Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Milichiidae in Bezzi's collection
#1
This is not exactly an identification query, but I don't know where it is best placed. Anyway, lately I have spent some time loading a database with the names on the labels of Bezzi's collection and associating to each of those names the one valid today, when possible. Between the names I was unable to identify in the literature there is this one:
Mallochiella rufitarsis Mgn
According to Systema Dipterorum, Meigen never described a
rufitarsis species, so I can't understand what Bezzi had in mind when he wrote that label. Near the label there is a single specimen, rather worn, I submit its dorsal and lateral view. Pinned under the specimen there is another label with the name
Madiza rufitarsis, but this too seems coming from nowhere. Another label pinned under the specimen says An Fenstern 9 84
#3
Gymnopa rufitarsis described by Meigen in 1838 (
System . Beschr . VII . 384) now considered a synonym of
Madiza glabra. Not sure why you drew a blank on
Systema Dipterorum
#4
Thanks Tony. Indeed I forgot to add 'Milichiidae'. None of the
rufitarsis species described by Meigen are Milichiidae, and, according to Systema Dipterorum, the valid name for
Gymnopa rufitarsis today is
Parydra (Parydra) coarctata Fallén, Ephydridae, that's why I was unable to associate it with
Mallochiella rufitarsis. On the Milichiidae site I see that a synonym of
Madiza glabra is
Madiza flavitarsis, and just this morning I was wondering if Bezzi simply wrote rufitarsis instead flavitarsis without checking.
#5
The
Systema Dipterorum suggestion that
Gymnopa rufitarsis Meigen 1838 is a synonym of
Parydra coarctata (Fallén) is an error. Mathis and Zatwarnicki (1995) list
Ephydra rufitarsis Macquart 1835 as a synonym of
P. coarctata, but make no mention of
Gymnopa rufitarsis Meigen anywhere in their
Catalog, or in later updates of the catalogue.
On the New Diptera Site,
Gymnopa rufitarsis Meigen is given as a synonym of
Madiza rufitarsis Mg., itself a synonym of
Madiza glabra. (See
https://portal.cy...3/synonymy )
Gymnopa is now regarded as a synonym of
Mosillus, an ephydrid that superficially looks rather like
Madiza, and would explain why Meigen thought his
rufitarsis was a
Gymnopa. I am quite certain that Bezzi was (correctly) thinking of Meigen’s
rufitarsis when he labelled the specimen.