Species Plecia (Plecia) dimidiata Macquart, 1846

Museums

Regional Maps

• Plecia dimidiata Macquart, J. 1846. Diptères exotiques nouveaux ou peu connus. Supplément. Mémoires de la Société des sciences, de l'agriculture et des arts de Lille 1844: 133-364, pls 1-20 [The date on the wrapper of the journal is 1846, the date on the title page is 1845. The last 4 pages of this paper in the journal (containing the index) are numbered 363, 364, 363, 364. The next article in the journal begins on page 365. The pagination of the reprint is continuous, thus the reprint appears to contain 2 additional pages. Reprinted with pagination 5-238, Roret, Paris, with "1846" on both the wrapper and title page. Reprint recorded in the 7 November 1846 issue of Bibliogr. Fr. The Bibliogr. Fr. mentions the journal version in the 22 August 1846 issue; it was presented by Macquart at the 22 July 1846 meeting of the Société Entomologique de France] [148] [the original description is on page 20 of the reprint edition].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP ♂ adult, TAS.

  Type locality references:

  Hardy, G.H. 1929. On the type locality of certain flies described by Macquart in "Diptères exotiques", supplement four. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 54: 61-64 (doubts concerning the veracity of Verreaux specimens labelled Tasmania).

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Widespread over Australia, recorded from many localities in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland.

Australian Endemic.

Ecological Descriptors

Adult: volant.

Diagnosis

The only Australian Plecia with the mesonotum predominantly or entirely subshining orange to rufous and the pleura brown to blackish. Typically the anterior portion of the mesonotum, to a level with hind margins of the humeri, is dark coloured, but occasional specimens may have the entire mesonotum rufous, especially in females, and occasionally the dorsum may be largely black, with orange only on the hind portion; rarely females will have the thorax all rufous. This species is differentiated by its distinctive male genitalia. The claspers (styli) are very large and conspicuous, with small dentations on apical edge, and extend well beyond the apices of the ninth sternum. The ninth sternum has its posterior margin not produced on sides, with a prominent lobe just inside the base of each clasper and a large truncate median lobe extending over the aedeagus.

Diagnosis References

Hardy, D.E. 1982. The Bibionidae (Diptera) of Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 30: 805-855

Hardy, D.E. 1982. The Bibionidae (Diptera) of Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 30: 805-855

History of changes