Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Nemotelus to ID

Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:44
#1

Hi,

Using Rozkošný's key I reach Nemotelus cylindricornis/latiusculus/nigrifrons. Frons has silvery-white hairs, so I think it is not N. latiusculus. But the antenna doesn't seem to match exactly neither N. cylindricornis or N. nigrifrons. What is your opinion?

location: Faro (Portugal)
date: 11/06/2020

Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:44
#2

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Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:44
#3

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Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:45
#4

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Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:45
#5

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Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:45
#6

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Posted by Rui Andrade on 20-06-2020 14:46
#7

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Posted by Paul Beuk on 22-06-2020 10:42
#8

Just based on this key I'd say cylindricornis but there are a few European species described after the book was published.

Posted by Rui Andrade on 22-06-2020 18:23
#9

Thanks Paul! I think it's precisely one of the species described after Rozkošný's work, N. danielssoni! I hadn't noticed that the eyes have very short hairs. The shape of the antenna also seems to match, the same for the coloration of the abdomen. Do you think it is safe to add the first photo to the gallery?

Posted by Rui Andrade on 22-06-2020 18:23
#10

Antenna comparison.

Posted by Maddin on 23-06-2020 01:10
#11

Well, this is a bit more complicated... This species is surely not latiusculus/nigrifrons, very different genitalia etc...
This is a very distinct group of robust Nemotelus species, with very characteristic genitalia and antennae. The first species described is insularis Becker, 1908 from teh Canary islands. This one has the most hairs on the eyes, then there is freidbergi Lindner 1975 from Israel, which got wrongly synonymized with perplexus and then with latiusculus. The next species is cylindricornis from Spain and later Mason described danielssoni from Crete. The genitalia are more or less the same, the differences is the amount of setae on the eyes (cylindricornis is nearly bare) and the length of the snout, and maybe the color of the pronotal callus. I have a bunch of material from all over the Mediterranean, but never could make up my mind if this is one variable species, or different distinct species. Carles-Tolra (2001) reported danielssoni for the first time from Spain, together with cylindricornis. As far as I can tell from the paper, there was no indication how these species were differentiated... I usually went with the geography, if it si from the Canary islands, I call it insularis, from Israel Freidbergi and from Spain cylindricornis... N insularis and cylindricornis have a short snout, while danielssoni and freidberg have a clearly longer snout. But this character shows variation in the genus Nemotelus. Sorry, might not be the asnwer you were looking for ;-)

Posted by Paul Beuk on 23-06-2020 08:52
#12

Interesting. Do you have the original paper describing danielssoni for me? I'd like to see that. Yimlahi et al. (2017) illustrate the genitalia of danielssoni with the middle prong being pointed, this one (and cylindricornis) have it blunt-tipped.

Posted by Rui Andrade on 23-06-2020 14:05
#13

Hi Martin, thanks for the detailed answer! I also noticed that the length of the snout was shorter when compared with the illustration of N. danielssoni, but in a photo in Yimlahi et al. (2017) the snout looks shorter than the illustration, so I thought there might be some variation.

What still bothers me is the lenght of the last flagellomere, which should be barely longer than the preceding one for N. cylindricornis, but in my specimen is much longer. Maybe there is also some variation in this characteristic.

Paul, I'll send you the original description.

Posted by Paul Beuk on 23-06-2020 14:49
#14

Thanks! It makes me wonder if Yimlahi et al. (2017: https://doi.org/1....709.13364) have the same species under the name danielssoni as Mason described as 'the original' danielssoni laso has a blunt-tipped middle prong.