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Apolysis elbae (Efflatoun, 1945) comb. nov. Usia elbae Efflatoun, 1945: 210. Type material Lectotype (here designated) EGYPT • ♂ (pinned through circular card, in good condition); “ Gebel Elba, South Eastern Desert, 15,3 to end April 1929 /Zool. Dep. Collection, Egyptian University, Collection Tewfik/ Usia elbae Effl., Det. Efflatoun ”; TAU. Paralectotype EGYPT • 1 ♀ (pinned through circular card, in good condition, thorax partially greasy); “ Gebel Elba, South Eastern Desert, 15,3 to end April 1929 /Zool. Dep. Collection, Egyptian University, Collection Tewfik/ Usia elbae Effl., Det. Efflatoun ”; TAU. Remarks Efflatoun (1945) based his description of this species on more than 40 males and 50 females, mostly from Gebel Elba, southwestern Egypt, and two males from Wadi Feran [sic = Feiran], South Sinai. While it has not been possible to visit the collections in Egypt, where many of the syntypes still survive, two syntypes in TAU were loaned to me and are here designated as lectotype and paralectotype. A very small species, readily diagnosed as Apolysis from the distal arista in the apico-dorsal sulcus of the postpedicel, sparsely short-haired disc of mesonotum, elongate discal cell, A1 running dead straight to wing margin, A1+CuA 2 (petiole of anal cell) long, slender short-haired palps and form of the form and orientation of the male hypopygium. Neither the lectotype or paralectotype has been dissected as this would not increase confidence of generic placement in Apolysis as currently understood. Distribution Egypt (Gebel Elba, Wadi Edeib and Wadi Kansissrob, Southwestern Desert, and Wadi Feran [sic = Feiran], South Sinai)., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 149-150, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Efflatoun H. C. 1945. A monograph of Egyptian Diptera. Part VI. Family Bombyliidae. Section 1: Subfamily Bombyliidae Homoeophthalmae. Bulletin de la Societe Fouad Ier d'Entomologie 29: 1 - 483."]}

Parusia almeria gen. et sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 22C73CC7-88D1-4CE0-821A-1B3C795625DD Figs 16, 20, 32, 60 Etymology Noun in apposition, after Almeria, the region of southeast Spain where the type material was collected. Type material Holotype SPAIN • ♂; “ Almeria, Bird observatory of the Salinas del Cabo de Gata, N 36º45′39″ W 02º13′15″, dunes near salines, 9 April 2004 leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; NHMUK. Paratypes SPAIN • 1 ♀; “ Almeria, Bird observatory of the Salinas del Cabo de Gata, N 36º45′39″ W 02º13′15″, dunes near salines, 9April 2004, leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; NHMUK • 1 ♂ (in spirit); “same data”; PCMC-T • 1 ♂; “ Carboneros N36°59′39.7″ W01°56′29.6″ 100 m 19 March 2003, leg. J. Dils & J. Faes ”; PCJD • 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (in spirit); “near Torregarcía, N 36º49′58″ W 02º17′29″ zone with Ziziphus lotus and dunes, 13 April 2004 Moericke trap 1, leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; PCMC-T • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Moericke Trap 3 Base del Cerro del Barronal, N 36º44′01 ′ W 02º08′29″, very sandy zone with Pitas, Rhamnus sp., and Ammophila areanaria, 12 March 2004 pitfall trap 5, leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; PCDG. Description MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 4.4–6.6 mm. Wing length: 3.7–5.8 mm. Male HEAD. Gena plus mouth margin black in ground colour, much narrower than the apical breadth of a palp, grey dusted gena very narrow, linear, more shining mouth margin a little wider. Frons black in ground colour, hind half narrowing distinctly from hind corners to just in front of anterior ocellus where eyes start to diverge before abruptly widening on anterior part before running parallel down mouth margins. Eyes separated at their narrowest by 1.5–2.5 times the diameter of the front ocellus, hind ocellus narrowly separated from the eye margin. Ocellar tubercle shining, barely dusted, narrow part of frons lightly grey dusted, subshining blackish, white dusted on front half, more thinly so medially where dark ground colour shows from some angles. Yellow-brown hairs on ocellar tubercle almost twice as long as the width of the frons at rear, narrow part of frons bare, anterior part of frons with numerous white hairs some of which are as long as scape and pedicel combined, inclined at 45°. Occiput dark in ground colour with fairly dense grey dust but ground colour still apparent, subshining, more shining on triangular area behind ocellar tubercle. Yellow to white hairs dorsally only just overtopping ocellar tubercle, tips curved anteriorly, hairs significantly longer below and rather wavy. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, postpedicel variable but usually relatively short, less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, sensilla in subapical sulcus can be white and conspicuous. All antennal segments with short pale brown hairs above, longest just before subapical sulcus. Palps short but easily visible, strongly clavate, brown to black, the pale yellow apical setae as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis short, only about twice head length, dorsally clothed with short, adpressed brown setae basolaterally. Basoventral membrane dirty brownish-white. THORAX. Shining black cuticle dulled by relatively thin blue-grey dust except sometimes along paramedian and antehumeral vittae where the shining black cuticle can show through to a greater or lesser extent. Where paramedian vittae are clear they are approximately equal to median dusted stripe anteriorly, widening rearward where tending to fade. Antehumeral vittae interrupted at the thoracic suture. Mesonotum covered with moderately long, pale yellow hair, the longest hairs longer than those on the ocellar tubercle. Scutellum more thinly dusted centrally, long-haired on the disc, hairs fringing the apical margin longer than those on mesonotum. Pleura similar to mesonotum laterally, or a little more densely dusted, white hairs on pronotum, posterior half of the anepisternum and much of katepisternum. WING. Membrane faintly brown tinged, the veins brown. Crossvein r-m beyond basal third but before mid-point of discal cell conspicuously beyond m-cu. Anal lobe moderately developed with evenly convex margin, about as broad as the anal cell. HALTERE. Pale yellow to white, base of stem slightly brownish. LEGS. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleura, not entirely obscuring ground colour. Remainder of legs black or very dark brown, essentially undusted so the shining cuticle is not dulled. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with rather long, pale yellow hairs, on the femora longer than the greatest depth of the femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with both short adpressed white hairs, and on tibia a few longer, semi-erect hairs, especially at base. ABDOMEN. All tergites subshining black, dusting on disc obscure and dark, laterally, on the reflexed margin, densely grey dusted mostly obscuring the ground colour, most extensive on tergite one. Middle tergites with narrow but conspicuous and sharply demarcated yellow apical margins; on tergite one this margin disappears laterally, on remaining tergites it tapers away on reflexed margin, tergites seven and eight with yellow apices very narrow or lacking. Sternites black cuticle with grey dusting dulling but not entirely obscuring the ground colour, apical yellow margins obscure. Tergites and sternites all covered with relatively short pale yellow hairs, mostly erect but on basal tergites tending to be inclined towards mid-line. GENITALIA. Conspicuously large and globular. Gonocoxites black to dark brown, shining, composed of two rounded hemispheres separated by a deep sulcus. Epandrium shining black to dark brown. Both gonocoxite and epandrium covered in long yellow hairs, denser than on tergites, especially so on gonocoxite. Female Very similar to male except for broader frons, narrowest at rear where one fifth to one quarter head width, hind ocellus separated from eye by about one and a half times the diameter of that ocellus. Frons widening more evenly towards the front, hairs more extensive, biserial along eye margins to rear of front ocellus. Thorax very similar, hairing tending to be rather shorter. Yellow apical margins to the tergites relatively broader. Abdominal hairing a little sparser and shorter. Proximal part of genital fork more or less in line with angle of the arms, attached membranously, broadest towards pointed tip, basal spermathecal ducts normal, fusing at or just before the vaginal plate which is contiguous with the genital fork and not differentiated. Remarks Within this genus of eight species there is considerable uniformity in external characters, differences between the species being subtle and not likely to be much use in deducing affinities within the genus. The female genitalia suggest that this species is most closely allied to the other two Parusia gen. nov. that occur in Spain Pru. loewi and Pru. propinqua gen. et sp. nov. Of the African-Tyrrhenian species probably related to Pru. aurata, in which the male and female genitalia are closest to the Iberian species. Distribution Southeast Spain., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 123-125, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958

Apolysis sedophila (Brunetti, 1909) Usia sedophila Brunetti, 1909: 227. Type material Syntypes INDIA • 3 ♀♀; “ Syntype / Usia sedophila Brunetti, Cotype / Syntype Usia sedophila Brunetti. det. J.E. Chainey 1986/[leg.] Annandale, Simla, Alt. 7000ft., 16 May [19]09/On flowers of Sedum rosulatum /Recd. in exch., from, Indian Museum., Calcutta., 1910-14/ Usia sedophila Brun ♂ ♀ ”; NHMUK. Other material examined INDIA • 7 ♀♀; “ On Sedum flowers/ India, Phagu to Kufri, Simla Hills, 8-9000ft., 21 May 1916 /[leg.] Annandale & Kemp/Standing over sedophila Brunetti, in J. Bowden Coll., BMNH(E) 2003-159”; NHMUK. Remarks Although originally described in Usia this species was moved to Apolysis by Evenhuis & Greathead (1999) and this is confirmed here with some notes on the syntypes. Despite the suggestion on one label, all specimens in the NHMUK, both syntypes and non-type material, are females. While all the seven non-type specimens are conspecific, and are the same species as two of the syntypes, the third (with the cotype label) seems to be a different taxon. All 10 specimens are Apolysis as this genus is currently defined so it is reasonable to assume that any other syntypes in Indian museums will also be Apolysis. Thus, although the specific identity of A. sedophila is currently uncertain, that it belongs in Apolysis is certain. Distribution India (Himachal Pradesh), Pakistan., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on page 154, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Brunetti E. 1909. New Indian Leptidae and Bombyliidae with a note on Comastes osten Sacken, v. Heterostylum Macquart. Records of the Indian Museum 3: 211 - 230.","Evenhuis N. L. & Greathead D. J. 1999. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden."]}

Parusia loewi (Becker, 1906) gen. et comb. nov. Figs 17, 31, 65 Usia loewi Becker, 1906: 219. Etymology Named after Friedrich Hermann Loew (1807–1879). Type material Lectotype (here designated) SPAIN • ♂; “ Andalusia, Rosenhauer/ Coll. H. Loew /Zool. Mus. Berlin/95719 Typus ”; ZMHB. Paralectotype SPAIN • 1 ♀ [on same pin. A second label, not on the pin when examined but associated with these specimens]; “ grata Lw. ♀ det Becker”; ZMHB. Other material examined SPAIN • 2 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀; “ Malaga Province, Marbella 29, 30 April 1983 ”; NHMUK • 6 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀; “ 2–6 May 1983 (leg. J. Bowden)[dark form]”; NHMUK • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Salamanca, Villar de Ciervo, Las Coronas 23–25 May 1999 yellow pan”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “ 6 km N. of Villar de Ciervo 26.v–2.vi.1999 1 ♀ (leg. H.- P. Tschorsnig)”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “ Andalusia, Veer de la Frontera 29 March 2000 1 ♀ (leg. D.J. Greathead)”; NHMUK • 1 ♂; “ Malaga (Espagne), Don José Maria, de la Fuentes”; MNHN • 2 ♀♀; “ Museum Paris, Espagne, coll. Dufouri / Usia aurata ”; MNHN • 1 ♂; “ Madrid, Maniola [?], G. Sharma / Usia / Usia aurata Em’s/Museum Paris, Coll. J. Surcouf 1919”; MNHN • 5 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; “ Andalusia, near Padul, 783 m, N37°01′40″ W3°37′3″ 2 May 2008, Leg. D.J. Gibbs ”; PCDG • ♂ ♀ in cop.; “ 780 m N37°01′42″ W3°37′5″ 2 May 2008, Leg. D.J. Gibbs”; PCDG • 2 ♀♀; “ 840 m N37°02′47″ W3°38′43″ 1 May 2008, Leg. D.J. Gibbs”; PCDG. Redescription MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.4–5.0 mm. Wing length: 2.5–5.1 mm. Male HEAD. Gena and mouth margin brownish black to black in ground colour, narrower than the apical breadth of a palp, grey dusted gena narrow, linear, more shining mouth margin broader, sometimes yellowish. Eyes separated at their narrowest by twice the diameter of the front ocellus, hind ocellus separated from the eye margin by less than half the diameter of that ocellus. Frons brownish black to black in ground colour, ocellar tubercle shining, barely dusted, narrow part of frons matt blackish, noticeably converging from hind corners to well in front of anterior ocellus, then widening relatively abruptly onto anterior of frons. Front part of frons densely blue-grey dusted, rather more thinly so centrally. White hairs on ocellar tubercle conspicuously longer than the width of the frons at rear, narrow part of frons bare, anterior part of frons with numerous white hairs which are no more than half the length of those on the ocellar tubercle. Occiput dark in ground colour densely covered with grey or brownish dust, triangular area behind ocelli more thinly dusted, subshining. The whole covered with erect pale yellow to white hairs, short above just overtopping ocellar tubercle, much longer below, silky, slightly wavy but not very dense. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae blackish, tip of pedicel somewhat paler in lectotype, postpedicel variable but usually approximately twice length of scape and pedicel together, sensilla in subapical sulcus sometimes whitish so conspicuous. All antennal segments with short pale brown hairs above, longest just before subapical sulcus. Palps short but easily visible, strongly clavate, brown to black, the pale yellow apical setae as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis not very long, approximately one and a half head lengths, dorso-laterally clothed with short, adpressed brown setae. Basoventral membrane brown. THORAX. Blackish ground colour largely obscured by blue-grey dust except along the conspicuous paramedian and antehumeral vittae where the shining black cuticle shows through, dulled by a variably very thin coating of brownish dust, subshining or even shining. Paramedian vittae variable a little narrower to a little broader then acrostichal dusted stripe, extending from very front of mesonotum to three quarters the way back. Antehumeral vittae divided at thoracic suture, sometimes a vague darker spot above wing base, area in front of scutellum usually darker, more thinly dusted. Mesonotum covered with moderately long, pale yellow hair, the longest hairs as long as those on the ocellar tubercle. Scutellum relatively sparsely haired on the disc, long hairs fringing the apical margin. Pleura dusted as notopleuron, with similar hairs on pronotum, posterior half of the anepisternum and a few scattered across katepisternum. Metepimeron partly yellow in lectotype, entirely dark in other specimens, glabrous. WING. Membrane faintly brown tinged, especially in first basal cell, the veins brown. Crossvein r-m a little beyond basal third of discal cell, conspicuously beyond m-cu. Anal lobe moderately developed with evenly convex margin, about as broad as the anal cell. HALTERE. Pale yellow to white, base of stem slightly brownish. LEGS. Coxae dark with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleura. Remainder of legs black or very dark brown, only thinly dusted so not obscuring the shining cuticle. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with rather long, white hairs, on the femora longer than the greatest depth of the femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, white hairs. ABDOMEN. All tergites black appearing undusted but rendered matt by thin dark brown dusting, dully shining on disc, tergite seven undusted, shining. Laterally on the reflexed margin densely grey dusted obscuring the ground colour, most extensive on tergite one where it extends to the scutellum. All tergites with narrow to quite broad, conspicuous and sharply demarcated yellow apical margins, narrowing laterally but even clear on tergite one here. Sternites black and densely grey dusted obscuring the ground colour, apical yellow margins less well defined. Tergites and sternites all covered with fairly long, erect white to very pale yellow hairs, longest on sternites. GENITALIA. Conspicuously large and globular compared to most Protypusia gen. nov., but typical for Parusia gen. nov. Gonocoxites black to dark brown, shining, composed of two rounded hemispheres separated by a deep sulcus. Gonostylus sharply curved, tip at right angles to base and twisted, often visible in dried specimens. Epandrium shining black to dark brown, apico-lateral corners rounded. Both gonocoxite and epandrium covered in long whitish to pale yellow hairs, longest and densest on gonocoxite. Female Differs from the male in its more broadly separated eyes, three to three and a half times the diameter of the front ocellus, about one-fifth head width at narrowest point, hind ocelli separated from the eye margins by approximately twice the diameter of these ocelli. A few hairs on the middle part of the frons laterally. Hairs on legs and abdomen shorter, conspicuously so on the abdomen. Apical yellow margins to tergites rather broader, tergite eight not noticeably more shining than preceding tergites. Proximal part of genital fork strongly curved, sometimes at more than a right-angle when viewed laterally. Common spermathecal duct attached to distal end of main sclerotised part of genital fork at an acute angle so pointing towards base of abdomen or at right angles so pointing dorsally. Dark form A series from Malaga Province, southern Spain is significantly darker than the typical form and gives the appearance of being a different species. However, this darker appearance is due to no more than the dusting on the mesonotum being less extensive and thinner such that the ground colour shows through. In some individuals the dust also looks darker and browner but some in the series have dusting very like the typical form, just slightly less extensive. The paramedian vittae are much broader, divided by a narrow dusted acrostichal line which almost disappears posteriorly. Antehumeral vittae also more extensive, dusting on posterior part of mesonotum and scutellum inconspicuous such that these areas are subshining black. Dusting on occiput can be darker and browner. Tergites with narrower yellow apical margins. The male genitalia and female genital fork show some slight differences from the typical form but these are not sufficient to justify specific separation. Remarks This species seems to be the commonest and most widespread of the genus in Iberia, the other two Spanish species so far only known in Andalusia. The female genitalia suggest that it is closest to the other two Iberian species, with Pru. aurata showing the closest affinities in North Africa. Distribution Southern Spain north to Salamanca., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 138-141, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Becker T. 1906. Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift 50 [1905]: 193 - 228."]}

