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Notiphila bicolor
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Subspecies
Original
description
Synonyms
Notiphila bicolor
Waltl, 1837 (nec Meigen, 1838)
Notiphila littorea Waltl, 1837 (unclear synonym)
Hydrellia litorella Meigen, 1838 (unclear
synonym)
Note: the species "hiding" behind these names
cannot currently be
identified with any known
species of Ephydridae. The original description
of all of these names
is insufficient and the
whereabouts of the type specimen(s) are not
known. It is very likely
that these names are synonyms of other
Ephydridae (not necessarily a
Notiphila). Brake and Bächli (2008) list
Meigen´s Hydrellia
litorella even as a nomen dubium in the genus
Drosophila, although I
have doubts that a specialist like Meigen
has misidentified a
Drosophilidae as an Ephydridae (although it has
happened to
him (e.g. Notiphila flaveola)). Thus, it is also
virtually
impossible to synonymize them as I do here, but
I will give my reasons
for doing so below:
Notiphila bicolor and Notiphila littorea were
described by Waltl on the
same page. Waltl first describes N. bicolor, and
then for N. littorea
only writes: "Entirely identical to the former
species, but the abdomen
is brown-gray and the wings are without spots".
Since the types are
lost the identity of these names will probably
remain a mystery
forever. But since Waltl himself regards the two
species as fully
identical (except for details that might be
individual variation or sex
differences), I think it is legitimate to
synonymize these names
here.
Meigen has obviously been aware of the specimens
of Waltl and probably
was also aware of Waltls intention to name them,
because Meigen
published several identical (or similar) names
with almost identical
descriptions just one year after Waltl and for
all of these names he did not give his usual
"from the collection
of...", but just stated "from Bavaria", thus
obviously referring to
Waltl´s specimens that all were collected
around Passau (Bavaria). It was common practice
at the time to circulate manuscripts to fellow
specialists before publication, thus I think
Meigen had received a copy of Waltl´s
manuscript. It is
unclear to me, why Meigen very obviously copied
the names and
descriptions, but
did not give credit to Waltl as the author, or
at least stated that he
saw the
specimens in Waltl´s collection.
Irrespective of Meigen´s
reasons, the name Hydrellia litorella is
obviously similar to
Waltl´s littorea and, intriguingly,
Meigen´s description of
litorella reads like a fusion of the
descriptions of Waltl´s
bicolor and littorea. Thus, I think the name can
be synonymized with
the two names coined by Waltl.
Identification
Distribution
Only known from the original description: near
Passau (Bayern).
Biology
This page has been
updated on December 17, 2011
This site is online since May 31, 2005
Copyright © by Nikola-Michael Prpic. All
rights reserved.
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