Platypygus titanomedea Gharali & Evenhuis
Creators: name: Gharali, Babak
name: Evenhuis, Neal L.
name: Almeida, Jorge
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Bombyliidae
Platypygus
Platypygus titanomedea

description: Platypygus titanomedea Gharali & Evenhuis
(Figs. 20–22)
Platypygus titanomedea Gharali & Evenhuis, 2011: 27.
Material examined. Types. IRAN: 1 holotype male and 39 male, 40 female paratypes, Ghazvin province, Zereshk Pass, North of Ghazvin city, N36°28'85", E50°10'80", 1738 m, 24 June 2009, swept on Gypsophila bicolor, B. Gharali (TMUC). Non-types: JORDAN: 1 female, 10 km NNE Jerash, 20 April 2002, M. Snizek (N. Evenhuis). TURKEY: 1 male, 1 female, in copula, Van, Gevaş, 1868 m, 36°49'49.5"N, 43°03'52.8"E, 11 July 2005, J. Dils, J. Faes; 1 male, Hakkari, Súvarihaul Geçidi, 1750 m, 37°29'55.1"N, 43°21'53.1"E, 15 July 2005, J. Dils, J. Faes; 1 male, 1 female, Bitlis, Kutkuksu, 1780 m, 38°27'00.6"N, 42°21'35.5"E, 9 July 2005, J. Dils, J. Faes; 1 male, 1 female, Kayseri, Sariz, 1950 m, 38°28'23"N, 36°33'13"E, 27 July 2000, J. Dils, J. Faes; 1 male, 1 female, Içel, Gűzeloluk, 1366 m, 36°44'35.6"N, 34°08'10"E, 1 July, 2005, J. Dils, J. Faes; 2 males, Içel, Catak, 17 June 1999, J. Dils, J. Faes; 1 female, Karaman (Yelibel, Geç.), 1950 m, 36°49'51"N, 32°56'32"E, 20 July 2000, J. Dils, J. Faes (all in J. Dils).
Notes on types. There is no further information on the types since the original publication in Gharali et al. (2011).
Diagnostic features. Face yellow; frons yellow with long white hairs laterally (Fig. 20 j); about lower one-third of occiput yellow, remainder black with long white hairs (Figs. 20 a, b); postgena minutely extended posteriorly as blunt process; vertex black; scape and pedicel yellow (Fig. 20 h), remainder of antennal segments black; pronotum yellow with black mark dorsomedially; mesonotum yellow, with dense long white hairs, with three longitudinal black stripes dorsally (Fig. 20 e), black spot next to transverse suture (Fig. 20 f); lateral stripe extends from posterior margin of humeral calli to scutellum, median stripe extends from anterior margin of mesonotum to scutellum, lateral stripes thinly coalesce with median stripe in prescutellar area; humeral calli large, yellow; postalar calli yellow; scutellum yellow with triangular small thin black mark basomedially; crossvein r-m slightly beyond the middle of cell dm (Fig. 20 k).
Male genitalia (Fig. 21). In lateral view epandrium trapezoid, height subequal to greatest width, with two long processes posteroventrally (Fig. 21 b); cerci membranous, not evident, gonocoxites subovate, fused narrowly, medially with a pair of less sclerotized and clavate processes (Fig. 21 c); gonostyli clavate, stem long, deeply inserted in gonocoxites, apically much sclerotized, hollowed; epiphallus conical; aedeagal bulb large, ventrally with two small triangular processes basally; basal aedeagal apodeme subquadrate with forwardly oriented rectangular and narrower plate in lateral view (Fig. 21 e), length about 1.5 times that of lateral apodeme (Fig. 21 d); lateral aedeagal apodemes subrectangular, length 2.3 times greatest width•
Female genitalia (Fig. 22). Furca U-shaped, sclerotized, much sclerotized in lateral arms; with two sclerotized plates next to vaginal opening; common spermathecal duct very short, brown, sclerotized; lateral spermathecal ducts about two times width of median duct; without distinct sperm pump or valves; each spermathecal duct divided into two sections, a basal section as a striated, long and broad duct, shortly sclerotized proximally, widening gradually toward tip and end as a small bulb, and an apical section as a narrow and smooth duct, 1/6 width of basal duct, 0.4 times length of basal duct; basal part of median spermathecal duct much narrower than that of lateral ducts, without striation, twisted spirally in median section, gradually broadened apically, expanded as a small bulb at the end; spermathecal reservoir acorn-shaped with apically rounded cap, height of cap about threefourths that of basal part.
Distribution. Iran, Jordan (new record), Turkey (new record). This species was recently described from northern Iran but its distribution is surely wider because in some studies, specimens may have been erroneously identified as P. kurdorum. We can add southeastern Turkey and northern Jordan to the known distribution based on specimens examined in this study, the extended distribution of which implies that the species could also occur in neighboring Iran and possibly Armenia.
description: Published as part of Gharali, Babak, Evenhuis, Neal L. & Almeida, Jorge, 2013, World synopsis of described species of the genus Platypygus Loew (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae: Platypyginae), pp. 199-242 in Zootaxa 3745 (2) on page 231, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3745.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/248549