Generic revision and species classification of the Microdontinae (Diptera, Syrphidae)
Author
Reemer, Menno
Author
Stahls, Gunilla
text
ZooKeys
2013
288
1
213
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.288.4095
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.288.4095
1313-2970-288-1
Ptilobactrum Bezzi
Figs 321-326
Ptilobactrum
Bezzi, 1915: 136. Type species:
Ptilobactrum neavei
Bezzi, 1915: 137, by original designation.
Description.
Body length: 13 mm. Broadly built flies with very wide head, long antennae and orange markings on abdomen. Head wider than thorax. Face much wider than
eye
; dorsally with oblique groove from lunule to eye margin; convex in profile. Lateral oral margins weakly produced. Vertex not swollen, more or less flat, but much wider than eye. Occiput narrow ventrally, moderately widened dorsally. Eye bare. Eye margins in male not converging at level of frons, with mutual distance about seven times width of antennal fossa. Antennal fossa somewhat higher than wide. Antenna longer than height of head. Basoflagellomere five times as long as scape; with long pilosity. Postpronotum pilose. Mesoscutum with transverse suture incomplete. Scutellum without calcars. Anepisternum with deep sulcus; entirely pilose. Anepimeron entirely pilose. Katepimeron convex; smooth; bare. Wing: vein R4+5 with posterior appendix; vein M1 straight, somewhat recurrent; postero-apical corner of cell r4+5 angular, with small appendix; crossvein r-m located around basal 1/3 of cell dm. Abdomen oval, widest at posterior margin of tergite 2. Tergites 3 and 4 fused. Sternite 1 bare. Sternite 4 in male visible from below. Male genitalia: phallus bent dorsad, except extreme apex bent ventrad; phallus furcate near apex; epandrium without ventrolateral ridge; surstylus broad, unfurcate, with short posterior lobe. Female unknown.
Diagnosis.
Vein R4+5 with posterior appendix. Basoflagellomere with long pile. Abdomen oval. Tergites 3 and 4 fused.
Discussion.
Bezzi (1915)
distinguished
Ptilobactrum
from
Microdon
species by the "breadth of the head, the face being furrowed, and by the unusual shape of the antennae." Indeed, the grooves on the face, running fom the lunula obliquely downward to the eye margins, are quite unusual among
Microdontinae
. They are reminescent of the ptilinal sutures of
Diptera
Schizophora. Similar grooves are found in certain species of
Furcantenna
,
Schizoceratomyia
,
Paramixogaster
and
Thompsodon
, but usually less distinct. The antennae are unusual in their long pilosity, a character shared with
Ceratrichomyia
,
Furcantenna
,
Kryptopyga
and
Schizoceratomyia
.
See
Ceratrichomyia
for a discussion on synonymy of that genus with
Ptilobactrum
, as proposed by
Cheng and Thompson (2008)
.
Diversity and distribution.
Described species: 1. Afrotropical, only known from Kenya.