Genus Anthrax Scopoli, 1763

Museums

Regional Maps

• Anthrax Scopoli, G.A. 1763. Entomologia Carniolica, exhibens Insecta Carniolæ indigena et distributa in ordines, genera, species, varietates, methodo Linnæana. Vindobonae [=Vienna] : Trattner xxxvi 420 pp. [358].

  Type species:

   Musca anthrax Schrank, 1781 (Scopoli (1763) erected the genus Anthrax with type species Musca morio Linnaeus. Over the next 150 years numerous species were assigned to Anthrax by various authors. Bezzi (1902) considered that Scopoli’s generic description was based on a specimen of Musca anthrax Shrank, and consequently designated M. anthrax as the ‘correct’ type species of Anthrax. Aldrich (1926), in supporting Bezzi, emphasised Scopoli’s reference, in the generic description, to the apical circlet of hairs on the antennal flagellum, which is found in M. anthrax but not in M. morio. Although such an informal redesignation of the type species of a genus is invalid [International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 1985: Article 70(b)], Bezzi’s redesignation has been accepted by subsequent authors. An application to the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature is in preparation to fix the type species by plenary power and stabilise the identity of Anthrax (Evenhuis 1991). Musca morio, the original type of Anthrax, was subsequently transferred to Villa Lioy by Coquillett (1910), (Yeates & Lambkin, 1998)) by subsequent designation, see Yeates, D.K. & Lambkin, C.L. 1998. Review of the tribe Anthracini (Diptera: Bombyliidae) in Australia: cryptic species diversity and the description of Thraxon, gen. nov. Invertebrate Taxonomy 12(6): 977-1078 [978] (Scopoli (1763) erected the genus Anthrax with type species Musca morio Linnaeus. Over the next 150 years numerous species were assigned to Anthrax by various authors. Bezzi (1902) considered that Scopoli’s generic description was based on a specimen of Musca anthrax Shrank, and consequently designated M. anthrax as the ‘correct’ type species of Anthrax. Aldrich (1926), in supporting Bezzi, emphasised Scopoli’s reference, in the generic description, to the apical circlet of hairs on the antennal flagellum, which is found in M. anthrax but not in M. morio. Although such an informal redesignation of the type species of a genus is invalid [International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 1985: Article 70(b)], Bezzi’s redesignation has been accepted by subsequent authors. An application to the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature is in preparation to fix the type species by plenary power and stabilise the identity of Anthrax (Evenhuis 1991). Musca morio, the original type of Anthrax, was subsequently transferred to Villa Lioy by Coquillett (1910), (Yeates & Lambkin, 1998).).

  Secondary source:

   Yeates, D.K. & Lambkin, C.L. 1998. Review of the tribe Anthracini (Diptera: Bombyliidae) in Australia: cryptic species diversity and the description of Thraxon, gen. nov. Invertebrate Taxonomy 12(6): 977-1078 [978].

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Diagnosis

Medium-sized (wing length 4–15 mm), dark-coloured flies.
Head. Large, anterior surface broadly convex, postcranium strongly concave. Frons bulging slightly beyond level of compound eyes in lateral view; face curving towards oral cavity. Proboscis short, labellae large and fleshy; palps short, 1-segmented, apex broad. Antenna with scape and pedicel shorter than wide, flagellum 2-segmented, onion-shaped; first segment with broad base narrowing to elongate apical rod; second segment short, cylindrical, apex adorned with circlet of hairs. Male eyes separated by 1.3–2x width of ocellar tubercle; female eyes separated by 33 width of ocellar tubercle.
Posterior margin of compound eyes broadly emarginate; horizontal line dividing facets of compound eye extending forward from apex of emargination for about one-third of eye width.
Thorax. Pre- and postalar bristles present; pleuron with hairs on postpronotum, antepronotum, anepisternum, katepisternum and anterior third of anepimeron. Wings broad; R2+3 arising at approximately a right angle adjacent to r-m crossvein; i-r crossvein absent. Wings in most species hyaline with bold black or dark brown markings. Hind legs about twice as long as fore and mid legs; tarsal claws simple, without tooth at base; pulvilli simple, pad-like, about three-quarters length of claw.
Abdomen. Broad and relatively short, dorsoventrally flattened; colour pattern of vestiture often sexually dimorphic, males having prominent, decumbent silver scales at apex of abdomen on tergites 6 and 7; these scales lacking in females. Male genitalia: symmetrical, inverted; epandrium subtriangular in lateral view, lateral arms broad; gonocoxites fused in ventral midline, visible externally with gonostyli dorsal, often enclosed by cerci; gonostyli small, simple, usually located at apex of gonocoxites; epiphallus well developed with species-specific apical modifications, formed by outer band extending from dorso-proximal margins of gonocoxites, and inner band extending
from ventro-mesal margins of gonocoxites; dorsal edges of inner band unite apically, ventral edges unite basally forming a keel, together forming a tight sleeve around aedeagus apically; dorsal edges of outer band unite medially and envelop inner band and aedeagus apically; aedeagus bulbous basally; sternite 9 absent; ejaculatory apodemes and lateral aedeagal apodemes well developed. Female genitalia: sand-chamber present; long hairs at apex of tergite 8; tergite 8 encloses remaining segments of abdomen; spines on acanthophorites numerous (6–30 per acanthophorite), long, and delicate; furca composed of 2 lateral sclerotised rods and often a sclerotised medial plate; three equal spermathecae usually with short unsclerotised ducts, large bulbs and well-developed sperm pumps often with sclerotised nodules, tubules often present.

Diagnosis References

Yeates, D.K. & Lambkin, C.L. 1998. Review of the tribe Anthracini (Diptera: Bombyliidae) in Australia: cryptic species diversity and the description of Thraxon, gen. nov. Invertebrate Taxonomy 12(6): 977-1078 [984]

General References

Yeates, D.K. & Lambkin, C.L. 1998. Review of the tribe Anthracini (Diptera: Bombyliidae) in Australia: cryptic species diversity and the description of Thraxon, gen. nov. Invertebrate Taxonomy 12(6): 977-1078 [977] (review and key to species of Anthrax and Thraxan)

History of changes