Parusia propinqua gen. et sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: AE374F61-1A31-46DA-9C35-C986FD795B31 Fig. 66 Etymology From Latin ‘ propinquus ’ = ‘near’, ‘neighbouring’, ‘related’; refers to the great similarity of this species to other members of the aurata -species group. Type material Holotype SPAIN • ♂; “ Andalusia, Sierra Nevada, above Padul, 1341 m, N37°02.732′ W3°36.321′, 1 May 2008, leg. D.J. Gibbs ”; NHMUK. Paratypes SPAIN • 1 ♂; “ Andalusia, Sierra Nevada, above Padul, 1346 m, N37°02.736′ W3°36.324′, 2 May 2008, leg. D.J. Gibbs ”; PCDG • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Almeria, Uleila N37°11′56″ W02°12′07″ 740 m 25 March 2001, leg. J. Dils & J. Faes ”; PCJD • 2 ♀♀; “ Baños y Mendigo, 13 km S of Murcia, Mosa Trajectum 14 May 2004 leg. C.E. Dyte ”; NHMUK • 1 ♀; “same data”; PCDG. Description MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.6–3.9 mm. Wing length: 2.7–4.2 mm. Male HEAD. Gena and mouth margin brownish black to black in ground colour, narrower than the apical breadth of a palp, grey dusted gena narrow, linear, more shining mouth margin broader. Eyes separated at their narrowest by two to three times the diameter of the front ocellus, hind ocellus separated from the eye margin by about half the diameter of that ocellus (on average more widely separated than in Pru. loewi). Ocellar tubercle shining, barely dusted, frons brownish black to black in ground colour, narrow part matt grey dusted, more blackish at narrowest part from some angles, noticeably converging from hind corners to well in front of anterior ocellus, then widening relatively abruptly onto anterior of frons. Front part of frons densely blue-grey dusted, rather more thinly so centrally. White hairs on ocellar tubercle conspicuously longer than the width of the frons at rear, narrow part of frons bare, anterior part of frons with numerous white hairs which are no more than half the length of those on the ocellar tubercle, mostly much shorter. Occiput dark in ground colour densely covered with grey or brownish dust, triangular area behind ocelli equally dusted. The whole covered with erect pale yellow to white hairs, short above just overtopping ocellar tubercle, much longer below, silky, slightly wavy but not very dense. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae blackish, postpedicel variable but usually a little less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, sensilla in subapical sulcus white and conspicuous in the three male types. All antennal segments with short pale brown hairs above, longest just before subapical sulcus. Palps short but easily visible, strongly clavate, brown to black, the pale yellow apical setae as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis not very long, approximately one and a half head lengths, dorso-laterally clothed with short, inclined brown setae, basoventral membrane brown. THORAX. Black ground colour largely obscured by grey to brown dust except along the conspicuous paramedian and antehumeral vittae where the shining black cuticle shows through, dulled by a thin coating of brownish dust, subshining. Paramedian vittae variable a little narrower to a little broader than dusted acrostichal stripe, extending from very front of mesonotum to three quarters of the way back. Antehumeral vittae usually divided at thoracic suture, lacking darker spot above wing base, area in front of scutellum can be darker, more thinly dusted. Mesonotum covered with moderately long, pale yellow hair, the longest hairs as long as those on the ocellar tubercle. Scutellum relatively sparsely haired on the disc, long hairs fringing the apical margin. Pleura dusted as notopleuron, with similar hairs on pronotum, posterior half of the anepisternum and a few scattered across katepisternum. Metepimeron dark in specimens so far seen. WING. Membrane faintly brown tinged, the veins brown, yellower basally. Crossvein r-m a little beyond basal third of discal cell, conspicuously beyond m-cu. Anal lobe moderately developed with evenly convex margin, about as broad as the anal cell. HALTERE. Pale yellow to white, base of stem slightly brownish. LEGS. Coxae dark with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleura. Remainder of legs black or very dark brown, only thinly dusted so not obscuring the shining cuticle. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with rather long, white hairs, on the femora longer than the greatest depth of the femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, white hairs. ABDOMEN. All tergites black and shining, but very inconspicuously dusted so not as glossy as completely undusted cuticle would be (compare gonocoxite). Tergite one more densely brown dusted so not shining, laterally reflexed margins of all tergites densely grey dusted obscuring the ground colour. All tergites with narrow to very narrow, sharply demarcated yellow apical margins, visible at least laterally even if dull yellow, often obsolete on disc and tapering away towards sternites. Sternites black and densely grey dusted obscuring the ground colour, apical yellow margins absent or very obscure. Tergites and sternites all covered with fairly long, erect yellow hairs, longest on sternites. GENITALIA. Conspicuously large and globular compared to most Protypusia gen. nov., but typical for Parusia gen. nov. Gonocoxites black to dark brown, shining, composed of two rounded hemispheres separated by a deep sulcus. Gonostylus sharply curved, apical three-fifths at right angles to basal twofifths. Epandrium shining black to dark brown, apico-lateral corners rounded. Both gonocoxite and epandrium covered in long whitish to pale yellow hairs, longest and densest on gonocoxite. Female Differs from the male in its more broadly separated eyes, about five times the diameter of the front ocellus, about one-fifth head width at narrowest point, hind ocellus separated from the eye margin by approximately one and a half times the diameter of that ocellus. A few hairs on the middle part of the frons laterally (sometimes very inconspicuous). Hairs on legs and abdomen shorter, conspicuously so on the abdomen. Apical yellow margins to tergites significantly broader and brighter, not or hardly narrowing medially, tergite eight not noticeably more shining than preceding tergites. Proximal part of genital fork flat (only two dissected specimens), spathulate, bluntly pointed. Common spermathecal duct attached to distal end of main sclerotized part of genital fork at an obtuse angle or at right angles so pointing towards tip of abdomen or dorsally. Remarks Very closely allied to Pru. loewi and occurring alongside it at the type locality although at a higher altitude. Differs mainly in the form of the epiphallus, non-genitalic features being very subtle. Based on the few specimens available, this species is smaller, darker, with less shining thoracic vittae and reduced yellow apical margins to the tergites. Females differ subtly in the form of the genital fork but may not always be reliably determinable. However, in the specimens dissected so far the form of the genital fork and attachment of the common spermathecal duct is consistent. Distribution Southeastern Spain., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 141-144, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958

Protypusia strymonas gen. et sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 5D2D1180-1764-4057-9044-52869C88F438 Fig. 56 Etymology Noun in apposition, named after the River Strymonas that flows through Lake Kerkini, Northern Greece. Type material Holotype GREECE • ♂; “ Kerkini, Ecotourism site 65 m, N41°8′15.6″ E23°13′1″, 19 June 2008, leg. G. Ramel pan trap”; NHMUK. Paratypes GREECE • 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; “ Kerkini, Ecotourism site 65 m, N41°8′15.6″ E23°13′1″, 19 June 2008, leg. G. Ramel pan trap”; NHMUK • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “same data”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “ 1–7August 2006, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; PCDG • 1 ♂; “ 15-21 August 2006, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “ Lithotopossite, N41° 13740 E23° 21714, 20-26 June 2005, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; NHMUK • 1 ♀; “ Krousia Site 190 m, N41°11′32.4″ E23°3′59.5″, 8–14 August 2007, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “ 11–17 July 2007, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; PCDG. Description MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 1.8–2.4 mm. Wing length: 1.8–2.2 mm. Male HEAD. Gena plus mouth margin very narrow, no wider than anterior ocellus, the shining yellowish mouth margin significantly broader than the linear, often hardly visible dusted gena. Gena broadening fairly abruptly just below antennae, running into long narrow frons, at antennal insertions no wider than scape, covered with grey to brown dust. Eyes narrowly separated by about half the diameter of the anterior ocellus or even less. Vertex between the eyes densely grey-brown dusted, similar to frons. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, dark brown dusted, all ocelli contiguous with the eye margins or narrowly separated, especially anterior ocellus. Yellow hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as width of vertex at its broadest, often sparse or even absent. Eye facets small and equal throughout. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with grey-brown dust. Occiput covered with pale yellow to white hairs, upper ones just behind eyes relatively long, almost equalling hairs on ocellar tubercle, those on ventral side of head similar only a little longer. Antennae black with a brown or grey cast on scape and pedicel, postpedicel a little longer than scape and pedicel together, conspicuously contracted below in apical third, tip truncate (postpedicel rather variable in size and shape). Palps small but readily seen, pale greyish-white with a few inconspicuous pale hairs apically. Proboscis black, not exceptionally long, about equal to thorax including scutellum, hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane pale-whitish. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dense grey to brown dust, often with a golden or olive tinge, patterned with sharply defined dark brown paramedian vittae back to just rear of wing bases and antehumeral vittae, the latter broadly separated at thoracic suture. The median area in front of scutellum and posterior to the paramedian vittae with darker brown, poorly defined area; often a well-defined dark brown spot on supra-alar area just behind transverse suture (obscure in some). Hairs of mesonotum white to pale yellow, rather sparse, relatively short, arranged biserially along acrostichal and uniserially along dorsocentral lines, more general on lateral parts of mesonotum. Scutellum dark grey-brown, dusting similar to adjacent parts of mesonotum, more or less darker longitudinal mid-line, yellowish to white hairs very scant on disc longer around margin. Pleura greyer dusted than mesonotum, pronotum and posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with short yellow to white hairs. Anterior spiracle conspicuously white. WING. Membrane hyaline with the faintest brownish tinge, the veins brown, yellower basally. Crossvein r-m between one third and mid-point of discal cell, distinctly beyond m-cu. Anal lobe fairly well developed with evenly convex margin, about as broad as anal cell. HALTERE. Whitish, stem slightly infuscated especially at base, knob with a clear dark brown dorsal spot. LEGS. Dark brown, coxae variable with dull yellow apices, trochanters murky yellow to brown, hind ones often with blackish rim, femora narrowly yellow basally and apically, often obscure, tibia and base of basitarsi dull yellow tending to be infuscated dorsally, remainder of tarsi blackish. Coxae grey dusted like pleura, femora more thinly grey dusted. Coxae, femora and tibia clothed with short white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally often also a little longer haired. ABDOMEN. Dark brown dusted with greyer dust laterally all tergites with narrow but clear yellow apical margins, broadest on middle tergites and laterally, extending right to edge of tergites. All tergites with variable white to pale yellow hairs shorter than the length of respective tergite especially on basal tergites, hairs a little longer laterally. Sternites similar to tergites but more evenly grey dusted, apical margins whiter, hairing short and sparse. GENITALIA. Large for Protypusia gen. nov., but a little smaller than in Pro. punctipennis, concolourous with abdomen, but more obviously grey dusted, tip of epandrium dull yellow-brown, less dusted so shinier, gonocoxite also with shiny yellow apices, much longer-haired than tergites, epandrium shorterhaired but still slightly longer-haired than tergites. Female Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, about one fifth head width, hind ocelli separated from eye margin by a one and a half times their diameter. Frons dusted as occiput, a little greyer, a darker brown line down middle from front ocellus to antennae, this dark area continued behind ocellar tubercle onto occiput. Frons with short sparse hairs antero-laterally. Postpedicel averages a little shorter. Hairing of thorax and legs shorter. Abdomen also short haired but not much different to male. Legs very similar to male, in some more extensively yellow. Remarks See Pro. punctipennis and Pro. kerkini gen. et sp. nov. Only eight specimens known from two samples at almost the same location in the village of Lithotopos to the south of Lake Kerkini, Northern Greece. Presumably more widely distributed but Usiini have a tendency towards endemism so could be very restricted. Distribution Greece (Lake Kerkini)., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 109-112, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958

