World synopsis of described species of the genus Platypygus Loew (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae: Platypyginae)
Author
Gharali, Babak
Author
Evenhuis, Neal L.
Author
Almeida, Jorge
text
Zootaxa
2013
3745
2
199
242
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3745.2.3
59e21b05-5048-44d9-a559-8e236c97d0d0
1175-5326
248549
B2CBDBF4-2ACE-4ADF-9A96-F9B037083D4F
Platypygus lativentris
Loew
(
Fig. 9
)
Platypygus lativentris
Loew, 1873: 202
. Becker
et al.,
1903: 192. Kertész, 1909: 97. Verrall, 1909: 14. Becker & Stein, 1913: 507. Bezzi, 1926: 260. Engel, 1933: 124. Paramonov, 1926: 86; 1934: 20. Hull, 1973: 262. Evenhuis, 1983: 477; 2002: 25. Zaitzev, 1989: 45. Gharali
et al
., 2011: 27.
Material examined.
Types
:
TAJIKISTAN
:
1 female
lectotype
/
Platypygus lativentris
Lw./ 9647/ Фань/ Coll. H. Loew/ Zool. Mus. Berlin (ZMHB).
Notes on
types
. Loew (1873) described
Platypygus lativentris
based on two females (without selecting a
type
) that were collected by Alexei Pavlovich Fedschenko in
Tajikistan
when he explored the region in 1870: one is from “Pjandschikent” [= Panjakent] collected on
23 June
; and the other (considered “defectes” by Loew) from “Fan” [= a mountain range in
Tajikistan
midway between Samarkand and Dushanbe that was the focus of Fedschenko’s 1870 trip] collected on
19 June
. Only one of these original two
syntypes
(from “Fan) apparently still survives in ZMHB and was located by Paramonov (1929: 224) when he visited the ZMHB to study the Loew
types
and was also seen by Evenhuis (2002) when he visited ZMHB in 1998. Engel (1933: 124) examined the only existing
syntype
when he made his description, and stated “
Type
Loews 9647, Zoolog. Mus. Berlin”. This is enough according to Article 74.5 of the ICZN Code to fix the specimen from Fan (= “9647”) as the
lectotype
female. Except for the record from
Uzbekistan
in Zaitzev (1989), no further material of this species has ever been collected.
Diagnostic features.
Face yellow; frons yellow with wide black stripe medially; vertex black; occiput black medially, laterally black with wide yellow stripe, extending upwardly to half height of occiput (
Fig. 9
c); mentum yellow; antennae completely black; mesonotum (
Fig. 9
b) yellow with three black dorsal stripes, black spot laterally next to transverse suture, middle stripe extends from anterior margin of mesonotum to scutellum, lateral stripes extend from posterior margin of postpronotal lobes to postalar calli, coalesced posteriorly with median stripe by wide black band, scutellum yellow with small black mark basally; halter stem yellow, knob yellow with a distinct black spot dorsally (
Fig. 9
d); r-m crossvein before middle of cell dm; cell br longer than cell bm; abdominal tergites (
Fig. 9
d) almost all black except posterior margins narrowly yellow.
Distribution.
Tajikistan
,
Uzbekistan
.
Remarks.
This species is easily recognized from other described species of the genus with three mesonotal stripes and the black spot on halter knob. Because the species is only known from
type
material, we were unable to dissect and examine the genitalia. Zaitzev (1989) and Evenhuis (2002) listed
Egypt
as part of the distribution of
P.
lativentris
. However, examination of specimens in this study showed none from
Egypt
fitting the description of
P. lativentris
, and we feel this record may well have been based on a misidentification. Further, neither Efflatoun (1945) nor Steyskal & Bialy (1967) treated
P. lativentris
in their works and El Hawagry (2011) did not include it in his checklist of Egyptian species. We have thus deleted
Egypt
from the current known range. A female from
Goa, India
in
TAU
examined during this study fits near this species in having the dorsal black spot on the halter knob, but differs in other respects and are thus not included under the material examined. We examined the
lectotype
of
P. lativentris
during this study. The males of this species are still unknown.