Genus Geron Meigen, 1820

Museums

Regional Maps

• Geron Meigen, J.W. 1820. Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europischen zweiflügeligen Insekten. Zweiter Theil. Aachen : Forstmann xxxvi + 363 pp. [Date published 31 December+] [223].

  Type species:

   Geron gibbosus Meigen, 1820 (= Bombylius gibbosus Olivier, 1789) by subsequent designation, see Duponchel, P.A.J. in d'Orbigny, C.D. (ed.) 1845. Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris : Bureau Principal de l'Editeur/Renard, Martinet & Cie Vol. 6. [206].
• Amictogeron Hesse, A.J. 1938. A revision of the Bombyliidae (Diptera) of southern Africa. [I.]. Annals of the South African Museum 34: 1053 pp. [918].

  Type species:

   Amictogeron meromelanus Hesse, 1938 by original designation.

  Secondary source:

   Evenhuis, N.L. & Greathead, D.J. 1999. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Leiden, Netherlands : Backhuys xlviii+756 pp. [36].

Distribution

States

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

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, WA: Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Dampierland (DL), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Murchison (MUR), Pilbara (PIL), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW) ; WA: Carnarvon (CAR), Coolgardie (COO), Jarrah Forest (JF), Warren (WAR)

Diagnosis

♂. Head: eyes holoptic from just below vertex to just above bases of antennae, color varies from copperred to shining black; frons small, triangular, usually with a small tuft of tomentum lateral to antennal bases; face below antennae of varying shapes and sizes, usually dull colored in the subgenus Geron and shining in Plichtamyia; oral margin thin, usually dark colored, bare; vertex small, containing the ocellar tubercle; ocellar tubercle brown to black with brown ocelli; occiput bilobed, usually darkly colored; gula broad, of varying coloration, usually with white pile; antennal segment I long, cylindrical, 2-5 x the length of segment II, pile of varying length, usually short, black, the same length as segment I; segment II short, globular, with minute hairs at apex; segment III long, lanceolate, bare; proboscis black, of varying length; palpi minute, darkly colored. Thorax: scutum and scutellum usually concolorous, with pile of varying coloration; scutum often with dusty gray stripe anteriorly extending to middle of notal disc and gray laterally near wing base; scutellum rarely with gray laterally; pleura of varying coloration, with pile restricted to meso-, sterno-, hypo-, and pteropleura, bare elsewhere; halteres short, of varying color. Legs: of varying coloration; femora often with fine black hairs or spines near apex; tibiae and tarsi with short strong spines along entire length; claw brown to black; pulvilli long. Wing: hyaline, smoky brown, infuscated brown basally, or entirely tinted brown; veins yellow to brown, dentate along costa to end of R2+3; r-m crossvein usually near the middle of discal cell; vein closing apex of discal cell either straight or sigmoid; squama small, of varying color and with fringe of varying color. Abdomen: long, slender, tapering to apex, slightly compressed laterally, darkly colored above; sternites usually lighter colored; pile varying in coloration.
♀. Similar to ♂ except for the following: eyes dichoptic, separated at vertex by a little more than the width of ocellar tubercle; occipital pile usually lighter than ♂; if present, stripes of gray anteriorly and laterally on scutum more prominent than ♂; pleura lighter in coloration and pile; halteres usually lighter in coloration; sternites of abdomen usually with lighter pile and tomentum.

Diagnosis References

Evenhuis, N.L. 1979. Studies in Pacific Bombyliidae (Diptera). II. Revision of the genus Geron of Australia and the Pacific. Pacific Insects 21: 13-55 [Date published 30 August] [18]

History of changes