Laphria royalensis (Bromley) Original Description

Bromley, S. W. 1950. Records and descriptions of Asilidae in the collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (Diptera). Occasional Papers of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology No. 527, Pages 1-3.


A NEW Bombomima FROM MICHIGAN

In the fall of 1948 Dr. Curtis Sabrosky sent me some specimens of Bombomima from Isle Royale, Lake Superior, with the statement that he had been unable to determine the species by the use either of my keys or of Banks' key to Dasyllis (with which Bombomima was for years erroneously associated by many dipterists). Early the next year a series of the same species was sent me by the University of Michigan Museum of [p. 2] Zoology; some of these specimens had been determined as Dasyllis insignis by the late Professor James S. Hine. The species proved to be new and is described below.

Bombomima royalensis, new species

DIAGNOSIS.--Total length, 12 to 15 mm. Black; head and mesonotum with largely yellowish, brownish, or reddish pile; abdomen with yellow or orange hairs from the third tergite to the tip. Hairs at sides of first abdomiunal segment black. First and middle legs black-haired. beard yellow. Scutellars yellowish. Tuft of hair in front of wings black. Pile of mesonotum uniformly yellowish or reddish brown.

MALE.--Vestiture of head mostly yellow, the palpal hairs and lower mystax black. Thoracic vestiture mostly yellow or reddish yellow. Legs mostly black-haired; a few yellow hairs intermingled. Coxae with yellow hairs. Wings grayish; veins brownish gray. Scutellars pale. Abdominal tergites, from third on, yellow- or reddish-yellow-haired. Genitalia black with some pale hairs above and mostly black below. Male upper forceps with a distinct notch on the under side.

FEMALE.--Similar to male, but more inclined to have the scutellars darker, in some even black.

TYPES.--Holotype, male, Isle Royale in Lake Superior (Michigan), August 3-7, 1936 (C. Sabrosky), allotopotype, female with same data; both in United States National Museum. Paratopotypes, four males, three females, with same data as holotype, except collected by R. R. Dreisbach; in the Bromley, Driesbach, Steyskal, and U.M.M.Z. collections. Paratypes, one male, three females, data as follows: one female, Onota Township, Alger County, Michigan, July 28, 1916 (W. S. McAlpine), U.M.M.Z. collection; one female, Floodwood, Schoolcraft County, Michigan, July 10, 1915 (J. S. Rogers), U.M.M.Z. collection; one male, Naubinway, Mackinac County, Michigan, June 27, 1922 (S. Moore), U.M.M.Z. collection; one female, Bois Blanc Island, Straits of Mackinac, Michigan, June 18, 1935 (C. F. Walker), Bromley collection.

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The new species is close to B. insignis Banks, but is distinguished by a lack of the band of thick red pile on the posterior portion of the mesonotum, which in insignis contrasts markedly with the yellow pile on the anterior part. The scutellars are pale in royalensis, whereas in the female of insignis they are usually black.

In comparing B. royalensis with a paratype of B. posticata var. scutellaris Bromley, I find that in royalensis the pale hairs on the first four legs are much fewer, and the third tergite of the female has most of the pile yellowish, whereas in posticata there is a patch of black hair in the center of this tergite. The scutellars are black in typical posticata.

In males of B. royalensis the upper forceps are distinctly notched in a way not exhibited in B. posticata. Such a notch occurs in B. insignis, but the ventral plate is decidedly shorter.





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