Apolysis turkmenica (Paramonov, 1947) comb. nov. Parageron turkmenicus Paramonov, 1947: 218. Type material Holotype TURKMENISTAN • ♂; “ Askhabad, Transcaspia 23 April 1926 1 ♂ (leg. S.J. Paramonov)/ Oligodranes modestus Lw. S. Paramonov det. ♂ / Parageron turkmenicus sp. Nov ♂ S. Paramonov det./ Holotypus / Zool. Mus. Berlin”; ZMHB. Other material examined UZBEKISTAN • 1 ♂; “Samarkand, along river Zeravshan N39°38′ E67°04′ 22 May 1989 1 ♂ ”; NHMUK • 1 ♂; “ 2 km E, pasture N39°39′ E67°01′ 22 May 1989 1 ♂ (leg. Barták, coll. D.J. Greathead)”; NHMUK • 1 ♀; “Kisilkum, Fedchenko/Coll. H.Loew/ Typus / Oligodranes modestus cotypus Lw ♀ /КиЗилъкумъ [Kizilkum]/ Usia sp. Dr. E.O. Engel det/Zool. Mus. Berlin [this specimen is part of the type series of Oligodranes modestus Loew, 1873 (placed in Parageron by Evenhuis & Greathead (1999), Evenhuis & Greathead (2015) and in Protypusia in this review) but is certainly an Apolysis and very likely an example of A. turkmenicus]”; ZMHB. Remarks Unfortunately, the holotype now lacks antennae making a generic diagnosis difficult. However, it is a very small, slender-bodied species with holoptic eyes, a long, narrow discal cell and broadly developed anal lobe, all characters typical of Apolysis. The genitalia are very small and in the undissected specimen were retracted into the apical tergites rendering them invisible. Upon dissection, it became evident that the genitalia are of the Apolysis type, rotated 90°, gonostylus sub-bifurcate, and epiphallus simple. A particularly interesting feature is the apparent absence of the lateral ejaculatory apodeme, a condition found in other Apolysis but never in Usiini. Comparison with two further males from the Greathead collection (in NHMUK) and dissection of a probable female provide further evidence for the placing of this species in Apolysis. Distribution Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 154-155, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Paramonov S. J. 1947. Uebersicht der mit der Gattung Usia Latr. (Bombyliidae, Diptera) naechstverwandten Gattungen. Eos 23: 207 - 220. Available from http: // hdl. handle. net / 10261 / 149924 [accessed 25 Jan. 2023].","Loew H. 1873 Beschreibungen europaischer Dipteren. Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europaischen zweiflugeligen Insecten. Von Johann Wilhelm Meigen. Zehnter Theil oder vierter Supplementband. Beschreibungen europaischer Dipteren. Dritter Band. H. W. Schmidt, Halle.","Evenhuis N. L. & Greathead D. J. 1999. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.","Evenhuis N. L. & Greathead D. J. 2015. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae) web site. Available from http: // hbs. bishopmuseum. org / bombcat / [accessed 25 Jan. 2023]."]}

Ectopusia additivaneura (Carles-Tolrá, 2009) gen. et comb. nov. Fig. 33 Parageron additivaneura Carles-Tolrá, 2009: 64. Etymology The specific name refers to the distinct additional crossvein present between veins R 2+3 and R 4 (‘ additivus ’ = ‘additional’ in Latin; ‘ neuron ’ = ‘vein’ in Greek). Type material Holotype SPAIN • ♂; “ Almería, 10-5-2004 Parque Natural Cabo de Gata –Níjar, pitfall, A. Aguirre leg./ Parageron additivaneura sp. n. ♂ Holotipo M. Carles-Tolrá det.”; PCMC-T. Paratype SPAIN • 1 ♀; “ Almería, 3-5-2004 Parque Natural Cabo de Gata –Níjar, pitfall, A.Aguirre leg./ Parageron additivaneura sp. n. ♀ Paratipo M. Carles-Tolrá det.”; PCMC-T. Redescription (from two specimens in spirit, so some details will not be comparable with descriptions from pinned material) MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.9–4.4 mm. Wing length: 3.4 mm. Male HEAD. Gena relatively narrow, at narrowest point about as broad as scape is long, broadening above into frons, entirely yellow in ground colour, a very narrow shinier border to the oral opening below. Frons converging dorsally to its narrowest point just in front of front ocellus were it is separated by four times the diameter of front ocellus. Frons yellowish-white with short adpressed white hairs anteriorly. Ocellar tubercle darker brownish, ocelli arranged in an equilateral triangle, the hind ocelli a little more than the diameter of that ocellus from eye margin, a few short, white hairs close to hind ocelli. All eye facets small. Occiput dark brown becoming blacker towards neck; covered with long white hairs longer than length of scape and pedicel combined, especially dense and ‘shaggy’ below. Antennae with scape and pedicel light brown a little darker than frons, third segment lighter, yellowish, especially apically. Scape quadrate, pedicel a little deeper than long, postpedicel, a little less than twice as long as scape and pedicel together, swollen basally with narrow, parallel-sided tip. Scape and pedicel with numerous short white hairs, third segment sparsely haired towards tip on dorsal side. Palps small but readily visible, slightly swollen apically, whitish-yellow with conspicuous white apical hairs about three quarters the length of the palp. Proboscis moderate, about twice frons length, brown, tapering but without swollen base, naked, the basoventral membrane pale brown. THORAX. Mesonotum blackish in ground-colour, yellowish post pronotal lobe, notopleuron and post alar calli; densely coated with grey dust, no darker or undusted vittae apparent. Mesonotum largely naked but white hairs on post pronotal lobe, anterior slope of mesonotum, notopleuron and a very few near scutellum. Scutellum as mesonotum but disc yellower, long white hairs present basally. Pleura yellowish-brown, a little darker on ventral parts of katepisternum and meron with long white hairs on katepisternum dorsally and anepisternum dorso-medially. WING. Additional crossvein present between veins R 2+3 and R 4. Membrane clear and veins whitish except where infuscated. Fork R 2+3 /R 4+5, base of R 4 and crossveins R 2+3 -R 4, r-m, m-m and m-cu infuscated brownish on vein and narrowly on to adjacent membrane. Crossvein r-m a little beyond middle of the discal cell, conspicuously beyond m-cu. Anal lobe well developed with conspicuously convex margin, obviously broader than anal cell. HALTERE. Knob whitish, stem slightly infuscated, especially at base. LEGS. Coxae slightly paler brown than pleura. Femora, tibia and tarsi yellowish-brown. Legs covered with white hairs, longer and more erect on the coxae and femora posteriorly, tibia hairs short and adpressed. ABDOMEN. Tergites brownish on basal two thirds, with fairly well demarcated yellow posterior margins on remainder. All tergites with pale hairs from a half to equalling the length of each tergite longer laterally. Sternites similar but paler and yellower, infuscated basally, hairing as on tergites. GENITALIA. Brown, paler apically, pale gonostyli, covered in fairly long white hairs as on tergites. Female As male except gena a little broader and frons wider, evenly narrowed from front to vertex, eyes smaller, lateral ocelli a little more distant from eye margin. Frons infuscated medially so less clear yellow than in male. Antennae a little shorter, not so abruptly contracted apically. Mesonotum with slightly paler paramedian vittae separated by a narrow, dark acrostichal stripe. Abdomen tapering to a point. Remarks This recently discovered species is clearly distinct from all other Usiini and it is difficult to know where its affinities may lie. The female genitalia suggest affinity with Parageron s. str., with rather weakly sclerotised genital fork and unpigmented vaginal plate. However, males of this genus are holoptic or nearly so with differentiated eye facets. The gonostyli also show some similarity to those seen in Parageron s. str., with a prominent internal ‘thumb’-like process, but the epiphallus really does not conform, being closest to Protypusia flavipalpis gen. et sp. nov., otherwise a quite different species. It seems most probable that Ectopusia gen. nov. is basal to Parageron s. lat. Distribution So far only known from the type locality in Almería, Southern Spain., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 32-35, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Carles-Tolra M. 2009. Two new bombyliid species from Spain (Diptera, Bombyliidae). Boletin de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa 44: 63 - 66."]}

Protypusia raydahensis (El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016) gen. et comb. nov. Fig. 55 Parageron raydahensis El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016: 1307. Etymology After the locality “Garf Raydah” where the types were collected. Type material Holotype KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA • ♂; “ Not seen but photographs studied. Asir.Abha. Raydah, 1811.884’ N, 4224.435’E, Alt. 2387 m asl, 8 June 2014, Sweep-net Leg. El-Hawagry”; KSMA. Paratypes KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA • 1 ♂; “not seen but photographs of EFC specimens studied Asir. Abha. Raydah, 1811.884’ N, 4224.435’E, Alt. 2387 m asl, 7 June 2014, Sweep-net Leg. El-Hawagry”; EFC • 2 ♀♀; “ Asir. Abha. Raydah, 1811.884’ N, 4224.435’E, Alt. 2387 m asl, 7 June 2014, Malaise Leg. Al Dhafer, H; Fadl, H; Abdel Dayem, M; El Torkey, A; El Gharbawy, A”; KSMA • 1 ♀; “same data”; EFC. Other material examined Metatypes KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA • 1 ♂; “ Asir. Abha. Raydah, 18°11.749’ N, 42°23.345’E, Alt. 1614 m asl, 5 September 2015, M.T.9 [Malaise Trap 9] Leg. Al Dhafer, H; Fadl, H; Abdeldayem, M; El Torkey, A; El Gharbawy, A; Soliman,A/ Parageron raydahensis El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016 ♂ ”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “same data. Parageron raydahensis El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016 ♀ ”; PCDG (donated by KSMA). Redescription MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.7–3.2 mm. Wing length: 3.6–4.0 mm. Male HEAD. Frons and gena densely silvery dusted entirely obscuring ground colour, longer erect hairs almost absent, can look more yellowish from some angles. Eye margin of frons sigmoid when viewed from directly above. Silvery dusted gena narrowing below antennae, at narrowest point narrower than the more shining, yellowish mouth margin, slightly protuberant. Occiput and ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour fairly densely covered with whitish dust, browner between ocelli, slightly thinner and more shining on elongate triangle behind ocelli. Ocellar tubercle with fine, pale yellow hairs about as long as width across hind ocelli, occiput with fine white, dorsally not over-topping ocellar tubercle, becoming longer ventrally but not particularly dense. All ocelli in contact with eye margin. Eyes confluent for slightly longer than the length of vertex (from photos about 1:1.1). Ommatidia conspicuously enlarged in the upper half to two fifths of the eyes, the transition to the smaller ones occupying the lower part distinct but not very abrupt. Antennae blackish, sparsely whitish dusted, scape approximately as long as broad, pedicel shorter, approximately one and a half times as broad as long. Postpedicel rather elongate, parallel-sided, roundly blunt-ended, with a small point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus, almost twice as long as scape and pedicel together and three times as long as deep. Sensilla in subapical sulcus whitish translucent so relatively conspicuous. Short, sparse whitish hairs on scape and pedicel, postpedicel with very short, sparse hairs dorsally, longer and more frequent before sub-apical sulcus. Palps small, slightly clavate, dark brown to black with a few short white hairs apically. Proboscis relatively long, approximately three to three and a half times the length of the head, longer than head, thorax and scutellum combined, dorsally entirely devoid of hairs, black, basoventral membrane brownish-yellow to dirty white. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by whitish-grey to brownish dust. Mesonotum with pronounced dark-brown to blackish, subshining paramedian and antehumeral vittae the latter widely divided at thoracic suture a very faint round dark spot between wing base and posterior antehumeral vittae. The grey acrostichal line is narrower than to about as wide as the paramedian vittae at their widest (about middle), anterior antehumeral vittae as broad or broader than the grey dusted area between paramedian and antehumeral vittae. Whole of mesonotum and scutellum covered with fine, whitish hairs, coarser and longer laterally. Paramedian and antehumeral vittae bare, acrostichal hairs bi- triserial, dorsocentrals in four to fine irregular lines. Scutellar hairs rather longer, especially laterally. Dusting of scutellum as mesonotum but thinner so shining cuticle visible centrally and in posterior view distinct paler grey dusting baso laterally. Pleura grey dusted as notopleuron, a little greyer and denser than on disc of mesonotum with similar hairs on pronotum, sparsely scattered across hind half of anepisternum and in antero-dorsal corner of katepisternum. WING. Membrane hyaline, faintly brown tinted, the veins brown, paler on subcosta and basally. Crossvein r-m within or at basal third of the discal cell just a little beyond m-cu.Anal lobe broad with conspicuously convex margin, clearly broader than anal cell. HALTERE. White to pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated, in some a clear brown infuscation on base of knob dorsally. In other examples with base of knob more or less infuscated with brown. LEGS. Largely black with a coating of thin white dust, denser, similar to pleura, on coxae. Femora with the tips narrowly clear yellowish, a little redder on hind femora. Hind tibia narrowly yellow at extreme base, other tibia more extensively yellow, especially mid tibia dorsally. Adpressed fine whitish hairs clothe legs, rather longer, hairs on four anterior femora posteroventrally, on hind pair anteroventrally and on coxae. Hind tibia with a fairly regular uniserial row of darker setae dorsally on apical half. ABDOMEN. Tergites dark brown to black, tending to be blacker basally, browner close to pale apical margins, thinly brownish-grey dusted, subshining, laterally and on reflexed margins much more densely yellow-grey dusted, denser than that on pleura and almost obscuring ground colour. Tergite one with dusting on reflexed lateral margins not strongly delimited, merging into dusting of disc which is a little more densely dusted than tergite two. Each tergite with sharply demarcated pale yellowish apical margins, mostly narrower than the thickness of a tibia. Sternites densely grey dusted as reflexed margins of tergites with pale apical margins paler and narrower than those on respective tergites. Tergites and sternites all covered with sparse, fine, silky whitish hairs, longest on lateral margins of tergites, tergite one hairless on disc except pale apical margin which has relatively short, adpressed hairs. Tergites two and three also bare basally, much of disc only sparsely haired. GENITALIA. Relatively large when compared to other holoptic species. Gonocoxites black to dark brown, apices reddish brown, yellowish grey dusted, subshining, paler tips shining, undusted, with whitish hairs similar to those on lateral margins of tergites. Epandrium rectangular when viewed laterally, blackish brown basally with broad yellow apical margin, especially the triangularly pointed apical corners, covered with short, adpressed whitish hairs similar to those on tibia. Gonostyli and epiphallic complex essentially identical to Pro. negevi gen. et comb. nov. as far as can be seen in undissected specimen. Female Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons dark in ground colour, except anteriorly between antenna where brownish yellow, densely grey-brown dusted, any hairs minute and confined to anterior third and lateral margins, a small dark shining spot centrally. Hind ocelli separated from eye-margin by about twice the diameter of that ocellus. Frons about a quarter to two-fifths head width. Mesonotum darker markings can be less conspicuous, the antehumeral vittae very obscure, or as male. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter, significantly so on the abdomen. In dried specimen apical sternite strongly convex, sharply ridged apically, fairly thinly yellow-grey dusted, subshining. Remarks In the key provided by Engel (1932) this taxon runs to Pro. inornata; and to Usia grisea Efflatoun with the key in Efflatoun (1945). It has not been possible to study male specimens of either species, but from Efflatoun’s (1945) descriptions, Pro. raydahensis gen. et comb. nov. is significantly smaller than Pro. inornata and larger than Usia grisea, and from both by more extensive pale bases to the four anterior tibia and more thinly dusted mesonotum with shining paramedian and antehumeral vittae. Also, it seems likely that Usia grisea in fact belongs in Apolysis based on its very small size and Efflatoun’s (1945: pl. 20 fig. 319) illustration of the antennae but is currently retained in unplaced Usia. Protypusia raydahensis gen. et comb. nov. is very closely allied to Pro. negevi gen. et comb. nov., the male and female genitalia being exceedingly similar. Protypusia negevi is a much paler, densely dovegrey dusted species with very inconspicuous, vaguely darker paramedian and antehumeral vittae. Distribution Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mountains of the Asir province in the southwest of the country., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 105-109, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Engel E. O. 1932. Bombyliidae. In: Lindner E. (ed.) Die Fliegen der palaarktischen Region. Vol. 4. pt. 3. E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart.","Efflatoun H. C. 1945. A monograph of Egyptian Diptera. Part VI. Family Bombyliidae. Section 1: Subfamily Bombyliidae Homoeophthalmae. Bulletin de la Societe Fouad Ier d'Entomologie 29: 1 - 483."]}

