Ommatius (Pygommatius) Scarbrough & Marascia 2003, new subgenus
Creators: name: Scarbrough, Aubrey G.
name: Marascia, Claudio G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Asilidae
Ommatius

description: Pygommatius, new subgenus
Type species: Ommatius neglectus Bromley, 1936, by present designation.
Diagnosis. As Ommatius Wiedemann (Hull 1962) except as in the following. MALE. Head: Face evenly sloped, usually with sparse, short setae; mystax with long setae [sometimes abundant] and sparse long, usually white or yellow, pencil­like bristles, each with apex near or just beyond proboscis distally. Palpus and frons usually yellow setose; frontal setae about as long as scape. Proboscis black, narrow ventral base often yellow to brownyellow. Antenna and ocellar tubercle black setose. Ocellar tubercle usually with two long setae, length shorter than pedicel and scape combined. Occiput with dorsal postocular bristles long, thin, and proclinate. Thorax: Mesonotum usually with sparse short setae and thin tomentum, ground color black, sometimes subshiny, posterior corners often reddish yellow to yellow. Two marginal scutellar bristles present; preapical groove absent. Ground color of pleuron usually black, often partly brown­yellow to yellow posteriorly. Anepimeral bristle absent, one seta sometimes present. Wing: Mostly bare, dense microtrichia usually present only on apical fourth to half and posterior two­thirds, rarely entirely dense microtrichose; cell r 4 narrow, base beyond apex of cell d; cell m 1 wide beyond narrow base, usually constricted preapically; vein M 1 arched basally. Leg: Middle and hind femora with anteroventral setae and sparse, irregularly spaced bristles, bristles sometimes unusually long. Male: Abdominal sternites 3­5, rarely 2 and 6, usually with several, prominent, erect bristles; O. lulua. with only dense, long, wavy setae present. Terminalia (Figs. 54­58, 62­ 66, 70­74, 78­82, 86­90, 94­98, 102­106, 110­114, 118­122, 126­130, 134­138, 139­143, 147­151, 152­156, 160­164, 165­169, 173­177, 181­185, 189­193, 197­201, 205­209, 210­ 214, 218­222, 226­230): As long as apical 3 abdominal segments combined. Cercus 3 or more times as long as wide. Epandrium with 2­3 well­defined branches, each separated by a deep cleft or sinus; dorsal branch when present short, extending to or just beyond base of cercus, sometimes inconspicuous unless specimen dissected; median and ventral branches usually parallel, extending to or beyond cercus apex; median branch most prominent, usually styliform, sometimes phylloid. Gonostylus usually minute. Aedeagal sheath dorsally thin, membranous, with 2 pairs of long apodemes posteriorly; thin, ligament­like dorsal pair and thicker, more prominent, darkly sclerotized, ventral pair; aedeagal apodeme unusually long, 6­7 times as long as aedeagal sheath and distiphallus combined; distiphallus usually short, thin, and sigmoid, often flattened dorsoventrally and expanded apically. Hypandrium variable, often with a tuft or transverse rows of bristles; bristles often fused basally, wavy, curved, and/or flattened. FEMALE. Legs and abdomen normal, without unusually stout or dense vestiture. Terminalia (Figs. 59­61, 67­69, 75­77, 83­85, 91­93, 99­101, 107­109, 115­117, 123­125, 131­133, 144­146, 157­159, 170­172, 178­180, 186­ 188, 194­196, 202­204, 215­217, 223­225): Tergite 9 short, narrow, strap­like medially, wider laterally, rarely as long as cercus. Spermathecae elongate, usually carrot­shaped with wide base tapering to narrow apex, usually twice reflected; spermathecal duct usually inserted prebasally and laterally. Genital fork simple, basal half membranous, arms apically sclerotized.
Remarks. The combined characters of the pencil­like bristles of the face, the unique terminalia and the pattern of vestiture on 2­3 abdominal sternites of the male readily distinguish Pygommatius from the subgenus Metommatius and all other species of Ommatius. Characters that further distinguish the male include the terminalia being as long as or longer than the apical 3 abdominal segments and the absence of a stout anepimeral bristle and a uniform row of evenly spaced anteroventral bristles on the hind femur. In contrast, the other Afrotropical species of Ommatius possess a prominent anepimeral bristle, a row of several stout anteroventral bristles below the hind femur, and shorter terminalia. Furthermore, the latter species have a single ‘blade­like’ epandrium, without multiple branches separated by deep lobes and a prominent gonostylus. Among the New World fauna, several species, such as O. megacephalus (Bellardi) (1861), O. subtus Scarbrough and Poinar (1992), and O. lucidatus Scarbrough (1997), possess a single anepimeral seta, and the males have several erect bristles on one to three abdominal sternites. However, their terminalia are simple, without the unique features described herein, and the vestiture of the face and legs, and wing venation are also significantly different.
Etymology. Greek, Pygommatius, combination from pyga and the genus Ommatius, referring to the unusual digitate characters of the epandrium.
Distribution. Seashore, savanna, and riverine vegetation and forests, ranging from sea level to 2000 meters in elevation, in arid to humid tropical regions.
description: Published as part of Scarbrough, Aubrey G. & Marascia, Claudio G., 2003, Revision of Ommatius Wiedemann (Diptera: Asilidae). IV. Pygommatius subgen. nov. with twenty-five Afrotropical species, pp. 1-94 in Zootaxa 228 (1) on pages 6-8, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.228.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5019043