Physocephala nigerrima Kröber 1915

Stuke, Jens-Hermann & Clements, David K., 2019, New conopid records from the Afrotropical Region (Diptera) - Part 3: Physocephalini, Bonn zoological Bulletin 68 (2), pp. 209-273 : 272

Physocephala nigerrima Kröber 1915

Physocephala nigerrima was only known from the fe- male holotype, which is probably lost ( Stuke 2017a). Camras (2001) placed this species in his Physocephala maculipes species-group although this interpretation does not fit with the original description. Kröber de- scribed the arista as being pointed and slender, and the lateral projection also, with both being of almost equal length (“Griffel spitz und zart, Seitenfortsatz ebenfalls, beide fast gleich lang”) and the antenna as long, very slender and black, with the first flagellomere rusty brown and the scape about three times as long as its width at the base and slightly widened towards the tip (“Fühler lang und sehr schlank, schwarz, drittes Glied rostbraun. Erstes Glied etwa dreimal so lang als unten breit, oben wenig verbreitert.”). This species cannot readily be placed and in the absence of any available material we therefore pro- pose to classify Physocephala nigerrima Kröber, 1915 as an unrecognised species (status rev.: nomen dubium) until such time as new material appears.

Acknowledgements. We would like to thank all of the col- leagues who have supported this work with their generous help: Miroslav Barták ( Czech Republic, Prague), Eliana Buenaventu- ra ( Germany, Berlin), Pasquale Ciliberti ( Netherlands, Leiden), Robert Copeland ( Kenya, Nairobi), Wouter Dekoninck (Bel- gium, Brussels), Hans-Joachim Flügel ( Germany, Knüllwald), Amnon Freidberg ( Israel, Tel Aviv), Georg Goergen ( Benin, Calavi), Martin Hauser ( USA, Sacramento), Christian F. Kasse- beer ( Germany, Damlos), Ashley H. Kirk-Spriggs (formerly South Africa, Bloemfontein, now UK, London), Tom Kirschey (Berlin), Maurizio Mei ( Italy, Rome), Ximo Mengual (Ger- many, Bonn), Frank Menzel ( Germany, Müncheberg), Crystal Maier ( USA, Chicago), Marc de Meyer ( Belgium, Tervuren), Wolfgang Schacht ( Germany, †), Karla Schneider ( Germany, Halle), Peter Sehnal ( Austria, Vienna), Axel Ssymank (Ger- many, Bonn), Nigel Wyatt ( UK, London) and Joachim Ziegler ( Germany, Berlin), all of whom provided material either from their private collections or from collections under their care. Martin Hauser in particular sorted through a huge amount of Conopidae from Malaise trap samples and made it available for our research. While visiting collections to look at Afrotropical Conopidae we received generous help from Nigel Wyatt ( UK, London), Erica McAlister ( UK, London), Sven Marotzke (Ger- many, Berlin), Jenny Pohl ( Germany, Berlin), Joachim Ziegler ( Germany, Berlin), Eliana Buenaventura ( Germany, Berlin), Marc de Meyer ( Belgium, Tervuren), Stéphane Hanot (Bel- gium, Tervuren), Wouter Dekoninck ( Belgium, Brussels) and Frank Menzel ( Germany, Müncheberg). With great skill, Nygel Wyatt decoded illegible writing and characters on the labels of many historical specimens.