A new genus for Painter amp; Painter's Villa "celer"-group in the New World(Diptera: Bombyliidae).

Abstract

The bee fly genus Hemipenthes Loew in the New World reflects a heterogeneous assemblage of species. Study of species attributed to Painter Painter's 1962 Villa "celer" group (the species were later transferred to Hemipenthes) from the southern United States, and Central and South America shows a suite of characters that separate it from Hemipenthes s. str. and it is here described as the new genus Ins Evenhuis, n. gen. with its type species Anthrax ignea Macquart. Eight described species are here transferred to Ins: Ins celeris (Wiedemann, 1828), n. comb., Ins constituta (Walker, 1852), n. comb.; Ins curta (Loew, 1869), n. comb., Ins ignea (Macquart, 1846), n. comb.; Ins leucocephala (Wulp, 1886), n. comb., Ins martinorum (Painter, 1962), n. comb., Ins minas (Macquart, 1848), n. comb., and Ins pleuralis (Williston, 1901), n. comb. Two new species, Ins pectorcolumbo Evenhuis, n. sp. from El Salvador and Ins zanouts Evenhuis, n. sp. from Panama and Costa Rica are described and illustrated. The holotype of Anthrax divisa Walker, 1852, has been examined and found to be conspecific with Ins minas (Macquart, 1848), n. syn., and Anthrax galathea Osten Sacken, 1886 is found to be synonymous with Ins constituta (Walker, 1852), n. syn. Two other South American species currently in Hemipenthes, H. melaleuca (Wiedemann), and H. ruficollis (Bigot) are here transferred to Chrysanthrax, n. combs. A key to species in the genus is given.