Species Ligyra doryca (Boisduval, 1835)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Anthrax doryca Boisduval 1835. Faune entomologique de l'Océan pacifique, avec l'illustration des insectes nouveaux recueillis pendant le voyage. Deuxième partie. Coléoptères et autres ordres. In: Voyage de découvertes de L'Astrolabe exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le commandement de M.J. Dumont d'Urville. Paris : J. Tastu vii + 716 pp. [Date published before 3 June] [665].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP lost, INDONESIA.

  Type locality references:

  Evenhuis, N.L. & Greathead, D.J. 1999. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Leiden, Netherlands : Backhuys xlviii+756 pp. [404].

Generic Combinations

• Ligyra doryca (Boisduval, 1835).

Distribution

States

Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld: Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Wet Tropics (WT)

Distribution References

Diagnosis

The occiput and ocellarium area black, remainder of frons and face reddish orange. Hairs short and black. Occiput in profile broad, as in satyrus, and almost bare; only at the hind margin of eyes, on their lower part, there may be a very short and narrow stripe of whitish scales. Edge of neck cavity with fringe of extremely short, yellowish hairs. Antennae as in satyrus, but first segment much shorter than the style, half as long as third segment without the style. Vertex three times as broad as ocellarium.
Mesonotum dark brown, almost black, dull, and with short, black and yellowish hairs which do not conceal the ground colour. Anterior margin with a bright orange "collar" of erect hairs. Humeral calli and notopleural area with many black semi-bristles. Bristles as in satyrus. Scutellum not paler than mesonotum, chaetotaxy similar to that of satyrus.
Sides of thorax dark, with tufts of very long and dense, bright orange hairs; one tuft over the anterior coxae, a second on the upper anterior corner of mesopleuron, and a third one in front of the dark halteres. Greater part of mesopleura with deepblack hairs and with a small, white tuft of hairs in front of wing base; sternopleura with black hairs, and with a tuft of pure white hairs inside. Legs deep-black, with black hairs and scales.
Most of wing hyaline, greyish, but almost black at base and very narrowly along the costa; 4 submarginal cells; first posterior cell always open; r-m distinctly before the middle of discal cell. Cells M1 and M2 almost straight, strongly diverging. The surface of wing not strongly corrugated. Alula dark.
Abdomen broad and short, not egg-shaped as in satyrus; the deep-black abdomen has the following markings; an extremely narrow, parallel-sided fascia of yellow scales at the anterior margin of second tergite; sides of first tergite with bright orange, dense, erect hairs, like those on suprasquamal ridge or in front of halteres; white-scaled fascia at anterior margin of third tergite, narrow in the middle, but distinctly dilated at the sides; sides of second tergite with extremely dense, long, deep-black hairs; fourth and eighth tergite entirely black; sixth tergite with 2 small submedian spots of white scales; seventh tergite with similar, but larger spots. Underside deep-black, but the median third of sternites 1-4 with snow-white scales and hairs.

♂. The author has seen only one, poorly preserved male of this species, but according to earlier descriptions, its chief difference is the slightly narrower vertex.

Diagnosis References

Paramonov, S.J. 1967. A review of the Australian species of Ligyra Newman (Hyperalonia olim) (Bombyliidae: Diptera). Australian Journal of Zoology 15: 123-144 [Date published February] [128-9]

History of changes