|
Hydrellia nigriceps
|
|
Subspecies
Original description
Synonyms
Notiphila nigriceps Meigen, 1830
Hydrellia nigriceps (Meigen, 1830)
Notiphila
affinis
Waltl,
1837 (unclear synonym)
Hydrellia affinis (Waltl, 1837)
Hydrellia affinis Meigen, 1838 (unclear synonym)
Waltl described Notiphila affinis with the words: "Gleicht der Not.
griseola, aber der Kopf ist ganz schwarz" (translation: Identical to
Not. griseola, but the head is completely black). However, Meigen seems
to have been aware of Waltl´s specimens and Waltl´s
intention to
describe them and name them Notiphila affinis, but he seems to have
been unaware of the fact that Waltl had already published the name one
year earlier. This might be the reason why Meigen describes a Hydrellia
affinis with the words: "Grünlichgrau; Kopf und Beine schwarz.
Unterscheidet sich von H. nigriceps durch einen ganz schwarzen Kopf und
schwarze Beine. Schwinger gelbweiß. Flügel wasserklar"
(translation: Greenish gray; head and legs black. Differs from H.
nigriceps by a completely black head and black legs. Halteres
yellow-white. Wings transparent). An additional piece of evidence that
Meigen was referring to Waltl´s specimens is that he gives
"Baiern" as distribution. This means "Bavaria" and obviously refers to
Waltl´s work who was exclusively describing specimens from
Bavaria. Thus, this species has been described twice with the same name
and
very similar original descriptions. Both extremely short descriptions and the
lost types make it impossible to identify this species. However, Meigen
recognized similarities between H. nigriceps (described by him eight
years earlier) and the new species. He tries to distinguish them, but a
comparison of his earlier description of H. nigriceps is very similar
to his later description of H. affinis: (translated original
description of the nominal Notiphila nigriceps): "Dark metallic green,
lower face and legs black, metatarsus yellow". Meigen likely did not
have any specimens before him and was only describing this species from
his memory of Waltl´s specimens. Thus, the alleged differences
between Waltl´s specimens and the nominal Notiphila nigriceps
might not be real after all. Because the affinis taxon cannot be
identified from the original description and no types seem to have
survived, this name will permanently remain a nomen dubium. However,
based on the above discussion I think that it is possible that the
affinis taxon is identical to the nominal Notiphila nigriceps and I
therefore include it in its synonymy.
The present taxon is a species dubia (see also Stuke (2011)). It is
probably a synonym of another Hydrellia species.
Identification
Currently, the species cannot be identified with the available
literature. The species is therefore regarded as doubtful (e.g. Stuke
2011). More research on the species of Hydrellia is necessary to
establish the number of valid species in this genus.
Distribution
Biology
This page has been
updated on June 19, 2011
This site is online since May 31, 2005
Copyright © by Nikola-Michael Prpic. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
