A New Canadian Species of Stenopterina Macq. with Notes on the Species Allied to brevipes (Fab.) (Diptera: Otitidae)

Extract

Species of the New World genus Stenopterina Macquart (1835, Hist. Nat. Dipt. 2: 453. Senopterina - lapsus) occur mostly in the tropics and subtropics. They are moderately slender metallic blue-green or cupreous flies, up to 12 mm. long with large head and rather long narrow wings, the latter parterncd in various ways with dark brown or black markings. In the type species, Dacus brevipes Fab., 1805 and its closest allies, the wing-pattern consists essentially of three separate areas of infuscation. First, a narrow uninterrupted black costal border extending from the apex of the auxiliary vein to the apex of the fourth. Second, a black streak filling the first basal cell and sometimes invading the cells adjoining it in front and behind. Third, a narrow black cloud on the posterior crossvein. Hendel (1914) in reviewing the genus, considered brevipes a variable species ranging from Texas to Brazil. The recent discovery in British Columbia of a species of Stenopterina with similar wing-pattern has led me to reexamine the status of species placed by Hendel as synonyms of brevipes, particularly Stenopterina caerulescens Lw., 1873, from Texas.