Joseph C. Bequaert.
Oriental Nemestrinidæ.
Psyche 42:123-141, 1935.

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PSYCHE
VOL. XLII SEPTEMBER 1935 No. 3
ORIENTAL NEMESTRINIDlE
Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts I have recently been privileged to study an interesting lot of Nemestrinidse obtained by Mr. Vitalis de Salvaza in Laos and Cochinchina, comprising four species, two of which appear undescribed. An additional species new to Science was obtained by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerel1 in Siam. The Oriental and Indo-Malayan Region proper (exclud- ing New Guinea) is poor in Nemestrinidse, a peculiarity which it shares with the other truly tropical parts of the World. The subfamily Nemestrininse is not represented, the two old records of Nemestrina pallipes Olivier (1810, Nouv. Bull. Sci. Soc. Philom. Paris, 11, p. 94) and Neme- strina javana Macquart (1840, Dipt. Exot., 11, pt. 1, p. 17), supposedly from Java, being obviously erroneous. The sub- family Hirmoneurinse comprises thirteen Oriental species, all of the genus Hirmoneura, and the subfamily Trichop- sideinse, seven species of four genera, Atriadops, Nycteri- rnyia, Nycterimorpha and Ceyloniola.
The latest revision of Oriental Nemestrinidse is by E. Brunetti in the Fauna of British India (1920, Diptera Brachycera, I, pp. 144-156).
Subfamily HIRMONEURINE
Hirmoneura Meigen, 1820
Key to Subgenera
1. Three submarginal cells present (second longitudinal vein and upper branch of third connected by a cross- vein). Alula well developed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.



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124 Psyche [September
Two submarginal cells only (the first and second fused). No accessory cross-veins in any of the posterior ........................................ cells 4. First and second posterior cells normally not divided by cross-veins. Eyes densely pubescent, holoptic in both ...... sexes (or at least in the male)
.Hyrmophlasba.
First or second posterior cells, or both, subdivided by an accessory cross-vein, sometimes producing a second, incomplete diagonal vein in the apical third of the ........................................ wing 3. Eyes densely pubescent, holoptic in both sexes (or at
.............
least in the male) .Awtrohirmoneura.
Eyes bare, distinctly separated on the frons (in which sex?) ............................ Hirmoneurites. Alula much narrowed, especially basally. Eyes bare,
distinctly separated by the frons in the female ; (male unknown) ...................... Indohirmoneum. Alula well developed ........................... -5. Eyes holoptic in both sexes or in the male only. .... .6. Eyes always distinctly separated by the frons in both sexes ....................................... 7. ..........
Eyes very densely pubescent. Hirmoneurilla. Eyes either completely bare or with a few, scattered, miscroscopic hairs ................ Hirmoneuropsis. Eyes densely pubescent. ......... Hirmoneura,, proper. Eyes bare ......................... Neohirmoneura. Of the eight subgenera in which I have divided the genus, all but two are represented in the Oriental Region. Austro- hirmoneura is restricted to Chile and Hirmoneurites is known in the fossil state only.
Subgenus Hirmoneura, proper
Key to Species
1. Ground color of legs, antennae and palpi black. Large ..................
species, 15 to 16 mm. long..
.2.
Ground color of legs, including femora, bright yellowish- red or ferruginous ........................... .3. 2. Body rather uniformly covered with thin, soft, gray. pubescence, with an admixture of yellowish hairs on the abdomen. Eyes covered with dark brown pile. . H. opaca Lichtwardt.




