Myiacerapis villosus Bezzi, 1915:135

Myiacerapis is the name Hull (1949: 309) gave to Bezzi's group 6 (1915: 134) of Microdon and was erected for a single species, villosus Bezzi, which "is distinguished from any other by the very remarkable structure of the antenna. The antennae are also carried in a different manner; instead of being pendulous they are erect and curved outwards ..." (Bezzi 1915: 134). The basoflagellomere is elongate, about 4.5 times as long as pedicel, and the scutellum is simple, without calcars (from Cheng and Thompson 2008).

Adapted from original description (Bezzi 1915). See original description from Bezzi in the attached document.

A rather hairy species, readily distinguishable owing to the structure and mode of carriage of its antennae.

MALE.

Head very broad, distinctly broader than the thorax, bronze-black, finely punctate, moderately shining, clothed with rather long, erect, yellowish pile, which on the face show golden reflexions; frons very broad for a male, the shining black equally facetted eyes being rather small, and without distinct prominent angles towards the middle of frons; the transverse frontal furrow is, however, well marked; ocelli rather far apart, arranged in an equilateral triangle; face gently convex, as broad as the frons, becoming broader below; it is black in the middle, with a broad yellow border on each side; gena with a small, broad, but shallow pit on each side; opening of buccal cavity small, the proboscis scarcely projecting. Antennae erect, entirely black, the scape shining and almost bare; pedicel very small; basoflagellomere dull, curved, almost arched, thickened towards the middle, about four and a half times as long as scape; arista situate at base of baseflagellomere, of a dark yellowish colour, thin, about half the length of baseflagellomere.

Thorax shining aeneous, very finely punctate, clothed on clorsum with rather long and dense bright reddish pile, which becomes yellowish on the pleurae, the posterior part of which is, however, bare as usual. Scutellum small, semicircular, shining black, clothed with long yellowish pile, with an unarmed apical margin. Calypter whitish, with yellow borders and rather long white fringes; halteres pale yellowish. Legs aeneous black, with rather long and dense, yellow and silky shining pile, chiefly on the tibiae; claws black, pulvilli dark yellow-brown; tarsi not very broad, metabasitarsomere not thickened. Wings greyish hyaline, with a light yellowish tinge and yellow veins (the specimen is perhaps immature); lower outer corners of cells R4+5 and DM rounded and without appendices.

Abdomen at base broader than the thorax, attenuated behind, conical, the second segment depressed in the middle, but not produced at the sides; third segment about as long as the second, fourth two and a half times the length of the third; all the sutures are distinct; the abdomen is black, dull, dark yellowish in the middle at the base, with a few rather long yellowish pile on the sides at the base and on the posterior margin of the basal segments; on each side of the second and third segments there are two indistinct oblique vitta of yellowish pubescence; genitalia dark yellowish brown, clothed with yellow pile; venter black, with rather long yellow pile on the posterior margins of the segments.

Microdon (Myiacerapis) villosus Bezzi, 1915.

Bezzi, M. (1915) The Syrphidae of the Ethiopian Region based on material in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History), with descriptions of new genera and species. British Museum (Natural History), London. 146 pp.

Length of the body 12 mm., of the antennae 4 mm (Bezzi 1915).

Afrotropical species known from Uganda.