Pipunculus campestris Latreille 1802
Creators: name: Kehlmaier, Christian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Pipunculidae
Pipunculus
Pipunculus campestris

description: Pipunculus campestris Latreille, 1802
(Figs 9–15, 19, 67, 70–71, 78, 83, 87, 89 & 91)
Pipunculus ater Meigen, 1824: 23. Syn.: Verrall (1901: 102). Pipunculus campestris Latreille, 1802: 463.
Pipunculus dentipes Meigen, 1838: 146. Syn.: Verrall (1901: 102). Pipunculus dispar Zetterstedt, 1838: 579. Syn.: Zetterstedt (1844: 953). Pipunculus spinipes Meigen, 1830: 359. syn. nov.
Pipunculus thomsoni Becker, 1897: 67. syn. nov.
Pipunculus campestris ssp. himalayensis Brunetti, 1912: 487.
Material: France, Paris region: 1Ψ (lectotype P. campestris), Latreille (MNHN); Poland, Silesia, Legnica, no. 7985: 1Ψ (lectotype P. thomsoni), 15.V., Becker (MNHU); Sweden, Lapland, Lycksele: 1ɗ (lectotype P. d i s - par), Zetterstedt (ZML); no. 122240: 1ɗ (lectotype P. s p i n i p e s) 1ɗ 1Ψ (paralectotypes P. spinipes), (MNHN); no. 122940: 1ɗ (lectotype P. a t e r), (MNHN); no. 122340: 1ɗ (lectotype P. d e n t i p e s) 1Ψ (paralectotype P. dentipes), (MNHN); Finland, N, Sibbo, Nevas, 6687:412: 5ɗ, 28.VII.–4.VIII.1986, Albrecht; Germany, Bremen, Rekum Weser: 1ɗ 1Ψ, 10.V.2001, Kehlmaier (PCCK); Germany, Bremen, Stadtwald: 2ɗ 2Ψ, 21.VIII.2001, Kehlmaier (PCCK).
Male: Body length: 3.8–4.5mm. Wing length: 4.1–4.8mm. Flagellum dark brown. Frons brown pollinose. Occiput grey pollinose in lower, brown pollinose in upper half. Eyes meeting for about length of frons or slightly less (15–16 facets). Postpronotal lobe dark brown. Prescutum and scutum brown pollinose. Anepimeron predominantly or entirely brown pollinose, katepisternum in upper half and anepisternum narrowly along posterior margin with brown pollinosity, otherwise pleura weakly grey pollinose. Scutellum with apical fringe of about 12 evenly spaced hairs. Subscutellum greyish-brown pollinose (Fig. 87), the brown pollinosity can be reduced to upper lateral corners. LTC about 1.0–1.5 times LFC. Trochanter dark brown. Femur with apex narrowly yellow. Hind femur weakly concave in ventrobasal half (not distinctly hollowed). Tibia yellowish in basal quarter to third. Tarsi brownish with distitarsi darkest. Pulvilli of front legs slightly shorter than distitarsi. Tergites 1–2 (or 1–3) entirely brown pollinosity, tergites (3–)4 brown pollinose except narrowly along posterior margin shining, tergite 5 brown pollinose in anterior half to three quarters, otherwise shining. Membranous area key-hole shaped, a small but distinct keel can be present. Shape of surstyli variable (Figs 9– 15), can be identical to P. tenuirostris. Only two ejaculatory ducts distinctly sclerotized.
Female: Body length: 3.7–4.7mm. Wing length: 4.8–5.4mm. Flagellum dark brown to yellowish-brown. Frons grey pollinose, shining centrally in upper half to very narrowly before ocellar triangle. Postpronotal lobe dark brown to yellowish. Prescutum and scutum grey pollinose in anterior two fifth, along lateral margins and in posterior one fifth, otherwise brown pollinose. Pleura and subscutellum grey pollinose. LTC about 1.0– 1.2 times LFC. Trochanter yellowish. Femur with base and apex narrowly yellow. Tibia yellow, darkened ventromedially. Tarsi brownish with distitarsi darkened. Pulvilli of front legs 1.5 times length of distitarsi. All tergites laterally grey pollinose. Tergite 1 anterodorsally brown, otherwise grey pollinose. Tergite 2 with anterodorsal quarter grey pollinose (some weak brown pollinosity may be present). Tergite 3–6 shining dorsally. Ovipositor in lateral view with a rather short, weakly curved piercer (can occ. be shorter than figured here), ventrally without a distinct angled step (Fig. 68)—the ovipositor’s base of the lectotype of P. thomsoni is slightly squashed and hence somewhat deformed (Fig. 67). Rarely, the ovipositor may be as illustrated in Figs 70–71.
Annotations: In 1802, Latreille established the genus Pipunculus, giving his own taxon P. campestris as an example and hence making it the type species. Three years later, Latreille (1805) then provides a slightly more detailed description of P. campestris, stating that he found the specimens in the surroundings of Paris. Latreille’s collection has been situated at MNHN in Paris for a long time but it seems as if no subsequent pipunculid worker was able to study his types, as these specimens were considered lost until recently (De Meyer 1996; Skevington & Marshall 1998). When Jeff Skevington visited the museum in 1998, the late Loїc Matile, then curator of the Diptera section, “ …knew exactly where they were ” (Skevington in litt.). Matile’s opinion is followed here. The type series remaining consists of a female Jassidophaga villosa, a female Eudorylas obliquus and a female hereby designated as lectotype of Pipunculus campestris with its head and right wing missing. The lectotype has a small rectangular white label with a hand written “L.” (or “7”). The concept of P. c a m p e s t r i s presented here is in accordance with the species’ limit outlined in Skevington & Marshall (1998). It has to be admitted that the separation of female P. campestris and P. omissinervis is not feasible at present, as no clear morphological features have been found so far. However, P. omissinervis is a taxon with a predominantly boreo-alpine distribution in Europe (see below) and therefore unlikely to be present in the Paris region.