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19351 Oriental Nemestrinidse 125
Abdomen with a broad basal band of pale pubescence, contrasting with the black pilosity of the remainder of the abdomen. Eyes covered with yellowish pile. . H. cockerelli J. Bequaert.
Small, gray species, 11 to 12 mm. long, with abdominal transverse bands of yellowish and brown pubescence. Antennae and palpi yellowish-red. ................. H. cingulata Lichtwardt.
Larger species, 16 to 20 mm. long; abdomen mostly covered with pale yellowish-rufous pubescence, close to the base with a narrow, transverse band of black hairs. Antennae and palpi black.. ............... H. a~steni Lichtwardt.
Hirmoneura (Hirmoneura) cingulata Lichtwardt Hirmoneura cingulata Lichtwardt, 1909, Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr., p. 644 ( 9 ; India, without more definite local- ity) ; 1913, Rec. Indian Mus., IX, p. 333 ( $ ; Phagu, Simla Hills). Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 151 ( Q 8)-
I have seen the female holotype at the British Museum and found it to have the characters of Hirmoneura proper. The male allotype is at the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Brunetti notes that in the male the eyes are narrowly separated, the frons being scarcely wider in the female. Hirmoneura (Hirmoneura) austeni Lichtwardt Hirmoneura austeni Lichtwardt, 1909, Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr., p. 643 ( 8 ; Assam: Khasi Hills). Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 152 ( s ). I have seen three male cotypes at the British Museum and found that they have the characters of Hirmoneura proper. No additional specimens seem to have been col- lected.
Hirmoneura (Hirmoneura) cockerelli, new species Male. - A large, thickset fly, similar in appearance to H. austeni Lichtwardt, characterized by the very dark legs and the conspicuous, broad band of pale pubescence at the base of the abdomen.




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126 Psyche [September
Integument uniformly black, the antennae faintly blotched with rufous.
Pruinosity dull, grayish-black dorsally, ashy gray ventrally and beneath the transverse band of pale hairs at the base of the abdomen; the humeral angles with a grayish-white pollinose area sharply set off from the remainder of the dorsum; there are faint indications of the beginning of two yellowish-gray stripes at the anterior margin of the thorax close to the head; otherwise thorax and abdomen appear unspotted. Body densely covered Fig. 1. Hirmoneura cockerelli J. Bequaert. A, wing; B, head seen in front; C, antenna.
with rather short pilosity, which is black on frons, dark brown dorsally on thorax and most of abdomen, pale gray- ish-yellow on the sides, ventrally, on the face, and on first and second antenna1 segments; a broad transverse band of whitish, somewhat silvery, long, erect hairs covers the apical half of the first and the basal half of the second abdominal tergites; there are long tufts of pale yellowish hairs on the sides of the thorax behind the bases of the wings.
Head (Fig. 1B) large, flattened, hemispherical in profile, about as wide as high seen in front, hardly broader than the thorax. Eyes uniformly covered with short, pale yel- lowish hairs, distinctly separated throughout by a narrow frons which is only slightly narrower than the ocellar tri- angle; the upper half of the frons is almost parallel-sided, but narrowest just below the anterior ocellus; the lower



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19351 Oriented NemestrZnidse. 127
half widens very rapidly toward the bases of the antennae. Ocellar triangle very long and narrow, the anterior oeellus being placed close to the upper third of the distance sepa- rating the occiput from the antennae; the ocellar triangle is faintly depressed in the middle, but not saddle-like. An- tennse (Fig. 1C) small, crowded together; first segment about twice as long as the second, slightly swollen through- out ; second segment rather large; third segment flattened pear-shaped, distinctly longer and broader than the sec- ond, gradually narrowed apically. Style longer than the antenna, the two basal segments of very unequal length (the first the shorter). Legs rather slender, of normal shape.
Wing (Fig. 1A) long and comparatively narrow, less than four times as long as wide, rather uniformly yellow- ish-gray ; veins yellowish-brown. Costa distinctly devel- oped along the hind margin and reached by the diagonal vein. Alula broad. Venation normal, the same in both wings.
Length: 16 mm.; length of wing: 18 mm.; width of wing: 4.8 mm.
Holotype male, Doi Sutep, a mountain near Chieng Mai, northern SIAM, February 9, 1928 (T. D. A. Cockerel1 Col- lector. - M. C. Z., Cambridge, Mass.). The locality has an interesting flora, partly resembling that of the Hima- layas (see T. D. A. Cockerell, 1929, Torreya, XXIX, pp. 159-162).
Hirmoneura (Hirmoneura) opaca Lichtwardt Hirmoneura opaca Lichtwardt, 1909, Deutsch. Ent. Zeit- schr., p. 643 ( Q ; W. Himalaya: Kangra Valley, 4,500 ft.) ; 1913, Rec. Indian Mus., IX, p. 334 ( $
8 ; add. loc.: W.
Himalaya : Mussoorie ; Simla Hills ; Nepaul : Pharping) . Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 150, fig. 9, PI. 11, fig. 22 ( Q 8 ; add. loc.: W. Himalaya: Dehra Dun).
Hirmoneura, montane "Brunetti MS" Maxwell-Lefroy and Howlett, 1909, Indian Insect Life, p. 597 (without description ; in Indian Museum collection from Mussoorie) . I have examined the female holotype at the British Mu- seum. In the same collection there is a female, without



