Mallota hircus Meyer, Goergen, Midgley & Jordaens, 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Meyer, Marc De
name: Goergen, Georg
name: Midgley, John
name: Jordaens, Kurt
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Mallota
Mallota hircus

description: Mallota hircus sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: C649A2B0-F563-4815-8091-74EE8319B848
Figs 6, 16, 30, 42, 52
Differential diagnosis
This species belongs to a group differentiated from other Afrotropical species of Mallota by the distinctly long pilose eyes, and dichoptic eyes in both sexes. It can be differentiated from all three other species in this group by the shorter black pilosity of the ocellar triangle. It differs furthermore from M. dasyops and M. glabra sp. nov. by the presence of a tuft of long pile on the clypeus. It can be differentiated from M. aenigma by the strongly thickened metafemur (only moderately in M. aenigma). In the female the frontal pilosity is distinctly shorter in M. hircus compared to M. aenigma. It is the only species in Mallota with wing cell r 1 sometimes closed. If the latter, then a petiole is either absent, or very short and unlike what is seen in Eristalis.
Etymology
The Latin word ‘ hircus ’ stands for a ‘billy-goat’ and is a reference to the hair or tuft of hairs sticking out from the clypeus (allusion to a goatee). The specific epithet should be treated as a noun in apposition.
Type material
Holotype
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC CONGO • ♂; Stanleyville [= Kisangani]; Mar. 1915; Lang and Chapin leg.; RMCA, RMCA ENT 000037958.
Paratypes
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC CONGO • 1 ♂; same data as for holotype; RMCA, RMCA ENT 000037959 • 1 ♀; same data as for holotype; Apr. 1915; RMCA, RMCA ENT 000037957 • 1 ♂; same data as for holotype; AMNH • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; same data as for holotype; 10 Apr. 1915; (one with ID label M. pallidibasis); AMNH.
Description
Body length: 13.0– 15.5 mm. Wing length: 10.2–11.0 mm.
Male
HEAD (Fig. 23). Eye with short to medium long whitish pile; narrowly dichoptic, separated by distance of at most equal to half the width of ocellus of ocellar triangle, ommatidia equal in size. Frons weakly protruding, in lateral view at most equal to facial tubercle, ground colour black, narrowly yellow along ventral margin; predominantly shining, only along eye margins more weakly pale brown pollinosity; with medium long pale brown pile. Ocellar triangle black; short to medium long black pilose. Face ground colour black, sometimes sublateral band from eye margin to oral margin more pale brown; with whitish pollinosity, facial tubercle and medial part ventral of tubercle non-pollinose; with dispersed medium long yellow pile along dorsolateral margins, otherwise bare; facial tubercle weakly pronounced. Clypeus with small tuft of long whitish pile or single long hair. Antennal segments black-brown; arista bare, brown; postpedicel longer than wide.
THORAX (Fig. 6). Scutum subshining black; with brown pollinosity, with medium long pale brown pile; along anterior and posterior margin with more greyish pollinosity and pale yellow pile. Scutellum yellow-brown, paler than scutum; with long pale yellow pile; anteromedially with distinct black pile. Pleura ground colour black; posterior anepisternum, katepisternum and anterior anepimeron with long pale brown pile, otherwise bare.
LEGS. Femora mainly black-brown, anteriorly more orange-brown; with short to long dense pale yellow pile except ventrally where short black pile. Metafemur (Fig. 30) greatly thickened, in anterior view medial part about three times as broad as apex; medioventral part with very short pile. Pro- and mesotibia predominantly black; with short pale yellow pile; metatibia curved with apex not pointed, entirely dark brown; with short predominantly black pile, few pale yellow hairs. Tarsal segments orange-red; with short black pile.
WING (Fig. 42). Largely hyaline; most areas microtrichose. Stigmal cross-vein present between distal end of vein Sc and middle of vein R 1. Sometimes cell r 1 closed. Vein R 4+5 sinuate, without appendix.
ABDOMEN (Fig. 52). Mainly shining black; tergum 1 pale orange ground colour; white pollinose; with long white pile. Tergum 2 yellow-orange, anteromedially with triangular black macula, posterior fourth black-brown coloured, sometimes dark parts more extensive and yellow-orange fascia interrupted in middle; predominantly short whitish pile except along posterior part where black; tergum 3 along anterior margin broadly and posteriorly narrowly orange-brown; grey pollinose narrowly along anterior margin; with short whitish pile except in posterior fourth where black; tergum 4 predominantly black, posteriorly with narrow yellowish margin; with mixed black and whitish pile. Sterna pale yellow to red-brown, posteriorly sometimes darker; with very long, dispersed whitish pile.
Female
As male except frons subshining black dorsally of antennae, along eye margins with distinct whitish pollinosity, brown-black anterior of ocellar triangle over entire width; with intermixed short whitish and black pile (Fig. 16), dorsally predominantly black; ocellar triangle short black pilose.
Distribution
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Comments
A series of specimens, collected during the Lang-Chapin Expedition to the Democratic Republic of Congo, was initially identified by Curran (1927) as Mallota pallidibasis (Bigot, 1891), and later on as Mallota extrema (Curran 1939b). However, comparison with the holotype of M. extrema has shown that they do not belong to this species. The whereabouts of the type of M. pallidibasis are unknown but this species is considered to belong to Eristalis currently. Although Bigot (1891) makes reference to a swollen metafemur in pallidibasis, he also indicates that the eyes are barely villose or tomentose (“oculi sparce tomentosis” and “les yeux à peine villosules”), which seems to refer to the dense short pilosity one observes in some Eristalis species and does not seem to correspond with the long dispersed pile observed in the type series of specimens. No DNA barcodes were obtained.
description: Published as part of Meyer, Marc De, Goergen, Georg, Midgley, John & Jordaens, Kurt, 2024, On the identity of the Afrotropical species of Mallota Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae), pp. 242-290 in European Journal of Taxonomy 958 (1) on pages 263-265, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2024.958.2675, http://zenodo.org/record/13914492