Species Anthrax confluensis Roberts, 1928

Anthrax confluensis Holotype

© Copyright Queensland Museum CC-BY-NC, photo G. Thompson

Anthrax confluensis Holotype label

© Copyright Queensland Museum CC-BY-NC, photo G. Thompson

Museums

Regional Maps

• Anthrax confluensis Roberts, F.H.S. 1928. A revision of the Australian Bombyliidae (Diptera). I. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 53: 91-144 [139].

  Type data:

   Holotype QM D3254, QLD, Brisbane.
  Paratype(s) BMNH 1930-296 ♂, QLD, Brisbane; QDPI ♀, QLD, Brisbane; QDPI ♂ ♀, QLD, Brisbane; UQIC D527 ♀, QLD, Brisbane; QDPI ♂ 2♀, QLD, Brisbane; UQIC ♀, NSW, Killara; QM ♀ (as allotype), QLD, Brisbane.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Kanmantoo (KAN), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

Larva: parasitic.

Extra Ecological Information

One adult collected from an ant lion cocoon under a sandstone ledge in Lindfield Park, Sydney.

Diagnosis

Eyes separated by 1.53 width of ocellar triangle in both sexes. Frons with short black hairs. Antennal pedicel globular, as wide as long, junction between pedicel and flagellum loose, flagellum base round, gradually tapering toward apex, ventral flange extending around pedicel absent (Figs 87, 88). Cervical collar with black and white hairs admixed; scutum with black hairs and dark brown tomentum. Haltere knob brown. Integumental colour of legs black. Wing venation distinctive with i-r crossvein usually present and R4 dividing before wing margin, branch on R4 long and reaching wing margin; spur-vein present on dm-cu; CuA2 and A1 usually not meeting; base of R2+3 meeting r-m crossvein proximally by more than length of r-m, spur-vein into cell r2+3 present. Wing pattern mostly dark brown-black with irregular hyaline regions in cells at apex of wing and along posterior margin; intensity of infuscation deeper at base of wing and along veins (Fig. 11). Irregular hyaline spots may be present in cells r1, both cells r2+3 and r4, in r5, m1, m2, cua1 and dm. Abdominal tergite 1 with erect white hairs on anterior third, black hairs on posterior third; tergites 2–5 with black hairs and dense black scales. Tergites 6 and 7 in male with strong, dense, decumbent, elongate silver scales; tergites 6 and 7 in female with black hairs and tomentum but some white scales admixed on lateral margins. Male genitalia (Figs 119, 120) with broad basiphallus of normal proportions and epiphallus with single small dorsal apical hook, ventral apical flange blunt and rounded in lateral view forming broad, rounded, short lateral flanges behind apex of phallus in dorsal view; gonostyli with swollen basal section and finger-like apical section directed posterolaterally. Female genitalia (Figs 121, 122) with elongate sperm pump; distal endplates well developed; spermathecal bulb gradually increasing diameter towards distal end, attached to pump by long, narrow neck, tubules cover neck and almost entire spermathecal bulb. Furca with thick longitudinal rod and broad lateral lobe; median sclerite triangular.

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 [1015]

History of changes