Timia Wiedemann
Creators: name: Morgulis, E.
name: Freidberg, A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Ulidiidae
Timia

description: Timia Wiedemann
Timia Wiedemann, 1824:15; Type species Timia erythrocephala Pallas, 1824: 15 (by monotypy).
Redescription. Head (Figs. 9–13, 15–19): Structure: mostly higher than long, sometimes longer than high. Frons deeply pitted, granular, shagreened or smooth. First flagellomere round to slightly oval. Color and vestiture: head ranging from black to yellow, often partially silvery or white microtrichose, rarely non-microtrichose. Antennal groove silvery-white microtrichose. First flagellomere brown to black or orange to yellow, often with golden or silvery microtrichia. Palpus brown to black, sometimes reddish or yellowish, mostly with slight silvery microtrichia. Setae and setulae: vibrissal angle mostly with short black setulae. Palpus and labellum with long setulae; setulae usually black or white, sometimes mixed black and white.
Thorax (Figs. 39–41): Color and vestiture: mostly black, reddish-black or reddish-brown, sometimes orange to yellow; notopleuron, postpronotal lobe and anatergite usually silvery-white microtrichose, remaining parts often with white, gray or silvery microtrichia; thorax rarely non-microtrichose. Setae and setulae: all setae and setulae black; 1–2 supra-alar, 1 intra-alar, 1 postalar, 1 dorsocentral, 0–1 acrostichal, 2-3 pairs of scutellar, 0–6 anepisternal and 1–6 katepisternal setae present.
Legs (Figs. 42, 43): Mostly unmodified except in T. hirtipes group in which male foreleg with tibia bearing spines and flattened tarsus.
Wing (Figs. 30–32): hyaline to infuscate; pattern, if present, consists of apical spot and one or combination of darkened cells (basal costal, costal, subcostal, cubital).
Abdomen: Mostly black, reddish-black or reddish-brown, with or without microtrichia (in all Israeli species syntergite 1+2 white microtrichose in basal half) and setulose.
Male terminalia (Figs. 48–54, 63, 64, 71–77): Lateral surstylus apically narrowed and medioapically bent; medial surstylus setulose, sometimes spinulose. Phallus with pair of sclerotized taeniae extending from base to middle of phallus, and another pair of similar taeniae beginning at middle, almost reaching apex; apical half of phallus bears one to three long membranous caecum appendices.
Female terminalia (Figs. 88–91): Cercal unit oval to triangular, apically rounded to pointed.
Distribution. Palearctic and Oriental.
Comments. As currently accepted Timia contains 59 species. Based on our examination of about half of the species, it appears that Timia is a paraphyletic group with regard to Ulidia. Some species (T. melanorrhina and allied species) may actually belong to Ulidia, whilst other species (i.e., T. canaliculata group sensu Zaitzev 1982) may belong to a separate (perhaps even new) genus. As for the remaining species of Timia, these may comprise a good monophyletic group (Timia).
Loew (1866) erected the genus Empyelocera within Ortalidae (= Ulidiidae). Hennig (1940) designated E. melanorrhina Loew as type species of Empyelocera, but lowered Empyelocera to subgenus of Timia. He distinguished between the two resulting subgenera (Empyelocera and Timia s. str.) by the width of the parafacial, which is narrower than or about as wide as the 1st flagellomere and narrower than antennal groove in Empyelocera, whereas it is wider than 1st flagellomere and antennal groove in Timia s. str. Kameneva (2000) and Galinskaya (2011b) accepted this subgeneric classification, whereas Zaitzev (1982) noted that this distinction between these two subgenera is problematic. Based on the examination of the local species as well as many exotic species of Timia we generally agree with Zaitzev’s opinion that the current subgeneric classification of Timia is rather arbitrary and not natural and should be abandoned. However, we refrain from doing so here since the required examination of all or most Timia species is beyond the scope of this work.
description: Published as part of Morgulis, E. & Freidberg, A., 2014, The Ulidiini (Diptera: Tephritoidea: Ulidiidae) of Israel, with a key to the world species of Ulidia and description of five new species, pp. 201-247 in Zootaxa 3780 (2) on pages 212-213, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3780.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/228269