Diario del proyecto Bombyliidae (Bee Flies) - Southern Africa

Diagnosis Genus Triplaius:
Crossvein r-m as long or longer than m-m; venation in radial sector unstable, often with appendices and sometimes with interradial vein complete (3 submarginal cells); vestiture shaggy but with long hair at sides of abdomen only, bristles fine not numerous, hair brown to blackish with contrasting short white scale-like hairs forming notopleural stripes on the thorax and spots or bands on the abdomen.

(1) Triplasius namaquensis (Hesse, 1938)
Species description by Hesse:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/62/mode/1up
Wings (text-fig. 5) with appendices or stumps in marginal and submarginal cells, which are often irregular, sometimes joined on to margin of wing and thus producing a reticulate appearance, with the anterior darker part less marked off from the posterior part, which itself is also mottled to a certain extent; pubescence with the paler elements on frons, on sides of face, on pleurae, and on sides of venter distinctly paler and even more straw-coloured whitish, with the transverse band of whitish scaling on abdomen above more diffuse and the scaling towards apical part of abdomen above more greyish, the white band on each side of thorax distinctly broader and with a broad central band of greyish white scaling on disc of thorax and also on frons.

Illustration in Hesse 1928:
Hesse, A.J. 1938. A revision of the Bombyliidae (Diptera) of southern Africa. [Part I]. Annals of the South African Museum 34
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/131/mode/1up

(2) Triplasius lateralis (Fabricius, 1805)
Species description by Hesse:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/62/mode/1up
Wings with only 2 submarginal cells, with 4 dark spots in the more hyaline posterior part: one at base of second submarginal cell, one at apex of first posterior cell, one on cross vein between discoidal and second posterior cells,and a smaller or minute one onvein at base of third posterior cell, and also with 2 larger spots on apical cross veins of basal cells; pubescence with the paler elements on sides of face, pleurae, and on sides of venter more rufous, purplish, or mauvish reddish.

Description by Loew:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/200/mode/1up

Illustration by Wiedemann:
Fig. 5: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50649#page/665/mode/1up

(3) Triplasius bivittatus (Loew, 1855)
Description by Hesse:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/62/mode/1up
Wings with 2 or usually 3 submarginal cells, usually without rounded spots, but with infuscations along basal parts of veins and cross veins of second and third submarginal cells, along basal veins of second and third posterior cells, often broken up into spots and often with a more distinct spot near apex of vein between anal and axillary cells; pubescence with the paler elements on sides of face, on pleurae and sides of venter usually paler or more straw-coloured in certain lights.

Description by Loew:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/199/mode/1up

A distinct species due to the chocolate brown hairs of the thorax contrasting strikingly with the white pubescens of the middle of the abdomen; the wings are not spotted, but distinctly infuscated towards the base and along the costal cell.

Illustrated in Bezzi 1921:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1540304#page/197/mode/1up

Description by Bezzi:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1540304#page/49/mode/1up

Description by Hesse:
key: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/123/mode/1up
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/291/mode/1up

Dirstribution: South Africa (Northern Cape), Namibia

iNat observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134092941

Characterized by black basal comb of wings which separates this species from look-alikes of the micans-group. A bulky species, ranging from 10-15 mm in length and with a wing length of about 10-16 mm.
Pale yellow-hairy, almost whitish, thoracic stripes a little darker and obsolete, wings half brown, basal comb black. Pubescence on body above more gleaming and resplendent than in A. micans, sericeous whitish to yellowish, with the 3 stripes of golden brownish hair on thorax, in female especially, more conspicuous and more enhanced by the silvery stripes separating them.
Wings with the anterior infuscation scarcely extending beyond end of costal cell or only very slightly, with the greater part of the apical part of marginal cell entirely hyaline, without any distinct infuscations along veins in posterior hyaline part, especially at bases of second submarginal and third posterior cells, and with the elongated whitish opaque spot at bases of first and second basal cells and even in female the costal cell more conspicuously evident and visible.

Description by Loew:
Loew, H. 1860. Die Dipteren-Fauna Südafrika’s. Erste Abtheilung. Berlin: Mittler & Sohn
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/203/mode/1up

Description by Hesse 1956:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/248/mode/1up

Distribution: South Africa (Northern & Western Cape), also into Namibia
https://www.gbif.org/species/1670138

iNat observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/183878071

Wings with the subopaquely whitish windows obliquely across middle equally broad, confluent, continuous in a straight line, forming a conspicuous broadish oblique fascia.
White scales on abdomen above, apart from large, spot-like patches centrally on tergites 2 and 6 (or 7) arranged more transversely in conspicuous bands, the discal parts of which are broken up into small spots, especially across tergites 2-4.

Description in Hesse 1956 (Nomalonia afra):
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40844208#page/54/mode/1up

Illustration of head in:
Hull, Frank Montgomery, Bee flies of the world: the genera of the family Bombyliidae Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press 1973
Fig 612: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32878064#page/539/mode/1up

Records from: Little Karoo, southern boundary of Great Karoo, Nieuveld Karoo and Namaqualand

iNat observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19617003

Bombyliinae:
Australoechus hypoleucus
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bombyliidae-bee-flies-southern-africa/journal/84657-australoechus-hypoleucus-wiedemann-1821
Australoechus peringueyi
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bombyliidae-bee-flies-southern-africa/journal/84664-australoechus-peringueyi-bezzi-1921

Cythereinae:
Nomalonia eremophila
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bombyliidae-bee-flies-southern-africa/journal/84621-nomalonia-eremophila-hesse-1975

Greathead, D.J. & Evenhuis, N.L. 2001. Annotated keys to the genera of African Bombylioidea (Diptera:
Bombyliidae; Mythicomyiidae). African Invertebrates 42: 105–224.
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC84477

Bezzi, M. 1921. On the bombyliid fauna of South Africa (Diptera) as represented in the South African
Museum. Annals of the South African Museum 18: 1–180.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1540304#page/17/mode/1up

Hesse, A.J. 1938. A revision of the Bombyliidae (Diptera) of southern Africa. Annals of the South African
Museum 34: 1–1053.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40845178#page/15/mode/1up

Hesse, A. J. 1956. A revision of the Bombyliidae (Diptera) of southern Africa. Parts II and III. Annals of the
South African Museum 35: 1–972
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40844208#page/19/mode/1up