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128 Psyche [September
locality, labelled "H. montam Brun., paratype." I was
unable to separate this from opaca: the eyes are hairy, the frons broad, the wings with two submarginal cells and the alula of normal width. The male allotype of opaca is at the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Subgenus Indohirmoneura J. Bequaert
Hirmoneura (Indohirmoneura) coffeata Lichtwardt Hirmoneum coffeata Lichtwardt, 1909, Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr., p. 644 ( 9 ; Ceylon: Rambodde). Brunetti, 1920,
Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 152 ( 9 ). The female holotype is at the Berlin Museum. I owe to
the generosity of Mr. Lichtwardt a beautiful color sketch which he made of the type. It shows clearly the much narrowed alula and the adjoining axillary cell also nar- rower than usual.
Lichtwardt plainly stated in the paragraph preceding the description of H. coffeata that "the species which fol- low [viz., H. coffeata, H. brunnea. and H. orientalis] have wholly bare eyes." This was unfortunately overlooked by Brunetti, so that he wrongly included in his key (1920) both brunnea and coffeata among the species with pubes- cent eyes.
Hirmoneura (Indohirmoneura) brmmea Lichtwardt Hirmoneura brunnea Lichtwardt, 1909, Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr., p. 645 ( 9 ; Ceylon: Rambodde and Trincomali). Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 151 (2 1.
I have seen a female cotype at the British Museum. The alula is distinctly narrowed, though not as much as in Mr. Lichtwardt's sketch 'of H. ~offeata,.~ According to the description, H. brunnea is a much smaller species than H. coffeata (wing 11 mm. long, about as Iong as the body, without the ovipositor, in brunnea; wing 24 mm. long and 5.5 mm. wide, much longer than the body, without the ovipositor, in coffeata). In addition, the pubescence of "å´^Mis D. Aubertin, who at my request examined once more the alula of the Oriental Hirmoneuras at the British Museum, writes me that in the type of H. brunnea the alula is "very narrow."



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19351 Oriental Nemestrimdse 129
the sides of the thorax and the base of the abdomen is yellow in brunnea, pale brown in coffeata. Subgenus Neohirmoneura J. Bequaert
Key to Species
1. Small species, 11 to 13 mm. long. Abdomen black- haired at base; otherwise with alternating transverse zones of yellow and black pubescence. Antennae, palpi and legs reddish-yellow. Wings tinged with gray, darker along anterior margin.. ............ H. annandalei Lichtwardt.
Larger species, body 15 to 17.5 mm. long, wing 17 to 20 mm. long ................................ .2. 2. Smaller. Wing 17 mm. long, tinged with blackish- gray .................... H. orientalis Lichtwardt. Larger. Wing 20 mm. long, of a uniform pale, semi- opaque brown. Antennae, palpi and legs tawny or brownish-yellow. Frons of male wide, occupying about one-seventh of the width of the head.. ...... H. philippina C. S. Banks.
Since I have seen none of these three species and since their published descriptions are not comparable, the key must remain unsatisfactory. The published figures of H. orientalis show a broad alula and two submarginal cells in the wing. It is assumed that the same is true of H. an- nandalei and H. philippina. I have my doubts as to the specific distinctiveness of orientalis and philippina. In 1932 (Zoolog. Anzeiger, C, p. 15) I included in Neohirmoneura, H. oldenbergi Lichtwardt, of eastern Si- beria, on the strength of the statement in the original description, "Augen kahl." In his recent monograph of Palearctic Nemestrinidse (1933, Fliegen der Pal. Region, Lief. 75, p. 40), P. Sack redescribes the species from the type and states : "Augen lang und dicht hellbraun behaart." This is, however, an error. Dr. Walter Horn, who at my request kindly examined the type, writes that the eyes are bare.
Hirmoneura (Neohirmoneura) annandalei Lichtwardt Hirmoneura annandalei Lichtwardt, 1913, Rec. Indian Mus., IX, p. 333 ( Q s ; W. Himalaya : Simla, 7,000 ft. ;