Protypusia kerkini gen. et sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 82A88DD4-C822-404F-8C71-B3DB47C9F344 Fig. 50 Etymology Noun in apposition, after the type locality, Kerkini, in Northern Greece. Type material Holotype GREECE • ♂; “ Kerkini, Midway site 750 m, N41°18′49.8″ E23°16′35.6″, 23-29 June 2008, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; NHMUK. Paratypes GREECE • 1 ♂; “ Kerkini, Lithotopos site, N41° 13740 E23° 21714, 20-26 June 2005, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; NHMUK • 1♀; “ Kerkini site, N41° 15181 E23° 19866, 20-26June 2005, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; NHMUK • 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; “ Tree 4 330 m, N41°16′33.4 E23°12′49.8, 14-20 July 2008, leg. G. Ramel pan trap”; OUMNH • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Krousia Mts. Site 190 m, N41°11′32″ E23°3′59″, 27 June-3 July 2007, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; PCDG • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀; “ Krousia Site 190 m, N41°11′32.4″ E23°3′59.5″, 11-17 July 2007, leg. G. Ramel Malaise ”; PCDG • 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀ (pinned); “ Strymon F-Plain 55 m, N41°16’09” E23°19’39”, 21 May 2009, leg. G. Ramel Yellow Pan traps”; PCDG • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀ (pinned); “same data”; NHMUK • 24 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀ (in spirit); “same data”; NHMUK • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Roupel’s Gorge 60 m N41°17′32″ E23°19′35″, 7 June 2009, leg G. Ramel Yellow Pan trap ”; PCDG. Description MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 1.7–2.8 mm. Wing length: 1.7–3.0 mm. Male HEAD. Gena very narrow, linear, almost invisible, the shining yellow mouth margin significantly broader than gena, about as wide as width of front ocellus. Gena broadening abruptly just below antennae, running into long narrow frons, at antennal insertions hardly as wide as scape, covered with whitish-grey dust, a little darker and browner centrally. Eyes very narrowly separated by about half the diameter of anterior ocellus. Vertex between the eyes densely brown dusted, a little darker than the frons. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, dark brown dusted, all ocelli contiguous with the eye. Pale hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as width across hind ocelli, often sparse or even absent. White hairs on frons also short and inconspicuous. Eye facets small and equal throughout. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with grey-brown dust, area behind ocelli a little darker. Occiput covered with pale yellow to white hairs, upper ones short, those on ventral side of head a little longer. Antennae black with a brown or grey cast on scape and pedicel, postpedicel conspicuously longer than scape and pedicel together, obviously contracted below in apical third, convex, swollen below in basal two thirds, tip truncate. Palps small but larger than in many related species, easily seen, pale whitish with a few inconspicuous pale hairs apically. Proboscis black, fairly long, about equal to head-thorax length (with scutellum), hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane pale whitish. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dense grey to brown dust, often with an olive tinge, patterned with sharply defined dark brown paramedian vittae back to just rear of wing bases and antehumeral vittae, the latter broadly separated at thoracic suture. Area in front of scutellum with a clear prescutellar vittae running forward almost to paramedian pair; supra-alar area just behind transverse suture lacking any defined spot. Hairs of mesonotum white to very pale yellow, relatively short, arranged along acrostichal and dorsocentral lines irregularly bi- to tri-serial more general on lateral parts of mesonotum. Scutellum dark grey-brown dusting similar to adjacent parts of mesonotum, yellowish to white hairs sparse on disc longer around margin. Pleura greyer dusted than mesonotum, pronotum and posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with short white hairs. WING. Membrane hyaline with the faintest brownish tinge, the veins brown, yellower basally. Crossvein r-m between one third and mid-point of discal cell, distinctly beyond m-cu. Anal lobe well developed with evenly convex margin, clearly broader than anal cell. HALTERE. Clear white knob lacking defined brown dorsal spot, stem slightly infuscated especially at base. LEGS. Femora and coxae brown to black with trochanters yellow, hind ones more or less darkened, base and tips of femora narrowly yellow, tibia and base of basitarsi yellow, apical tarsal segment black. Coxae grey dusted like pleura, femora also grey-dusted but more thinly so. Coxae, femora and tibia clothed with short white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally. ABDOMEN. Dark brown dusted with greyer dust laterally with all tergites with broad, conspicuous yellow margins, broadest on basal tergites and laterally, extending right to edge of tergites. All tergites with white to pale yellow hairs mainly longer than the length of respective tergite, longest laterally, shorter and sparser on disc. Sternites similar to tergites but distinctly more grey-dusted, pale apical margins more obscure. GENITALIA. Large for the genus, but still not quite as large as in Pro. punctipennis, dusting similar to lateral part of abdomen, epandrium shining apically, yellow to brownish or blackish. Gonocoxite also shining and more brownish apically. Both epandrium and gonocoxite with long hairs as on tergites, or even longer on gonocoxites. Female Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, about one fifth head width, hind ocelli separated from eye margin by a little more than their diameter. Frons dusted as occiput, a little greyer, a darker brown line down middle from front ocellus to antennae, short sparse hairs antero-laterally. Postpedicel averages a little shorter. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter, significantly so on the abdomen. Femora often much paler, almost as yellow as tibia. Remarks This species forms a distinct group with Pro. punctipennis and Pro. strymonas gen. et sp. nov., all of which are clearly very closely related. They are characterised by their relatively large male genitalia, approaching the condition seen in Parusia gen. nov. However, the epiphallic complex and female genitalia are very much of the same type as seen in more typical members of Protypusia gen. nov. These three species are confined to the eastern Mediterranean, and while Pro. punctipennis is widespread, the other two are currently only known from the vicinity of Lake Kerkini in Northern Greece, an example of the propensity for endemicity within the Usiini. Distribution Greece., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 90-92, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958

Protypusia dimonica (Zaitzev, 1996) gen. et comb. nov. Figs 13, 24, 29, 45 Parageron dimonicus Zaitzev, 1996: 693. Parageron dominicus, error for dimonicus Zaitzev, 1996 – Evenhuis & Greathead 1999 (acting as First Revisers). In his type description, Zaitzev (1996) used the name “ dominicus ” throughout except in the abstract where he used dimonicus. The spelling of dimonicus was selected as the correct original spelling because it derives from the town of Dimona where the types were collected. Etymology Named after the town of Dimona in the Israeli Negev close to the type location. Type material Holotype ISRAEL • ♀; “Loc. No. 18, C. Negev, N. ′Negarot 11 km SE, Mizpe Ramon 17 April 1994, Volkovitsh & Dolgovskaya leg./ Holotypus, Parageron dimonicus V. Zaitzev 96”; TAU. Paratype ISRAEL 1 ♀; “Loc. No. 18, Central Negev, N. ′Negarot 11 km SE, Mizpe Ramon 17 April 1994, V. Zaitzev leg./ Paratypus, Parageron dimonicus V. Zaitzev 96”; TAU. Other material examined ISRAEL • 1 ♀; “ Ein Mur, 19 April 1975 A. Freidberg / griseola ”; TAU • 1 ♀; “ Avdat, 11 April 1975 A. Freidberg ”; TAU • 2 ♀♀; “ 19 April 1975 ”; TAU • 1 ♀; “ Ein Mur, 31 March 1981, F. Kaplan ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “ Jerusalem, Mishot Rotem, 7 March [19]65, M. Weichselfish ”; TAU. MOROCCO • 9 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀; “ Ouarzazate, Tizi-n-Bachkoum 1500 m N30º49′06.0″ W07º15′33.4″ 16 April 2008, leg. J. Dils & J. Faes ”; PCJD • 6 ♀♀; “ Tafraout, Tafraout 1000 m N29º44′19.0″ W08º57′51.4″ 13 April 2008 leg. J. Dils & J. Faes ”; PCMB • 1 ♂; “ 3 May 1961, Maroc Sahar, Taidelt/[leg.] P. duMerle 4333/ Parageron griseus Param, V. Zaitzev det. 2002”; MNHN. Redescription MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.6–3 mm. Wing length: 1.9–3.2 mm. Male HEAD. Frons and mouth margin silvery grey, ground colour completely obscured, lacking longer erect hairs. Silvery dusted gena very narrow, almost linear below, much narrower than the rather protuberant, shiny black to brown mouth margin (in Israeli specimens dusted gena a little broader). Occiput and ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour densely and evenly covered with grey dust and outstanding white hairs, those on ocellar tubercle hardly longer than width of vertex across hind ocelli, longer in Israeli specimens. Hairs on occiput relatively short, in face view only just visible, becoming longer below onto jowls. All ocelli in contact with eye margin, making an equilateral triangle. Eyes confluent for slightly longer than the length of vertex (difficulty to assess because the eyes come together at very acute angles both above and below). Ommatidia conspicuously enlarged in the upper half to three fifths of the eyes, the transition to the smaller ones occupying the lower part distinct but not very abrupt. Antennae black, postpedicel mid-length, rather convex below, deepest beyond middle, with a small point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus, about one and a half times as long as scape and pedicel together. Antennae sparsely and very short-haired above, a few longer but inconspicuous ones immediately before the subapical sulcus. Palps minute and slender, slightly clavate, dark brown to blackish, the white apical setae shorter than the length of the palps. Proboscis moderately long, a little more than head-thorax length (including scutellum), naked dorsally, black except for the dirty-white basoventral membrane in some examples. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by grey dust, tending to be browner on disc in Moroccan specimens. Mesonotum with distinct darker paramedian vittae from front to just beyond wing bases (often darker anteriorly in Moroccan specimens) and more diffuse darker antehumeral vittae widely divided at thoracic suture (anterior one blackish in Moroccan specimens). Behind thoracic suture, and below the antehumeral vittae is a vague, roundish darker spot, barely visible in Israeli specimens. Whole of mesonotum and scutellum with variably long, white hair (longer in Israeli specimens), tending to form acrostichal and dorsocentral lines, more generally distributed laterally. Paramedian and antehumeral vittae mostly hairless. Scutellar hairs apically almost as long as scutellum and confined to periphery, naked on disc. Pleura concolourous with mesonotum, with similar hairs on pronotum and posterior twothirds of the anepisternum. WING. Membrane hyaline, at most very faintly brown tinged, the veins pale yellow-brown, yellower basally, subcosta yellow. Crossvein r-m very close to the base of the discal cell, barely beyond m-cu. Anal lobe broad with triangularly convex margin, obviously broader than anal cell. HALTERE. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated. LEGS. Coxae blackish with coating of grey dust same as pleura. Femora predominantly blackish or dark brown with a covering of grey dust, the tip yellow, more brownish on hind femora. Tibia and tarsi blackish or brown, base narrowly yellow. Coxae and front four femora furnished with moderately long white posterior hairs, hind femora with rather shorter anterior hairs, legs otherwise covered with short, adpressed white hairs. ABDOMEN. Tergites dark blackish-brown with dense grey dusting tending to be darker, subshining on disc of first two tergites, laterally. Each tergite with sharply demarcated pale yellow apical margins, sometimes broader on central tergites, tapering to a point on reflexed lateral margins. On average yellow apical margins narrower than width of hind basitarsus, often conspicuously so. Sternites similar to tergites. Tergites and sternites all covered with fairly long, erect white hairs, longest on lateral margins of tergites. GENITALIA. Small often partially contracted into apical tergites. Gonocoxites black, grey dusted with tips shinier and browner, covered in long white hairs. Epandrium basally black, grey dusted, with very broad yellow apical margin, covered in short, dense white hairs, erect medially, apically directed on yellow part. Cerci brown. Female Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons dark in ground colour, densely grey dusted with short, white hairs anteriorly, a small dark undusted spot centrally. Frons about one third head width. Ocelli forming an equilateral triangle. Antennae tending to be shorter than in male. Eye facets equalsized throughout. Mesonotal dusting rather more yellowish, darker vittae tending to be less conspicuous. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter, significantly so on the abdomen. Yellow apical margins on tergites tending to broaden towards tip. Vaginal plate smaller and less pigmented in Israeli specimens than in Moroccan specimens. Remarks Despite the wide distribution from Israel to Morocco, there is very little variation between populations. Moroccan specimens tend to have less clearly pale knees, males have longer vestiture and a rather browner mesonotum. There are minor differences in the genitalia of the few specimens dissected but no more than can often be found within populations. Using the key in Efflatoun (1945), this species will run to Pro. tewfiki (Efflatoun), but Efflatoun’s choice of characters in his key is bizarre and Pro. tewfiki can readily be eliminated on abdominal pattern. Based on Efflatoun’s descriptions, the Smithsonian Archives plates, and the photos from EFC, it is probably closest to Pro. deserticola (Efflatoun). The possibility that Pro. dimonica is a synonym of this species has to be considered. Unfortunately, I have been unable to examine the types of Pro. deserticola held in Cairo, but photographs suggest that it differs in colour of dusting and has more strongly marked paramedian and antehumeral vittae. The genitalia of both sexes of Pro. deserticola need to be studied to confirm its conspecificity or otherwise with Pro. dimonica. Distribution Israel, Morocco., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 72-75, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Zaitzev V. F. 1996. On the Bombyliidae (Diptera) of Israel. I. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 74 (4) [1995]: 902 - 912. [In Russian.]","Evenhuis N. L. & Greathead D. J. 1999. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.","Efflatoun H. C. 1945. A monograph of Egyptian Diptera. Part VI. Family Bombyliidae. Section 1: Subfamily Bombyliidae Homoeophthalmae. Bulletin de la Societe Fouad Ier d'Entomologie 29: 1 - 483."]}

