holotype female (photograph by Dr Thomas Pape).