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130 Psyche [September
and Kufti, Simla Hills, 8,000 ft.). Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 149
( Q 8 ; add. loc.: Kufti
to Phagu ; Mahabaleshwar, Satara Distr., 4,200 ft.) . This species is known only from Western India. Holo-
type and allotype are at the Indian Museum, Calcutta. I have seen no specimens. Brunetti states that it is very like H. cingulata in size and color, "but, in addition to the bare eyes, it may be recognized by the black hairs on the abdomen being much shorter than the yellow ones, whereas in H. cingulata they are nearly or quite as long as the yel- low ones."
Hirmoneura (Neohirmoneura) orientalis Lichtwardt Hirmoneura orientalis Lichtwardt, 190'9, Deutsch. Enfr. Zeitschr., p. 645 ( Q ; Formosa : Kosempo) ; 1919, Ann. Mus. Nat. Hungarici, XVII, p. 277
( Q 8 ; add. loc.: Formosa:
Taihanroku) .
Matsumura, 1916, Thousand Insects Japan, Addimenta, 11, p. 386, PI. XXII, fig. 15 ( 8 ). Esaki (and others), 1932, Iconogr. Insect. Japon., p. 143, fig. ( 8 ). The female holotype and male allotype are at the Buda- pest Museum. I have not seen the species. The male was
recorded by Lichtwardt and figured by the Japanese authors, but was never adequately described. Hirmoneura (Neohirmoneura) philippina C. S. Banks Hirmoneura phdippina C. S. Banks, 1921, Philippine Jl. Sci., XIX, p. 518, PI. I, figs. 1-9 ( 8 ; Philippines: Lanao, Kolambugan, Mindanao, 8 O 10' N., 123O 55' E.). The holotype is in the entomological collection, Bureau of Science, Manila. I have not seen the species. The author states that it differs from H. annandalei "in size, in the color of the hairs, there being no 'yellowish' abdom- inal hairs, in the color of the legs
and in the width of
vertex and frons with respect to eye width." No compari-
son is made with H. orientalis, which appears to be very closely related. Perhaps the best character of H. philippina resides in the shape of the hind tarsi, which in the male are much swollen basad and curved.
It will be important
to examine the males of H. orientalis and H. annandalei in this respect.




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Oriental Nemestrmidss 131
Subgenus Hirmoneurilla J. Bequaert
Key to Species
1. Antennae pale chestnut-brown. Eyes covered with blackish-brown hairs, contiguous over about one-half of the length of the frons (in male) ; oeellar triangle about as long as wide. Wing subhyaline, slightly yellowish along costa. . . . . . . . H. vitalisi 3. Bequaert. Antennse bright yellow.
Eyes covered with pale yel-
lowish hairs, contiguous (in the male) or closely ap- proximated (in the female) over one-third of the length of the frons; ocellar triangle longer than wide. Wing fairly uniformly yellowish-gray, more ochre-yellow along costa. . . . H. ochracea Lichtwardt. Hirmoneura (Hirmoneurilla) ochracea Liehtwardt Hirmoneura ochracea Lichtwardt, 1909, Deutseh. Ent. Zeitschr., p. 643 ( $ ; Burma : Tau Plateau, 4,000 ft.) . Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 151 (8
Specimens Examined. -LAOS: one male without more definite locality ; two females, one the allotype, Pak Hang, Prov. Xieng Khouang (or Chieng Khuang), March 2, 1915 (R. Vitalis de Salvaza Collector).
I have compared these specimens with the holotype at the British Museum. The alula in this species is broader than in H. austeni, H. opaca, and H. cingulata. Female (undescribed) . - Differs scarcely from the male and is readily associated with it. The eyes are not properly speaking contiguous, but over about one-third of the length of the frons, below the oeellar triangle, they are separated by an extremely narrow area, which measures less than the width of the anterior ocellus.
Length (without ovipositor) : 16 to 16.5 mm. ; length of wing: 18.5 to 19 mm. ; width of wing: 4.8 to 5 mm. The allotype is at the M. C. Z., Cambridge, Mass. In the two females the wing venation is normal and about the same in both wings; in the male, that of the left wing is normal, while in the right wing there is a supernumerary The type locality, misspelled "Jaoo'? by Lichtwardt, was corrected by Brunetti.




