Redescription of Sphecapatoclea excisa Villeneuve, 1909 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae).

Abstract

Sphecapatoclea excisa Villeneuve, 1909, the type species of the Palaearctic genus Sphecapatoclea Villeneuve, 1909, is redescribed based on a female syntype and on material from Makhtesh Ramon National Park, Israel, and its first instar larva is described for the first time. The species is sexually dimorphic, with much darker adult males. The male genital apparatus is unique by its compressed and sclerotised epiphallus. The morphology of the first instar larva is in accordance with the recently suggested position of the genus Sphecapatoclea in the Old World clade of the "lower" Miltogramminae. Two COI mini-barcodes are provided for S. excisa, and molecular data are in agreement with sequences for Sphecapatoclea spp. available in GenBank. Morphology supports a broad concept of the genus, as S. excisa presents a mixture of character states traditionally used to diagnose either Sphecapatoclea (s. str.) or Parthomyia Rohdendorf, 1925. Available morphological keys for genera of Palaearctic Miltogramminae are compared for functionality, and possible autapomorphies from both adult and larval morphology are discussed.