Protypusia vagans (Becker, 1906) gen. et comb. nov. Figs 8, 58 Usia vagans Becker, 1906: 221. Etymology From Latin ‘ vagus ’ = ‘wandering’, ‘vague’. Type material Lectotype TUNISIA • ♂; “ Gafsa, Biró/ vagans Beck. ♂ det. Becker / Lectotypus /Zool. Mus. Berlin [leg. Lajos Biró, abdomen greased, head glued back on upside down]” ZMHB. Other material examined MOROCCO • 4 ♀♀; “Oujda, Plateau du Rekkam 100 km E Ain-Benimathar 1150 m N33°44.254 W2°59.095, 25 April 2010, Leg. Dils J. Faes J. ” PCJD. Redescription MEASUREMENTS. Body length. 2.2–2.6 mm. Wing length: 2.3–3.0 mm. Male HEAD. Gena and mouth margin narrow, about as broad as the length of the pedicel with pale grey-dusted gena barely wider than the tip of the palps, mouth margin shiny. Frons rather small, triangular and not tumid, silky white without outstanding hairs. Eyes meeting for about 9–10 facets, equal to or greater than the length of the vertex. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, densely grey-brown dusted, all ocelli contiguous with the eye margins. White hairs on ocellar tubercle noticeably longer than the width of vertex at its broadest. Eye facets large in upper half, small in lower half, the division between them, just below the antennal insertion, not well marked. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with grey-brown dust, covered with whitish hairs about half as long as those on ocellar tubercle, becoming longer and silky below. Antennae blackish with scape and pedicel more brownish, postpedicel about 1.4 times as long as scape and pedicel together, rather oval in shape with no more than a slight point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus. Palps small, subclavate, pale brown with several white hairs apically as long as palp. Proboscis moderate, about as long as thorax and scutellum, hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane blackish-brown. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by brownish-grey dust, with vaguely darker paramedian vittae extending back two thirds the length of the mesonotum, also faint, obscurely defined, darker antehumeral vittae broken at thoracic suture. Hairs of mesonotum pale yellow-white, rather long, longer than ocellar hairs, acrostichals irregular, dorsocentrals irregularly uniserial, hairs on hind third and lateral parts of mesonotum more general, more dense on notopleuron, area above wing bare. Scutellum rather more yellowish brown dusted than mesonotum, hairs equal in length to than those on mesonotum, generally scattered dorsally but lateral margins bare. Pleura concolourous with mesonotum, pronotum and posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with long, white hairs. WING. Membrane somewhat milky with inconspicuous brown shades around fork of R 2+3 and R 4+5, fork of R 4 and R 5 and the crossveins r-m, m-m and m-cu the veins pale yellow basally, darker in rather more than apical half. Crossvein r-m a little beyond basal third of the discal cell, clearly beyond m-cu. Anal lobe very well developed with conspicuously convex margin, much broader than anal cell. HALTERE. Yellow, stem and base of knob clearly suffused with brown. LEGS. Coxae concolourous with pleura. Femora and tibia rather browner, not densely dusted, very tip of femora and narrow base of tibia yellow. Legs covered with white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally and hind tibia dorsally. ABDOMEN. Greased but probably grey-brown dusted similar to thorax. Tergite one brownish laterally and along apical margin, remaining tergites also with narrow dull brownish posterior margins. All tergites with long white hairs on reflexed lateral margins, dorsally hairs shorter and largely confined to the posterior half of each tergite. Sternites similar to tergites. GENITALIA. Small even for holoptic Protypusia gen. nov., dark in ground colour, tip of gonocoxite yellower, densely covered in brown dust, covered in white hairs. Female Differs from male in having widely separated eyes, frons almost a third head width, densely olive-grey dusted with small median black spot. Laterally, close to eyes and level with anterior ocellus, is a uniserial row of relatively long, proclinate hairs, front half of frons with more generally distributed shorter hairs. Hairs on ocellar tubercle shorter, a little longer than distance across hind ocelli. Hairs of mesonotum, pleura and scutellum very much shorter and rather sparser, dusting with a definite yellow-brown colour. Legs generally with shorter hairs. Infuscation on wing veins can be rather obscure, most conspicuous on crossveins. Abdomen with apical yellow margins of tergites a little broader and more obvious, hairing of tergites and sternites significantly shorter than in male. Remarks The male and female genitalia suggest close affinities with Pro. dimonica and Pro. hyalipennis, the shape of the gonostyli especially being very similar in these three species. Protypusia hyalipennis especially is very similar, but the mesonotal pattern and hyaline wings readily distinguish it. Although both species occur in Morocco, Pro. hyalipennis is known north of the Atlas Mountains while Pro. vagans to the south. Protypusia dimonica also occurs on the Saharan side of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, so could be sympatric with Pro. vagans, but is readily identified by its general blue-grey colour and entirely hyaline wings. Distribution Morocco, Tunisia., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 115-117, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Becker T. 1906. Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift 50 [1905]: 193 - 228."]}

Protypusia punctipennis (Loew, 1846) gen. et comb. nov. Fig. 54 Usia punctipennis Loew, 1846: 417. Etymology From Latin ‘ punctus ’ = ‘pierced’ and ‘ penna ’ = ‘feather’, ‘wing’; ‘spotted-wings’. Type material Lectotype (here designated) [TURKEY] • ♂; “[headless, front left and hind right legs missing; otherwise in good condition.] Small square blank label/ Usia punctipennis m./9691/ Coll. H. Loew / Type /Zool. Mus. Berlin”; ZMHB. Paralectotype UNKNOWN • 1 ♀; “[antennae missing; otherwise in good condition.] Small square blank label/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin ”; ZMHB. Other material examined GREECE • 7 ♂♂, 13 ♀♀; “Fokida, Itea 0 m, N38°25′53″ E22°23′49″ 15 May 2001 ”; PCJD. TURKEY • 4 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; “ Icel, Ќarakűtűk, 549 m, N37°8′28.7″ E34°50′20.1″ 3 June 2005 ”; PCJD • 7 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀; “ 663 m N37°8′27.6″ E34°50′23.6″ 5 June 2005 ”; PCJD • 8 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀; “ Calaman, 683 m N37°11′33.1″ E34°48′33.9″ 5 June 2005 (leg. J. Dils & J. Faes)”; PCJD. ISRAEL • 1 ♀; “ Tel Aviv beach, 10 June 1996 (leg. B. Merz & A. Freidberg)”; TAU • 1 ♀; “Merzliya, 28 August 1977, F. Kaplan ”; TAU • 2 ♂♂; “ 5 km E, No’omi, saline, 31°54′ N 35°30′ E, 16 March 2005, L. Friedman ”; TAU. CYPRUS • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “Akamas Peninsular, Lara beach 0 m 28 April 2002 / 2t.28 dunes, meadow (leg. B. Merz, J. Deeming, M. Ebejer & P. Gatt)”; NMWC. Redescription MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.0–3.0 mm. Wing length: 1.9–3.6 mm. Male HEAD. Gena plus mouth margin very narrow, no wider than anterior ocellus, the shining yellow mouth margin significantly broader than linear, often hardly visible dusted gena. Gena broadening abruptly just below antennae, running into long narrow frons, at antennal insertions hardly as wide as scape is long, covered with whitish-grey or brown dust, often a little darker and browner centrally, frons paler dusted in Israeli specimens. Eyes clearly separated, by distinctly more than half diameter of anterior ocellus. Vertex between the eyes densely brown dusted, often a little darker than the frons, but paler and uniform in Israeli specimens. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, dark brown dusted, hind ocelli contiguous with the eye, front ocellus narrowly separated. Pale hairs on ocellar tubercle rather longer than the width across hind ocelli. White hairs on anterior part of frons short and inconspicuous. Eye facets small and equal throughout. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with brown to grey-brown dust. Occiput covered with pale yellow to white hairs, upper ones short, falling well short of tips of hairs on ocellar tubercle, those on ventral side of head a little longer but not dense. Antennae black with a brown or grey cast on scape and pedicel, postpedicel variable, longer than scape and pedicel together, obviously contracted below in apical third, convex, swollen below in basal two thirds, tip truncate. Palps relatively large, easily seen, pale yellow with a few very inconspicuous pale hairs apically. Proboscis black, rather short, about equal to thorax length (with scutellum), but longer in Israeli specimens where longer than head plus thorax, hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane pale-whitish. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dense grey to brown dust, often with an olive tinge, patterned with sharply defined dark brown paramedian vittae back to just rear of wing bases and antehumeral vittae, the latter broadly separated at thoracic suture. A dark prescutellar vittae running forward almost to paramedian pair, less clear but still present in some specimens; supra-alar area just behind transverse suture lacking any defined marking in many, but clear in some. Hairs of mesonotum white to very pale yellow, relatively short, arranged along acrostichal and dorsocentral lines irregularly bi- to tri-serial more general on lateral parts of mesonotum. Scutellum dark grey-brown dusted similar to adjacent parts of mesonotum, often with darker longitudinal mid-vittae, sparse yellowish to white hairs on disc longer around margin. Pleura greyer dusted than mesonotum, pronotum and posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with short white hairs. WING. Membrane apart from faint brownish tinge, with clear brown spots over junctions of R 2+3 and R 4+5, base of R 4, r-m, m-m and m-cu. Veins brown, subcosta yellower basally. Crossvein r-m approximately at mid-point of discal cell, or even beyond, well beyond m-cu. Anal lobe moderately developed with evenly convex margin, equal or a little broader than anal cell. HALTERE. Knob variable, from clear white (some Israeli specimens) to more or less dark brown dorsally (Greece and Turkey), stem slightly infuscated especially at base. LEGS. Femora and coxae brown to black, coxae with narrow yellow apical rim, femora sometimes yellowish basally, tips of femora yellow. Trochanters dark black to brown. Tibia and base of basitarsi yellow, apical tarsal segments black, hind tibia sometimes infuscated dorsally and apically. Coxae grey dusted like pleura; femora also grey-dusted but more thinly so. Coxae, femora and tibia clothed with short white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally. ABDOMEN. Dark brown dusted with greyer dust laterally on reflexed margins, all tergites with conspicuous yellow apical margins, broadest on basal tergites and laterally, narrowing to edge of tergites (margins broader and brighter in Israeli specimens). All tergites with white to pale yellow hairs mainly longer then the length of respective tergite, longest laterally, shorter and sparser on disc. Sternites similar to tergites but distinctly more grey-dusted, pale apical margins more obscure. GENITALIA. Large for the genus, only some members of Parusia gen. nov. with proportionately larger male genitalia, dusting similar to lateral part of abdomen, epandrium shining apically, yellow to brownish or blackish. Gonocoxite also shining and more brownish apically. Both epandrium and gonocoxite with long hairs as on tergites, or even longer on gonocoxites. Female Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, about one fifth head width (a little wider in Israeli specimen), hind ocelli separated from eye margin by a little more than their diameter (more in Israeli specimen). Frons dusted as occiput, a darker brown line down middle from front ocellus to antennae, short sparse hairs antero-laterally. Postpedicel averages a little shorter. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter. Femora often much paler, brown or sometimes almost as yellow as tibia. Wing spotting often more distinct and can include a spot at tip of anal cell. Haltere variable, knob with dark infuscation in Israeli specimen. Remarks Very closely allied to Pro. kerkini gen. et sp. nov. and Pro. strymonas gen. et sp. nov. Relatively widely distributed and so exhibiting some variability with more southern examples (Israel) being generally paler and with entirely white knob to haltere (2 males), or brown infuscated (1 female) and longer proboscis. No significant differences could be found in the epiphallic complex between Greek/Turkish and Israeli specimens. Distribution Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Turkey., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 102-105, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Loew H. 1846. Fragmente der Kenntniss der europaischen Arten einiger Dipteren-Gattungen. Linnaea Entomologica 1: 319 - 530. Available from https: // www. biodiversitylibrary. org / page / 46583212 [accessed 25 Jan. 2023]."]}

Protypusia zimini (Paramonov, 1947) gen. et comb. nov. Fig. 59 Parageron zimini Paramonov, 1947: 216. Etymology Named in memory of Leonid Sergeevich Zimin (1902–1970), who collected the types. Type material Lectotype (here designated) UZBEKISTAN • ♂; “ Tschangyr, northwest Bukhara, 13 June 1930 1 ♂ (leg. L.S. Zimin)/ Parageron zimini sp. nov. ♂ S. Paramonov det. Syntypus /Zool. Mus. Berlin.” ZMHB. Paralectotypes UZBEKISTAN • 2 ♀♀; “locality as lectotype 10 June 1930 ”; ZMHB • 1 ♂ [dissected], 1 ♀; “same locality 13 June 1930 ”; ZMHB • 1 ♀; “same data 17 June 1930 ”; ZMHB • ♂ ♀ in copula, 2 ♀♀; “same data 20 June 1930 ”; ZMHB. Other material examined IRAN • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Ghazvin, road to Zereshk 1682 m, N36°24’128” E50°5’434” 28 June-7 July 2009, pan trap Leg. B. Gharali ”; PCDG. Redescription MEASUREMENTS. Body length; 3.9–5.1 mm. Wing length: 4.1–5.2 mm. Male HEAD. Frons and gena pale yellow in ground colour, the frons slightly tumescent covered with silky off-white dusting, lacking longer hairs. Gena moderately broad, at narrowest point about as broad as length of pedicel, more shining mouth margin a little narrower, together almost as broad as scape length. Occiput and ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour densely covered with grey dust and outstanding white hairs, ocelli contiguous with eyes. Eyes confluent for slightly longer than the length of vertex. Ommatidia conspicuously enlarged in the upper half of the eyes, sharply contrasting with the smaller ones occupying the lower half. Antennae blackish, tip of pedicel can be paler, postpedicel rather long with a small point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus. Palps small and slender, yellowish to brown, darker apically, the white apical setae shorter than the length of the palps. Proboscis very long, about equal to body length, naked dorsally, the basoventral membrane yellow. THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dove-grey dust, in some becoming more yellowish on posterior of mesonotum and scutellum, very faint darker paramedian vittae on anterior half or slightly more of mesonotum, antehumeral vittae may be indicated. Whole of mesonotum and scutellum evenly covered with moderately long, silky white hair, largely absent on darker vittae, on the front of the mesonotum hairs longer than tibia is thick at its mid-point. Pleura with similar hairs on pronotum, posterior twothirds of the anepisternum, and a few in upper middle of katepisternum. Metepimeron naked, can be yellow (Uzbekistan). WING. Membrane hyaline, the veins pale yellow, or becoming brown apically. Crossvein r-m from basal quarter to third of the discal cell, opposite or a little beyond m-cu. Anal lobe broad with conspicuously convex margin, broader than anal cell. HALTERE. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated. LEGS. Coxae dark with a dense coating of grey dust. Femora predominantly dark with a covering of grey dust, up to apical quarter clear yellow (Uzbekistan specimens) or just narrowly yellow (Iranian specimens). Front and mid-tibia clear yellow, hind tibia infuscated apically (Uzbekistan specimens) or infuscation more extensive (Iranian specimens). Tarsi black with the basitarsi more or less yellow basally in some. Legs covered with silky white hairs, rather variable, longer on Iranian male. ABDOMEN. Tergite one entirely yellow (Uzbekistan specimens) or with just apical margin yellow (Iranian specimens), remaining tergites black with dense grey dusting and sharply demarcated apical yellow margins (Uzbekistan specimens) or poorly defined pale margins (Iranian specimens), these becoming narrower rearwards. Sternites similar but yellow apical margins clearer. Tergites and sternites all covered with fairly long, erect white to very pale yellow, rather wavy hairs. GENITALIA. Relatively large when compared to other holoptic species. Gonocoxites black, grey dusted with broad yellow tips, covered in long whitish hairs. Epandrium basally black, grey dusted, with very broad yellow apical margin and narrow lateral margins, covered in short whitish hairs. Female Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons pale yellow and hairless anteriorly, densely pale-grey dusted on hind half, laterally with 1–2 rows of tiny hairs. Legs yellow except for coxae basally (Uzbekistan specimens) or similar to the male, grey dusted, more or less infuscated tarsi largely blackish. Abdomen much more extensively yellow than in the male with less well defined blackish-brown bases to the tergites (except T1) and sternites (Uzbekistan specimens) or similar to male. Hairs on the thorax and abdomen a little shorter, most clearly on the tergites. Remarks Although twelve specimens were available, they originate from just two widely separated localities, 10 from the type locality and two from Iran. There is quite a degree of variation between these two locations notably in the extent of yellow on tergites and legs. Uzbekistan specimens have much yellower tergites and legs compared to the two specimens from Iran. However, in most features, including the structure of both male and female genitalia, they differ very little so I am as confident as I can be that they are conspecific. The illustrations provided by Zaitzev (1966) and ascribed to Pro. grisea (Paramonov) are certainly not Pro. grisea and appear very similar to this species or, perhaps the closely related Pro. negevi. The description, while brief, could fit either species, closer to Pro. negevi on size but more likely to be Pro. zimini on range. Without seeing the specimens it is not possible to be confident what species Zaitzev had before him. Distribution (? Georgia), Iran, Uzbekistan., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 119-121, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Paramonov S. J. 1947. Uebersicht der mit der Gattung Usia Latr. (Bombyliidae, Diptera) naechstverwandten Gattungen. Eos 23: 207 - 220. Available from http: // hdl. handle. net / 10261 / 149924 [accessed 25 Jan. 2023].","Zaitzev V. F. 1966. [Parasitic Flies of the Family Bombyliidae (Diptera) in the Fauna of Transcaucasia.] Nauka, Moscow & Leningrad. [In Russian.]"]}

