Panzeria melanopyga Parafacial
Creators: name: Shima, Hiroshi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tachinidae
Panzeria
Panzeria melanopyga

description: Panzeria melanopyga (Zimin)   
(Figs 47–48)  
 Meriania puparum melanopyga Zimin, 1960: 730. Holotype male (IZRAS, not examined). Type locality: Ussuri, Russia.   
 Meriania melanopyga: Mesnil (1972a: 1043, Palearctic tachinids).   
 Ernestia melanopyga: Herting (1984: 102, Palearctic catalog).   
 Panzeria puparum melanopyga: Ziegler & Shima (1996: 418, Ussuri tachinids); Zeegers (2017: 22, Khabarovsk tachinids). Panzeria melanopyga: O’Hara et al. (2009: 149, Chinese catalog).   
 Diagnosis. Large dark species that resembles Panzeria puparum (Fabricius, 1794), but with dark hairs on the parafacial, lower katepisternum and abdominal venter (Zimin 1960). Apical scutellar setae fine, crossed; eye with black hairs; parafacial with dark hairs at least on upper 3/4; palpus brown; 2 katepisternal setae; 3rd and 4th abdominal tergites each with 2 median discal setae.   
 Description of terminalia. Male: 6th abdominal tergite narrowly separated from the syntergosternite 7+8, with a row of long and strong setae posteriorly. Female: 6th tergite short, separated medially into two hemitergites, with a row of long and strong setae on posterior margin; 6th spiracle on anteroventral portion of 6th tergite and 7th spiracle on membrane just posterior to median portion of 6th tergite; 6th sternite about 2 times as long as 6th tergite, with several short hairs on posterior portion and a row of long and strong setae on posterior margin: 7th tergite separated medially into 2 hemitergites, weakly narrowed above in lateral view, with a row of rather short and fine setae on posterior margin; 7th sternite slightly longer than 6th sternite, with several rather strong setae on posterior 1/2, nearly quadrate in ventral view; 8th tergite reduced to short and small hemitergites, without hairs; 8th sternite small, nearly quadrate in form, with several hairs; epiproct absent, replaced by a pair of rather strong setae.   
 Material examined from Japan (all in BLKU). Honshu: 7 females, Aomori Pref., Hirosaki City, Kawaratai, Nishimeya and Zatoishi; 63 males, 25 females, Saitama Pref., Hidaka, Kodama, Konan, Minano, Mt. Buko, Nagatoro, Ogano, Ogawa, Ogose, Otaki, Ranzan, Tokigawa, Tokorozawa, Tsurugashima, Yokose and Yorii; 4 males, 1 female, Tochigi Pref., Nasushiobara; 3 males, Tokyo, Mt. Takao; 9 males, 3 females, Yamanashi Pref., Daibosatsu, Kanayama and Kyusuikei; 2 females, Nagano Pref., Shimashima. Shikoku: 2 males, 5 females, Ehime Pref., Kumakogen and Yuranomori. Kyushu: 1 male, Nagasaki Pref., Tsushima Is.; 8 males, 2 females, Fukuoka Pref., Imajuku, Mt. Aburayama, Mt. Shioji and Yamadaryokuchi; 21 males, 2 females, Oita Pref., Mts. Kuju, Chojabaru; 14 males, 1 female, Kagoshima City, Shiroyama.   
 Distribution. Japan (Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu); China (Xizang), Mongolia, Russia (Siberia, Far East).   
 Remarks. This species occurs in the spring, from March to May, in Japan. I have not seen specimens of this species from Hokkaido.   
 Panzeria melanopyga was originally described as a subspecies of the European species P. puparum, as M. p. melanopyga, from northern Mongolia and Ussuri (Zimin 1960: 730). Mesnil (1972a: 1043) treated it as a distinct species from P. puparum based on specimens from Japan, and mentioned P. puparum as also occurring in Japan. Mesnil & Pschorn-Walcher (1968) already listed P. puparum from Japan, probably based on the same specimens that Mesnil (1972a: 1044) later identified as melanopyga. Herting (1984) treated melanopyga as a distinct species.   
 I have seen some specimens with pale yellow hairs on the parafacial and apically pale brownish or pale yellowish hairs on the thorax and abdominal venter, appearing to correspond to P. puparum. I now consider these Japanese specimens as aberrant specimens of P. melanopyga, as they have almost the same male terminalia as those of P. melanopyga. I have not examined European specimens of P. puparum, and I here follow Mesnil (1972a) for the identity of P. melanopyga.
description: Published as part of Shima, Hiroshi, 2020, The genus Panzeria Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Japan, pp. 541-575 in Zootaxa 4816 (4) on pages 561-562, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4816.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/3954659