The original type series of Pipunculus ater was made up of several male specimens (exact number unknown). Today, only a single male labelled “ 122940 ” remains at MNHN which is designated lectotype. The specimen was studied (the shape of the surstyli are presented in Fig. 9) and its synonymy with P. campestris, first proposed by Verrall (1901), is shared.
Pipunculus dentipes was described from both sexes. At MNHN in Paris, one male and one female are present in Meigen’s collection, both labelled “ 122340 ”. The genitalia of the male specimen, designated lectotype herewith, could be studied (Fig. 10). The synonymy with P. campestris, as proposed by Verrall (1901), can be confirmed.
Of Pipunculus dispar, originally described from a couple taken in copula and placed on one pin, only the male remains at MNHN, the female being gone except for the left fore leg which has long pulvilli. Collin (1956) designated the male specimen as lectotype. Its genitalia were studied and the surstyli figured (Fig. 11). The synonymy with P. c a m p e s t r i s, proposed by Zetterstedt (1844: 953) [as P. a t e r], can be affirmed.
Also at MNHN, 2 males and 1 female were found in the Meigen collection under Pipunculus spinipes, which was originally described from both sexes. The male labelled as “ Type ” by Becker in 1900 is hereby designated as lectotype and was found to be conspecific with P. campestris. Its surstyli are figured (Fig. 12). The second male has its abdomen smothered in glue on a square piece of cardboard. It could not be dissected but from the shape of the membranous area and the pollinosity of the prescutum, scutum, pleurae and postscutellum it is also regarded to belong to P. campestris, just as the single female paralectotype is. Although Meigen (1830) mentions a shining abdomen in the original description, as pointed out by Collin (1956) in the past, the specimens encountered at MNHN are regarded as the only remaining types and Collin’s (1956) objections to such a procedure are rejected.
Becker (1897) delimits males and females of Pipunculus thomsoni as a sibling species from what he regarded as Cephalops pratorum Fallén, 1816 based on an unknown number of specimens from Scandinavia, Silesia and Bohemia. Note, that Becker (1897) is figuring the lateral shape of the ovipositor of P. a t e r (his Fig. 20), P. campestris (his Fig. 11) and P. thomsoni (his Fig. 18). Whereas his perception of the female terminalia of P. a t e r and P. campestris erroneously consists of a long and rather straight piercer, P. thomsoni exhibits the typical campestris -like ovipositor. At MNHU in Berlin, seven males and five females from Becker’s collection are placed under P. thomsoni. One of the males has a red type label and a white label with Thomsoni in Becker’s handwriting attached to the needle. This specimen was collected in “Dalmatien, 16/5, 22429”, which nowadays is part of Croatia, and hence cannot be part of the type series (Scandinavia, Silesia, Bohemia). Of the other specimens, two females and four males could be attributed to the regions indicated for the type series with certainty: 1ɗ, “Karislojo, 43953”: Finland, Regio Aboensis; 1ɗ, “Oderwald, 8/6, 1151”: Poland, Silesia, Wojszyn; 1ɗ, “Oderwald, 8/7, 1154”: Poland, Silesia, Wojszyn; 1ɗ, “Buschhäuser, 3/7, 28830”: Czech Republic, Bohemia, Lesní Domky; 1Ψ, “Liegnitz, 15/5, 7986”: Poland, Silesia, Legnica; 1Ψ, “Brechelshof, 17/5, 39582”: Poland, Silesia, Żarek, Brachów. Whereas all four males were identified as P. tenuirostris, the female specimens belong to P. campestris. The female collected in Becker’s hometown Liegnitz/Legnica corresponds with his drawing of P. t h o m s o n i and also has a label stating “ Thomsoni ” in Becker’s hand attached to it. This specimen is therefore designated as lectotype and the name considered a junior synonym of P. campestris (syn. nov.). The possibility that the specimen is actually a female P. omissinervis is disregarded as the latter has a predominantly boreo-alpine distribution in Europe (see below).
Brunetti (1912) characterises his subspecies himalayensis from two males originally deposited at the Indian Museum (nowadays Zoological Survey of India in Calcutta), which have to be considered lost today (Kapoor et al. 1987; De Meyer 1996). Judging from the description, it is most likely that himalayensis should represent a distinct taxon, the occiput being dark grey and the abdominal tergites being greyish towards the sides.
Female specimens of P. campestris can presently not be differentiated from female P. omissinervis. In the identification key presented here, it was decided to regard all specimens with a campestris -like ovipositor as P. campestris agg. unless obvious morphological features for separating the two are revealed. However, P. omissinervis exhibits a predominantly boreo-alpine distributional pattern in Europe (also see below), compared to the widely distributed P. campestris. In the eastern Palaearctic region, female P. campestris is cited from Japan in Morakote & Hirashima (1990), whereas Kuznetzov (1990) records a single female for Mongolia. As long as no male specimens are collected in these countries to corroborate the citings, it is therefore proposed to regard them as P. campestris agg. instead.
description: Published as part of Kehlmaier, Christian, 2008, Finnish Pipunculidae (Diptera) studies Part I: Taxonomic notes on Cephalops Fallén, 1810, Pipunculus Latreille, 1802 and Tomosvaryella Aczél, 1939, pp. 1-42 in Zootaxa 1672 on pages 6-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.180216