Apolysis marginata (Brunetti, 1909) comb. nov. Usia marginata Brunetti, 1909: 228. Type material Holotype (not examined) INDIA • ♂; “Simla [= Shimla], Himachal Pradesh 16 May [19]09 leg. Dr. Annandale (Brunetti 1909)”; NZSI. Remarks Very likely belongs in Apolysis, non-type material probably of this taxon in the NHMUK was examined and belongs in Apolysis. Examination of the type to confirm this combination is desirable. Removed to unplaced species of Usiinae in Evenhuis (2015). Distribution India (Himachal Pradesh)., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 151-153, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Brunetti E. 1909. New Indian Leptidae and Bombyliidae with a note on Comastes osten Sacken, v. Heterostylum Macquart. Records of the Indian Museum 3: 211 - 230.","Evenhuis N. L. & Greathead D. J. 2015. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae) web site. Available from http: // hbs. bishopmuseum. org / bombcat / [accessed 25 Jan. 2023].","Efflatoun H. C. 1945. A monograph of Egyptian Diptera. Part VI. Family Bombyliidae. Section 1: Subfamily Bombyliidae Homoeophthalmae. Bulletin de la Societe Fouad Ier d'Entomologie 29: 1 - 483."]}

Apolysis flavipes (Efflatoun, 1945) comb. nov. Usia flavipes Efflatoun, 1945: 212. Type material Holotype (not examined) EGYPT • ♀; “ Wadi El-Lega (South Sanai) June 1941 leg. Efflatoun (Efflatoun 1945)”; ESEC. The female holotype in ESEC is destroyed, photos show that only the pin, mount and labels exist. Other material examined Neotype (here designated) ISRAEL • ♀ (glued to small white card point, in perfect condition); “ Arava Valley, Iddan, side wadi below date orchard, - 640ft. el., malaise, 17-IV-1996, M.E. Irwin, 30°49’05” N 35°16’55” E”; TAU. Additional specimens (from Neotype locality) ISRAEL • 1 ♀; “ Arava Valley, Iddan, side wadi below date orchard, - 640ft. el., malaise, 12-IV-1996 ” TAU • 1 ♀; “same location 14-IV-1996 ”; TAU • 1 ♀; “same location 17-IV-1996 ”; TAU • 2 ♂♂; “same location 18/ 19-IV-1996 ”; TAU • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; “same location 22-IV-1996 ”; TAU • 1 ♂; “same location 25-IV-1996 ”; TAU • 2 ♀♀; “same location 28-IV-1996 ”; TAU • 2 ♀♀; “same location 30-IV-1996 ”; TAU. Remarks Efflatoun (1945) described this species from just one female specimen, now unfortunately destroyed, although not before a plate was completed of it. Searching for the type, photographs of the relevant drawers from the Egyptian Entomological Society collection were made and show just a pin, mount and labels standing over this name. I thus conclude the holotype is destroyed and propose a neotype for it to fix the name and help avoid confusion with other similar-looking species in this genus. Efflatoun’s (1945) original description plus the plate in the Smithsonian Institution Archives [Image no. SIA2012-7882] refer to a distinctive species, most particularly the contrasting ivory-white scape is a feature not seen in other species. The neotype and all other specimens in the series cited above share this unusual feature and fit very closely with Efflatoun’s description and the plate in the Smithsonian archives. There is a degree of variation in the series (as would be expected) that Efflatoun could not have appreciated from his single specimen. The legs vary in the degree of infuscation, in some front femora and tibia not quite clear yellow. Pleura often more extensively yellow than is suggested from the type description. Base of postpedicel externally often pale (as in Efflatoun’s type), but in some this is not apparent. Efflatoun’s holotype was collected in Wadi El-Lega (South Sinai). This is about 320 km south of the collecting locality of the neotype in the Negev. Although not close, the situation is very comparable, a wadi in rocky desert with sparse vegetation (from Google Maps) so a similar biotope. Distribution Egypt (Sinai), Israel (Negev)., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on pages 150-151, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Efflatoun H. C. 1945. A monograph of Egyptian Diptera. Part VI. Family Bombyliidae. Section 1: Subfamily Bombyliidae Homoeophthalmae. Bulletin de la Societe Fouad Ier d'Entomologie 29: 1 - 483."]}

Apolysis melanderi nom. nov. Oligodranes bicolor Melander, 1946: 473. Type locality: USA (California) [Lectotype designated by Evenhuis & Greathead (1999: 667) in USNM]. [Preoccupied by Apolysis bicolor (Efflatoun, 1945)]. Distribution Nearctic: USA (California)., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., pp. 1-162 in European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1) on page 156, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.863.2081, http://zenodo.org/record/7767958, {"references":["Melander A. L. 1946. Apolysis, Oligodranes and Empidideicus in America (Diptera, Bombyliidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 39: 451 - 495. https: // doi. org / 10.1093 / aesa / 39.3.451","Evenhuis N. L. & Greathead D. J. 1999. World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.","Efflatoun H. C. 1945. A monograph of Egyptian Diptera. Part VI. Family Bombyliidae. Section 1: Subfamily Bombyliidae Homoeophthalmae. Bulletin de la Societe Fouad Ier d'Entomologie 29: 1 - 483."]}

Usia similis Paramonov, 1950 (Figure 16, Plate XIX) Usia similis Paramonov, 1950: 369. Usia aenea: Engel, 1932: 67 Textfig. 22, misidentification. Type material examined. Type locality Spain. The lectotype, designated by Zaitzev & Kandybina (1983), is in ZIS and it has not proved possible to visit or to borrow the specimen or obtain photographsduring this study. However, Paramonov���s description is quite adequate to be certain that the non-type material examined in the current study belongs to this taxon. Other material examined. Spain, Puerto, Santa Maria [C��diz July 1905], [leg.] Dusmet/ M.N.C.N., Madrid [♂♀] (MNCN); Meigen/ 926, 40/ Usia atrata, Spanian / U. aenea Rossi, det. Becker [♂ in Meigen coll. MNHN]; Punta, Paloma (pris Tarifa, Cadiz), 0.50m, 3 May 1970, [leg.] P. duMerle [1 pair in cop, 10 ♂ 9 ♀ in MNHN]. Etymology. from Latin similis meaning ���similar���, presumably to aeneoides, which Paramonov described in the same work. Diagnosis. A medium sized, robust blue-black species very similar to U. aeneoides Paramonov, endemic to Iberia. Although hairs on head, mesonotum short they are clearly evident, especially laterally, white to pale yellow. Oral margin narrow but wider than in U. aeneoides, occiput densely grey dusted, including depressed area behind vertex, frons relatively narrow, with longitudinal and diagonal grooves. Mesonotal cuticle with strong serrate punctures that give it a very rough appearance, few smooth shining areas away from paramedian vittae. Wings in most specimens with clear pattern of yellow base, brown mid-anterior patch and clear tip and trailing edge. Genitalia large and prominent, lateral horn-like projections of gonostylus usually readily seen and rule out all but U. aeneoides Paramonov. Furca with distinct step between ���arms��� and apical part. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 4.4���4.8 mm. Wing length. 3.9���4.9 mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin shining black, narrow but quite evident, about as broad as palps at widest point, obsolete above where it meets the dusting of the frons. Frons narrow (although a little wider than in U. aeneoides), a fifth to sixth head width, shining black, the frons longitudinally striated anteriorly between broad, dense white dust spots which occupy half the length of the frons. Between dust spots and ocellar area the cuticle is diagonally grooved. Frons narrowest at vertex where narrower than third antennal segment, widening slightly to mid-point where it widens more abruptly before resuming its original angle to the anterior of the frons. Lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about the shortest diameter of that ocellus. Vestiture short, on ocellar area about as long as the distance between lateral ocelli (including ocelli), yellowish white. Occiput densely grey dusted including on triangular area behind vertex which is slightly less densely dusted. White hairs covering occiput similar to those on disc of mesonotum, a little shorter above, longer below. Antennae black, third antennal segment about 1.5 x longer than the scape and pedicel together, relatively elongate, almost bare dorsally, no more than a few inconspicuous very short setae. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as thorax; palps short, dark brown, clavate with pale hairs, the longest conspicuously shorter than the length of the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black (blue-black in some lights) with strong surface sculpture of stellate hair insertions. Wrinkles tending to become more transverse laterally and on the bare paramedian lines. Pronotum, dorsum of post pronotal lobe, adjacent part of mesonotum, notopleuron and end of thoracic suture grey dusted. Scutellum shining with shallow irregular transverse wrinkles. Mesonotal hairing yellowish white, about long as those on ocellar tubercle on disc, longer marginally, acrostichals in 4���5 irregular lines, as wide as the paramedian lines, laterally uniformly distributed, most directed towards middle of mesonotum (pale hairs on disc easily lost). Scutellum uniformly short haired, longest hairs on the margin about half the length of the scutellum. Pleurae black with a covering of dense grey dust except narrow anterodorsal margin of anepisternum which is shining black and undusted (very narrow in one specimen). Pronotum and posterodorsal corner of anepisternum with short yellowish white hairs. Wing. Wing membrane faintly brownish yellow tinged distally. Basal to the humeral cross-vein veins and membrane yellow contrasting with the brown infuscated costal cell, first basal cell, basal half of R 1 (except extreme base which forms a narrow, clear ���window���) and R 2 + 3, vein m-cu and extreme base of discal cell. This forms a clear pattern, best appreciated with the naked eye, similar to that of U. aeneoides and U. aenea. Anal lobe slightly convex but clearly narrower than anal cell, r-m approximately at to a little before middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellowish white, becoming slightly brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black to dark brown, the coxae grey dusted anteriorly and relatively long haired; femora with the longest pale posteroventral hairs barely longer than half the greatest depth of a femur, tibia and tarsi with a covering of minute yellow-brown setulae only. Abdomen. Shining black, with faint bluish reflections, cuticle with conspicuous hair insertions and transverse welts which give the tergites a rough texture, a little more dense on basal tergites. Tergites transversely impressed with base and apical margin reflexed to form an undulating, ridged profile. Disc of the tergites covered with very short, whitish hairs which do not or only just overlap each other. Laterally and on the down-curved margins (especially apically) the tergites are clothed with relatively longer, whitish hairs, as long as visible part of apical tergite (in normally set specimens). Sternites densely grey dusted, also with similar, whitish hairs along their posterior halves. Genitalia. Rather large, conspicuous, globular, as long as the four apical visible tergites, shining black with rough cuticle similar to that of mesonotum. Gonocoxite covered in short, dense, yellowish to golden hairs, including on the conspicuous ���horns��� either side. Viewed caudally the lobes of the gonocoxite are widely separated, between them a hairless, concavity, the cuticle reddish brown, with the gonostyli and tip of epiphallus usually easily visible. Gonostylus ���T���-shaped with an extra point externally, reddish brown, epiphallus with two flattened paddle-shaped lobes apically, reddish brown. Epandrium fairly long, evenly convex with short, yellowish white hairs. Female. As male except as follows: conspicuously broader oral margin which does not disappear above, almost as wide as length of the pedicel. Frons more widely separated, about a quarter head width, diverging evenly (almost) from vertex to front. Hairs on mesonotum and scutellum rather shorter, especially on scutellum. Anepisternum with shining anterior margin tends to be a little wider. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical tergites much less densely punctate. Apical sternite transverse, tumescent either side, ridged and falling away steeply proximally, triple point apically. Furca pigmented, the arms long and broad, attached to the apical part at a distinct step, lacks any pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. This very distinctive species is clearly a sibling species of U. aeneoides Paramonov which has closely similar male and female genitalia and much the same general appearance. Its relationship to other Usia species is less obvious, while it shares the same wing pattern with U. aenea (Rossi), there is little else in common with this species. Before Paramonov recognised this taxon in his 1950 revision, both U. similis and U. aeneoides were confused with U. aenea. Although Becker (1906 b) recognised specimens which fit the description of U. aeneoides, he seems to have had a female only so did not give it a name, referring to it as U. aenea var. However, he appears to have completely overlooked U. similis despite examining a male specimen in the Meigen collection in Paris which he named U. aenea. It is possibly this error that misled Engel (1932) into illustrating the genitalia of U. similis under U. aenea. Distribution. Endemic to Iberia where so far only known from Spain. Only 24 specimens seen during this study, 21 of them from a single date/locality, the other three from two dates. Known collection localities are along the Atlantic coast of Andalusia between Cadiz and Tarifa, most recently in 1970. Seems to be a rare and very local species., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 70-73, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Paramonov, S. J. (1950) Bestimmungstabelle der Usia - Arten der Welt (Bombyliidae, Diptera). Eos, 26, 341 - 78.","Engel, E. O. (1932) Bombyliidae. In: Lindner, E., (Ed.), Die Fliegen der palaarktischen Region. Vol. 4. pt. 3. E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, pp. 49 - 96.","Zaitzev, V. F. & Kandybina, M. N. (1983) Fam. Bombyliidae, In: Zaitzev, V. F., Kandybina, M. N., Nartshuk, E. P. & Rikhter, V. A. (Ed.), Catalog of the type specimens in the collection of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Insecta (Diptera). Part 1. Families Acroceridae, Nemestrinidae, Bombyliidae. Nauka, Leningrad [= St. Petersburg]. pp. 12 - 44. [in Russian.]","Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228."]}