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132 Psyche [September
cross-vein in the fourth posterior cell, dividing off the basal fourth of the cell.
Hirmoneura ( Hirmoneurilla) vitalisi, new species Male. - A large, thickset fly, similar in appearance to H. austeni Lichtwardt, characterized by the abdomen uni- formly covered with pale yellowish pubescence, the russet- yellow antennas, palpi and legs, the dark brown pilosity of the eyes and the nearly hyaline wings.
Integument almost uniformly dark chestnut-brown, some- what darker on the dorsum of the thorax, paler ventrally on the abdomen; hind margin of abdominal tergites, espe- cially the second and third, very narrowly black. Legs yellowish-red, the hind tibiae and tarsi darker, chestnut- brown. Ocellar triangle and frons black, face dark brown; proboscis and palpi ruaset-yellow ; antennae pale chestnut- brown, apical third of style black. Pruinosity on under side of thorax white. Pilosity very abundant, dense, erect; black and long on ocellar triangle, from and sidea of face, russet on palpi, white on jowls and occiput; first and see- ond antenna1 segments with long, black hairs; pilosity of dorsum of thorax and abdomen uniformly pale yellowish, with a few black hairs on the hind margins of the second, third and fourth tergltes; that of under side of thorax and abdomen whitish-yellow, more or less matted ventrally, erect on the sides. Hairs of cox= and base of femora long and white; those of remainder of legs mostly yellowish; those of hind tibiae and tarsi mostly black, forming rather dis- tinct fringes on the sides.
'Head (Fig. 2B) large, hemispherical in profile, a little narrower than the thorax seen from above, about as wide as high seen in front. Eyes uniformly and densely covered with long, erect, blackish-brown hairs, contiguous over the upper half of the from below the ocetli. Ocellar triangle short, almost as wide as long, scarcely depressed behind the anterior ocellus. Antennae (Fig. 2C) small, crowded to- gether; first segment short, slightly swollen, about twice the length of the second ; second segment very short, trans- verse; third segment flattened, triangular in outline, wider than the second and about as long as wide. Style longer



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19351 Oriental Wvnestrinidas 133
than the antenna, the first segment only slightly shorter than the second. Legs stout, the hind tibiae and tarsi slightly thickened ; otherwise of normal shape. Wing (Fig. 2A) very large, nearly four times as long as wide, subhyaline except along the anterior margin and at the base, where it is suffused with yellow; veins pale chestnut-brown. Costa distinctly developed along the hind margin and reached by the diagonal vein. Alula very broad.
Venation normal, the same in both wings. Fig. 2. Hirmoneura vitalisi J. Bequaert. A, wing; B, head seen
in front; C, antenna.
Length: 18 mm. ; length of wing: 19 mm.; width of wing: 5 mm.
Holotype male, Giaray, COCHINCHINA, February 24, 1921 (R. Vitalis de Salvaza Collector. - M. C. Z., Cambridge, Mass.) .
This species is quite closely allied to H. ochracea Licht- wardt, from which it differs as shown in the key. Subgenus Hirmoneuropsis J. Bequaert
Hirmoneura (Hirmoneuropsis) basalis Lichtwardt Hirmoneura basalis Lichtwardt, 1910, Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr., p. 595, fig. 3 ( 8 ; erroneously described as from Ecuador; the type came from Northern India) ; 1913, Rec. Indian Mus., IX, p. 333 ( $ ; Burma : Dawna Hills, 2,000- 3,000 ft.).
Brunetti, 1920, Fauna Brit. India, Dipt. Brach., I, p. 149 ( 8 ) .