Usia florea (Fabricius, 1794) (Plate XV) Voluccella florea Fabricius, 1794: 412. Usia cuprea Macquart, 1834: 383. Usia gagathea Bigot, 1892: 374. Type material of V. florea examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Algeria or Tunisia, florea / Volucella / ZMUC 0 0 503993 [1 ♀in ZMUC in poor condition with head, much of thorax, right wing, and all legs but mid-right missing]; PARALECTOTYPE; ZMUC 0 0 503994 [1 unsexed in ZMUC, only dorsum of thorax, scutellum and wings surviving]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens. Two syntypes found in ZMUC, both in poor condition. The specimen which has the abdomen largely intact, and so could be sexed, was selected as the lectotype. Type material of U. cuprea examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Italy, Museum Paris, Sicile, leg. A. Lefebvre, Macquart/ TYPE / Usia cuprea [1 ♂ in MNHN in good condition]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens. A single male found in MNHN was selected as lectotype. Type material of Usia gagathea examined. HOLOTYPE; Algeria, Alger [Algiers], Usia gagatea [sic.] ♂, n.sp. Inedit, Quincy Octobre 1886. J. Bigot, Dr. Seriziat [leg.]/ U. florea Fab. Det. Becker / U. gagathea Ex coll. Bigot. [1 ♂ in OUMNH]. Other material examined. Algeria, North Algeria, Hamman Rhira, May 1911, (Rothsch. & Hart.)/ Algeria (Hon. L.W. Rothschild & Dr E.J.O. Hartert) 1914 - 57 1 ♂; Algeria, Algiers, May 1908 (Hon. W. Rothschild) 1908 - 242, 1♀ (BMNH); La Calle, Museum Paris, Alg��rie, Coll. H. Lucas 78 - 49 / 1201. [blue label]/ U. claripennis, H. Lucas det. [2 ♂]; 1211 / Usia claripennis, Macqt. [♀]; L���Alma, 7 May 1893, Museum Paris, Algerie, P. Lesne 6-97 [♂♀]; Museum Paris, Env. D���Alger, Bov�� 126 - 38 / 126, 38 [on reverse of round blue label]/ U. cuprea, H. Lucas det. [♀]; Museum Paris, Alg��rie, coll. H. Lucas 78 - 49 [♀]; Ouled Messelem, May 1893 / Museum Paris, Alg��rie, P. Lesne 6-97 [♀] (MNHN); France, Nyons, vi [♂] (MNHN). Etymology. florea from Latin meaning ���of flowers���; cuprea from Latin meaning ���copper���; gagathea from Greek ����������ε�� meaning coal as in coal black. Diagnosis. A fairly large black, species from northern Algeria. All shining black without any obvious coloured reflections, vestiture mid-length, not a very hairy-looking species. Occiput shining and undusted on upper part, thinly grey dusted below, hairs on ocellar tubercle shorter than distance across frons at vertex, frons in front of anterior ocellus essentially glabrous. Mesonotal vestiture mid length, longest acrostichal setulae about as wide as this line of hairs. Scutellar hairs much the same as median mesonotal hairs, the marginal ones usually about half mid-scutellar length in females (but these can be few or even missing in rubbed specimens), much shorter in males. Anepisternum mostly shining, a narrow band of dusting along posterior margin. Genitalia fairly large, epandrium conspicuously wider than long, very open apically, the aedeagus usually clearly visible, its hooked tip protruding beyond apex of gonocoxite; furca largely unpigmented, membranous, a small but distinct vaginal plate present. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 6.5 ���9.0mm. Wing length. 6 ���8.7.0mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin fairly narrow, narrower than the tip of the palps at its broadest, almost disappearing below, shining black. Frons rather matt and wrinkled, grey dusting laterally on anterior half, the dust spots separated by an undusted area a little more than one third of the frons width at this point. Frons narrowest level with anterior ocellus, conspicuously wider than width across lateral ocelli, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about the diameter of that ocellus up to twice its diameter. Vestiture not very long, on ocellar area shorter than the frons is wide at this point, whitish to yellow-brown. Occiput shining black on a fairly wide strip behind upper eye margin, thinly dusted centrally and below. Antennae black, third segment longer than the scape and pedicel together, all segments with very short setae above. Proboscis black, hairless, shorter than head and thorax together; palps short, black to brown, clavate with pale hairs, the longest shorter than the length of the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black except for a very narrow area of light dusting along suture between post pronotal lobe and mesonotum and above the wings root. Smooth except for hair insertions, bare paramedian lines extending back behind the mid point of the mesonotum, each about as broad as the midline which has 5���6 lines of hairs. Hind part of mesonotum slightly wrinkled close to scutellum, scutellum shallowly, transversely wrinkled. Mesonotum and scutellum covered with mid-length pale yellowish-white hair, that on the disc of the mesonotum conspicuously shorter than narrowest width of frons (i.e. longer than in U. accola but shorter than U. atrata), even shorter on hind part of mesonotum and scutellum. Pleurae black with a rather thin covering of grey dust except anepisternum, which is shining black, ventral part of katepisternum which is subshining. Posterior third of anepisternum and pronotum covered with rather longer yellowish white hairs. A few pale hairs on the middle of the katepisternum in some individuals. Wing. Wing membrane faintly yellow tinged becoming more yellow basally, the veins also yellow although conspicuously darker than the wing membrane, base of stem of R darker brown and base of costa blackish. Anal lobe as broad as anal cell, r-m before middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black, the coxae grey dusted with pale yellow hairs externally; femora with rather long, pale hairs, those on the ventral surface of the hind tibia longer than depth of tibia but shorter than depth of femora; tibia and tarsi with a covering of minute brown setulae only. Abdomen. Shining black, the disc of the tergites covered with short, neat, whitish hairs. Laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites are clothed with relatively longer, shaggier whitish yellow hairs (similar to U. maghrebensis Gibbs sp. nov.). Sternites also with similar long, paler whitish hairs. Genitalia. Very large, occupying about half the ventral surface of the abdomen, shining black or partially brown and covered in long, pale hairs similar to those on the lateral margins of the tergites, longest on the gonocoxite. In pinned specimens the very broad epandrium and the distinctive ���hooked��� tip of the epiphallus can usually be seen. The single French specimen differs slightly in having the lateral corners of the epandrium somewhat elongated and squared off in lateral view. Gonostyli also differ in being deeper basally. Female. As male except as follows: noticeably wider frons, the lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by conspicuously more than the diameter of that ocellus. Oral margin a little boarder. Vestiture on ocellar area conspicuously shorter but the scutellum has longer marginal hairs up to half mid-scutellar length, sometimes inconspicuous. Abdomen conical tapering to a rounded point. Apical sternite characteristic, triangular with a longitudinal ridge, the tip with an apical point and lateral blunt angles. Discussion. The two remaining types of U. florea are in poor condition and one so damaged that it cannot be sexed. The best preserved specimen is a female but careful examination of the underside of the tip of the abdomen reveals the characteristic last sternite allowing confident identification with non-type material. The lectotype of U. cuprea Macquart is problematic because of the surprising collecting locality in Sicily. Usia are highly prone to endemicity, many with restricted ranges and only one, U. versicolor (Fabricius), is known to occur in both Algeria and Sicily. If U. florea really does occur in both Algeria and Sicily then it should also be found in the intervening countries of Tunisia and perhaps even Malta, as is the case for U. versicolor. Further, extreme eastern Algeria and northern Tunisia is occupied by another, apparently parapatric, member of the florea - group, U. accola. If any member of the florea -group were to occur in Sicily, then it is U. accola that would be expected. The provenance of the French specimen is even more worrying, labelled simply ���Nyons vi [June]��� with no year or collector indicated. That there should be a population of this species in south-central France, but with no records at all from the Mediterranean coast of France, mainland Italy, Spain or Morocco, seems highly unlikely. For both these specimens an error in labelling seems to be a far more likely possibility, or perhaps vagrancy or accidental importation. In his original description, Macquart (1834: 383) said that Mr Alexandre Lefebvre found several specimens [of U. cuprea] in Sicily and that the species is perhaps a variety of U. aenea Rossi (Macquart 1834: 383). It is clear from the descriptions in this work that Macquart understood U. aenea to be a species with a dark shade across the wing and that his U. cuprea lacked this marking. But it is very surprising that he thought it might be a variety of U. aenea and must have overlooked the strikingly different genitalia if he really had the type of U. cuprea before him. The ten specimens in the Bigot collection at OUMNH listed in Evenhuis & Greathead (1999) as syntypes show no evidence of being such. There are no Macquart labels on them, just Bigot���s locality labels. When Macquart described the taxon in 1834, Bigot was just 16 years old and had not yet begun to build the collection that, in the 1850 s, he sent to Macquart to describe. So it is extremely improbable that he should have Macquart types from this early period in his collection (A.C. Pont, pers. comm.). The genitalia of the holotype of Usia gagathea Bigot differ in some details from other specimens of this species. The data label gives merely ��� Alger ��� for collecting locality. Bigot often seems to have removed original labels, replacing them with his own. There is only one label on this specimen giving location, collector and name all in Bigot���s hand so this clearly is not the label applied by the original collector, if there was one. It is possible then that the specimen came from elsewhere in Algeria, not Algiers itself, so might be form a different population than most other specimens. However, the small morphological differences are more likely to be individual variation. Distribution. Algeria, (Italy, Sicily? Based solely on the Lectotype male of U. cuprea possibly a labelling error), (France, based on single specimen with limited data, reliability cannot be assessed). All specimens with date data are over 90 years old, none being seen from the inter-war period when numerous naturalists were still active in Algeria. The lack of recent records from Algeria is unsurprising, but there is reason to be concerned for the continued existence of this species. If it ever occurred naturally in Europe it must have been very local and rare and now probably extinct., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 58-61, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Macquart, P. J. M. (1834) Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Dipteres. Ouvrage accompagne de Planches. Tome premier. N. E. Roret, Paris, 578 pp.","Evenhuis, N. L. & Greathead, D. J. (1999) World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, 1 - 756."]}

Usia accola Becker, 1906 (Figure 20, Plate XI) Usia accola Becker, 1906 a: 14 [1906 b: 214]. Type material examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Tunisia, [locality indecipherable] 1896 / Tunis 40720 / accola Beck / Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin. [♂ in ZMHB; excellent condition, head greasy]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens of both sexes in the Becker collection, now housed in ZMHB. However, only a single male syntype was located in ZMHB so this one becomes the lectotype. Other material examined. Tunisia, Tabarka, 13 May 1995, 1♂, meadow, stream leg. M.J. Ebejer (PCME); Cap Negro, 15 May 1995, ♀ leg. J.C. Deeming (NMWC); Museum Paris, Tunisie, Ain-dhaham, H. Gadeau de Kerville 1908, May, June, Usia florea [♂] (MNHN); Algeria, La Calle, W LeBoul, Usia florea, Museum Paris, Coll. E. S��guy 1919 [♂] (MNHN). Etymology. from Latin, meaning ���near, nearby, a neighbour���. Diagnosis. A large black, very short-haired species of northern Algeria and Tunisia. All shining black, the few available specimens lacking coloured reflections, all vestiture very short, more so than in sympatric species. Occiput shining and undusted behind upper eye margin, otherwise thinly grey dusted, hairs on ocellar tubercle shorter than distance between lateral ocelli, frons in front of anterior ocellus glabrous. Mesonotal vestiture very short and neat, very even in length, acrostichal setulae distinctly shorter than this line of hairs. Marginal scutellar hairs much less than half median length of scutellum. Anepisternum dusted on approximately posterior half. Genitalia small within the florea group, with epandrium longer than wide, apicolateral extensions square; furca with tip membranous. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 6.4���6.6mm. Wing length. 6.0��� 6.2mm. Male. Head. Oral margin narrow, almost linear although vanishing below shining black. Frons shining black, obliquely wrinkled posterolaterally, narrowest a little in front of anterior ocellus, approximately one fifth head width, distinctly wider than width across lateral ocelli, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by one to two times the diameter of that ocellus. Frons grey dusted laterally on anterior half, the dust spots separated by an undusted area rather more than one third of the frons width at this point. Hairing very short, on ocellar area shorter than or a little longer than the diameter of a lateral ocellus, brown to dark brown, frons in front of anterior ocellus glabrous. Occiput shining black above adjacent to the eyes and on the depressed area behind the ocellar tubercle, thinly grey dusted centrally and below. White hairs covering occiput similar to those on mesonotum but a little longer especially below. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment longer than the scape and pedicel together, relatively narrow apically, swollen below basally, all segments with very short setae above. Sensilla small, brown and inconspicuous. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as head and thorax together; palps short, dark brown, clavate with pale hairs, the longest conspicuously shorter than the length of the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black except for an area of light dusting on anterior slope between paramedian lines and post pronotal lobe, upper margin of post pronotal lobe and along lower notopleural area and above the wings. Cuticle smoother than in related species, hair insertions not conspicuous, on disc separated by their diameter or a little more. Bare paramedian lines extending back to about the mid point of the mesonotum, each a little narrower than the midline which has 5���6 irregular lines of hairs, uniform width throughout its length. Hind part of mesonotum slightly wrinkled medially close to scutellum, scutellum rather deeply, transversely wrinkled. Pleurae black with a covering of grey dust except approximately anterior half of anepisternum and an irregular patch in the middle of the anepimeron which are shining black and undusted. Mesonotum and scutellum covered with very short whitish hairs, that on the disc of the mesonotum conspicuously shorter than the distance between the lateral ocelli, the majority of hairs overlapping by less than twice the distance between them. Posterior half of anepisternum and pronotum covered with rather longer whitish hairs. A few fine pale hairs on the middle of the katepisternum. Wing. Wing membrane conspicuously brownish yellow tinged anteriorly and basally, fading to a grey cast posteriorly and apically, the veins yellow, base of costa blackish. Anal lobe well developed with smoothly curved posterior margin, as broad as anal cell, crossvein r-m at or before middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming slightly brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black, the coxae grey dusted with fine white hairs on outer surface; femora shining, undusted with the longest pale ventral hairs barely longer than half the greatest width of a femur, tibia and tarsi with covering of minute dark setulae. Abdomen. Undusted black, lacking bronzy or bluish reflections, dulled by closely packed punctures that are joined by transverse furrows, the disc of the tergites covered with very short, whitish hairs barely overlapping each other. Laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites are clothed with relatively longer, more yellowish hairs. Sternites also with similar long, pale yellowish hairs along their posterior halves. Genitalia. Prominent and conspicuous but smaller than in related species, shining black the gonocoxite covered in long, yellowish hairs similar to those on the lateral margins of the tergites, hairs on epandrium much shorter. In dried specimens the apex of the epandrium and lateral lobes of the gonocoxites are paler, in the lectotype yellowish. The characteristic shape of the gonostyli can often be seen in such specimens. Female. As male except as follows: wider frons, shorter third antennal segment, hairs on down-curved margins of tergites shorter and paler. Apical sternite longer than wide, apically angled and with a median ridge. Furca with tip unpigmented, membranous, arms short and almost straight. Discussion. This species is clearly very closely related to U. florea (Fabricius) and most of the few specimens seen have been misidentified as this species. However, the male genitalia are very different so they cannot be mistaken if the epandrium and aedeagus are examined. Probably even more closely related to the longer-haired U. atrata (Fabricius) and U. maghrebensis Gibbs, especially the latter which has similar male and female genitalia. U. florea and U. maghrebensis occur further west and are not known to be sympatric with U. accola but U. atrata can be found with this species in northern Tunisia. Distribution. North east Algeria and adjacent northern Tunisia. The five specimens seen come from a small area either side of the Algeria-Tunisia border, none very far inland. Would appear to be rare and very range restricted., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 48-50, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 a) Die Ergebnisse meiner dipterologischen Fruhjahrsreise nach Algier und Tunis 1906 [part]. Zeitschrift fur Systematische Hymenopterologie und Dipterologie, 6, 1 - 16.","Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228."]}

Usia aeneoides Paramonov, 1950 (Plate XVIII) Usia aeneoides Paramonov, 1950: 369. Usia aenea Rossi var.: Becker, 1906 b: 214. Type material examined. Type locality Spain. The lectotype, designated by Zaitzev & Kandybina (1983), is in ZIS and it had not proved possible to visit or to borrow the specimen or obtain photographs. However, Paramonov���s description is quite adequate to be certain that the non-type material examined in this study belongs to this taxon. Other material examined. Spain, Andalucia, Cortija del Alcazar, 990���1200m, N 36 �� 55 ��� 15 ��� W 4 �� 5 ��� 18 ���, 9 June 2006, leg. D.J. Gibbs [10 ♂ 12 ♀] (PCDG); El Pardo [Madrid], Arias Encobet/ 11 June 1905 / M.N.C.N, Madrid [♂]; El Pardo [Madrid], Arias Encobet/ 1906 / M.N.C.N, Madrid [♀]; Torre del Vinagre, 0 6 July [19] 88 / Sierra de Cazorla, Jaen Espa��a, Col. C.M. Herrera/ Usia aenea, Rossi, A. Sanchez-Terr��n det./ M.N.C.N, Madrid [♀]; 4 June 1963, Province Madrid, El Chorro, Leg. T.W. Tolman [♂] (MNCN). Etymology. from Latin aeneus meaning ���bronzy��� + - oides meaning resembling. Diagnosis. A medium sized, compact, exceptionally short-haired species endemic to Iberia. An all black species, in natural light with a clear bluish hue, nearly all hairs on head, thorax and legs very short and black to dark brown, longer yellow hairs on abdomen laterally and gonocoxite. Occiput densely grey dusted, oral margin very narrow, frons relatively narrow, with longitudinal and diagonal grooves. Mesonotal cuticle with strong serrate punctures that give it a very rough appearance, few smooth shining areas away from paramedian vittae. Wings in most specimens with clear pattern of yellow base, brown mid-anterior patch and clear tip and trailing edge. Genitalia large and prominent, lateral horn-like projections of gonostylus usually readily seen and rule out all but U. similis Paramonov. Furca with distinct step between ���arms��� and apical part. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 4.3 ���6.0mm. Wing length. 3.9���5.2mm. Male. Head. Oral margin very narrow, linear, disappearing below, shining black to brownish, narrower than tip of palps. Frons black, shining but conspicuously grooved diagonally in hind half, more shallowly so between dust spots, rather matt due to microsulpture. Anterolateral grey dust spots occupying most of width of frons, black, subshining middle strip narrower than each duster area. Eyes separated at their narrowest by about one sixth to one seventh head width, a little more than width across lateral ocelli inclusive, almost parallel in hind half, abruptly widening then continuing almost parallel to insertion of proboscis. Lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by the diameter of that ocellus or slightly more. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, minute black setulae less than diameter of a lateral ocellus, frons in front of anterior ocellus glabrous. Occiput densely grey dusted, the black ground colour obscured including on most of the triangular depressed area behind ocellar tubercle. A fairly even covering of short black hairs across the dusted area, shorter and more even above, significantly longer close to lower oral margin. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment, almost longer than twice length of scape and pedicel together, parallel sided, sensilla inconspicuous, translucent brownish. All antennal segments with minute brown setulae above. Palps small, black, slightly browner basally, clavate tip wider than oral margin, the dark apical setae about half as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis shorter than headthorax length, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black with faint bluish hue under natural light, grey dusting on post-pronotal lobe and adjacent parts of mesonotum, notopleuron near suture and above wing root. Disc densely punctate, the individual punctures raised and stellate, often coalescing to create a rough texture to cuticle. On disc any areas of smooth shining cuticle small and usually cross-striated. Paramedian vittae usually traceable by their different surface sculpture, faintly transversely striate and hardly punctured, extending from anterior slope of thorax almost to wing insertions. Mesonotal vestiture very short, black setulae only readily visible on notopleuron and above wings, even shorter ones on anterior slope, disc essentially hairless but in some tiny dark setulae present barely longer than diameter of a puncture. Acrostichal punctures between the bare paramedian vittae in about 3���4 irregular rows. Scutellar punctuation and hairing as adjacent parts of mesonotum, looks naked but tiny black setulae often present. Pleurae uniformly grey dusted largely obscuring ground colour, except for the anterior, dorsal and posterior margins of anepisternum and a small median patch on anepimeron which are shining black. Short black setulae like those on notopleuron on posterior third of the anepisternum. Wing. Membrane with distinct brown markings extending from costa to vein M and faintly to Cu, distally to end of subcostal cell and just beyond r-m, contrasting with yellow base proximal to the humeral crossvein. Veins all dark brown except proximal to humeral crossvein where they are paler, yellowish. Crossvein r-m a little before the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe relatively narrow, trailing edge straighter proximally, convex medially, a little over half the width of anal cell. Haltere. Yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below the setulae. Coxae externally with rather sparse short, black hairs, femora ventrally with short brown hairs, shorter than depth of tibia, hardly different from dorsal hairs. Tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, yellow-brown setulae. Abdomen. All tergites shining black, often with faint bluish reflections, slight dusting on down-curved margins, only obvious on first tergite. Each tergite densely punctured, the punctures tuberculate, often joined to neighbours by transverse ridges, each puncture with a tiny brown setae, hardly longer than width of a puncture. Apical rim of each tergite narrowly impunctate, smooth and shining. Sternites grey dusted, faintly punctate, with relatively long, erect pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Large and globular, occupying much of underside of abdomen. Epandrium flaskshaped with rather triangular apicolateral blunt extensions, longer than wide, mostly shining black, the cuticle with simple punctures, evenly coated with short pale yellow hairs. Gonocoxite approximately square, shining black, orange-yellow apically where gonostyli articulate. Apicolaterally the gonocoxite has a conspicuous blunt ���thumb���- like process surmounted by a brush of golden hairs. Gonostyli ���T���-shaped with an inner, basal lobe, apex of epiphallus with two divergent, paddle-shaped lobes that can often be seen in pinned specimens. Female. As male except as follows: oral margin significantly broader, but still disappearing below. Frons noticeably wider, about one-sixth head width, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by about twice their diameter, diverging more evenly from vertex. Diagonal grooves in front of anterior ocellus deeper and minute setulae on front of frons between grey dust spots more apparent. Abdomen tends to be more aeneous with coppery, gold and even red reflections (incandescent light). Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical tergites much less densely punctate. Apical sternite almost square, rather large and convex, apical notch very small, barely visible. Furca pigmented, the arms long and attached to the apical part at a distinct step, lacks any pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. This very distinctive species is clearly a sibling species of U. similis Paramonov which has closely similar male and female genitalia and much the same general appearance. Its relationship to other Usia species is less obvious, while it shares the same wing pattern with U. aenea (Rossi), there is little else in common with this species. Distribution. Endemic to Iberia and so far only found in Spain from Madrid south to Andalucia. Specimens in collections are rather few so seems to be a local species but can occur in large numbers when found., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 68-70, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Paramonov, S. J. (1950) Bestimmungstabelle der Usia - Arten der Welt (Bombyliidae, Diptera). Eos, 26, 341 - 78.","Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228.","Zaitzev, V. F. & Kandybina, M. N. (1983) Fam. Bombyliidae, In: Zaitzev, V. F., Kandybina, M. N., Nartshuk, E. P. & Rikhter, V. A. (Ed.), Catalog of the type specimens in the collection of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Insecta (Diptera). Part 1. Families Acroceridae, Nemestrinidae, Bombyliidae. Nauka, Leningrad [= St. Petersburg]. pp. 12 - 44. [in Russian.]"]}

Usia bicolor Macquart, 1855 (Figure 1, Plate III) Usia bicolor Macquart, 1855: 103 (83). Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: [Egypt] Usia bicolor ♀ [sic.] Macq./ U. bicolor Ex coll. Bigot. [seems to have been incorrectly sexed by Macquart. ♂ in OUMNH]. Other material examined. Israel, Tel Mareshna, 2km WNW Hebron, 357m, 17 March 1986, (leg. A. Shmida)/ at Ornithogalum tenuifolium (White) Liliaceae (OUMNH) ; Tel Aviv Country Club beach, 14 March 1995 ♂; Herzliyya, 11 March 1995 ♀; 14 March 1995 ♀ (leg. B. Merz); Shuneh Benjaminah, Coastal Plain, Palestine, 6 April 1953, O. Theodor [♂ 3 ♀]; dunes, Hederah, Coastal Plain, Palestine, 5 April 1953, O. Theodor [2 ♀]; Bet-Jibrin, Southern Palestine, 25 March 1954, O. Theodor [♂] (TAU) Herzliyya, N 32 �� 11 ��� E 34 �� 48 ���, 15 March 2008, 2♂ 5 ♀ (leg. A. Nir) (PCDG). Jordan, As Salt, 32 032N - 35 44 E, Al Balqa Gov., 13 April [20]02 [♀]; Aqraba, 32 43 N - 35 47 E, Irbid Gov., 25 March [20]02, on Linum pubescens Banks [♀] (BMNH ex Greathead coll.). Lebanon, Alma a Shaib, 3 April 1978, D. Gerling [♀] (TAU). Turkey, I��el, Gűzeloluk, N 36 �� 45 ���01.3��� E 34 ��07��� 47.3 ���, 1335 m, 26 May 2005, 3♂ 12 ♀; Hatay, Yunushani, Yayla Dagi, 600 m, 8 May 2000, 3♂ 2 ♀ (leg. J. Dils & J. Faes); Hatay, Belenpas E-side, 25 June 1992 1 ♂ (leg. J.P. Borrie); Hatay, 20 km N of Botash, 26 April 2000, 1♀ (leg. J.A.W. Lucas) (PCJD). Etymology. from Latin bi+color for ���two-coloured���, presumably referring to the bluish reflections on some specimens. Diagnosis. Variable in size, from small to quite large, one of the most frequently met with Usia in the eastern Mediterranean. An all black species, often with a faint bluish sheen and short, erect whitish vestiture. Occiput densely grey dusted, male eyes separated by distance across lateral ocelli, a series of distinct hairs bordering eye margins in front of anterior ocellus. Mesonotal vestiture short and neat, very even in length, Tibia similarly clothed with short, even hairs. Wings hayline with a brownish infuscation basally. Genitalia typical of the group differing only subtly from close congeners; apices of gonocoxite convergent, tips closely approximated or touching; furca with tip membranous. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 2.5 ���9.0mm. Wing length. 2.5���6.5mm. Male. Head. Oral margin narrow, becoming narrower rearwards and disappearing below, shining black to brownish. Frons black, shining, conspicuously grey-dusted anterolaterally often distinctly longitudinally striated medially in front of depressed area in front of anterior ocellus. Eyes separated at their narrowest by about one fifth to one sixth head width, about equal to width across lateral ocelli. Lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about half to two thirds diameter of that ocellus. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus diverging relatively evenly to rear of oral opening. Translucent white hairs on ocellar tubercle averaging width of frons, a few decidedly longer than width across lateral ocelli, rear of frons in front of anterior ocellus with distinct uniserial rows of proclinate setulae close to eye margins, about as long as scape, anterior part of frons with scattering of short setulae across most of width in places. Occiput densely grey dusted, black ground colour obscured except on triangular area behind ocellar tubercle, which is shining black. A fairly dense covering of pale yellowish hairs across dusted area, shorter, more even above, significantly longer close to lower oral margin. Ommatidia uniform in size. Antennae black, third segment, a little less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, narrow swollen below basally, concave medio-ventrally, sensilla inconspicuous, translucent brownish. All antennal segments with very short yellowish hairs above, longest just before apical sulcus. Palps small, black, apically, clavate tip a little narrower than oral margin, pale brown apical setae about half as long as length of palps. Proboscis shorter than head-thorax length, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black, sometimes with bluish reflections, grey dusting on anterior slope of mesonotum laterally, post-pronotal lobe, notopleuron and above wing root. Disc densely puncto-rugose, hairs issuing from confluent welts producing rough-textured, but still shining cuticle. Paramedian vittae usually just discernable by their different surface sculpture, more transversely wrinkled, extending from anterior slope of thorax almost to wing insertions. Mesonotum fairly densely clothed with fine whitish vestiture, on disc and posteriorly short, neat, erect to slightly reclinate, tending to proclinate close to scutellum, even in length, no hairs longer than those on upper occiput. Laterally hairs are longer and erect or inclined inwards (Figure 1). Acrostichal hairs between he bare paramedian vittae multiserial, entirely erect to slightly reclinate, widening posteriorly, dorsocentrals not distinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellum shining as adjacent parts of mesonotum, hair length as on mesonotum or even shorter. Pleurae uniformly grey dusted largely obscuring ground colour, no areas of shining cuticle. Long white hairs, longer than any on mesonotum, on pronotum and upper and posterior half of anepisternum. Wing. Membrane brown tinged, this infuscation more intense in cells c, sc, base of r 1, and all but tip of first basal cell in most individuals, squama very pale yellow, veins all brown, darkest at base of C and Rs. Crossvein r-m at or a little before the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe moderately well developed, with evenly curved trailing edge, about two-thirds width of anal cell. Haltere. Yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with coating of grey dust as on pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below setulae. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with moderately long, white hairs, on mid and hind-femora a little more than greatest depth of tibia, shorter on front femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, white hairs. Abdomen. All tergites shining aeneous black, often with bluish reflections, dusted on down-curved margins of first to third or fifth tergites. Each tergite densely puncto-rugose, surface sculpture of transverse welts each furnished with a hair, very narrow, smooth, shining apical margin. Disc uniformly and densely covered with very short, pale brownish, recumbent hairs, longer, whiter, more erect laterally. Sternites grey dusted, faintly punctate, with fairly long, erect white to very pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Relatively small and simple, globular. Epandrium flaskshaped with apicolateral blunt extensions but lacking any median ���V���-notch, mostly shining black, cuticle punctate, evenly coated with pale yellow curved hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, shining black basally, rufous brown apically, tips closely approximate or touching, haired as epandrium, gonostyli simple, curved with basal ���thumb���. Female. As male except as follows: oral margin decidedly broader, in lateral view visible to rear of oral opening. Frons a little wider, about one-fifth head width, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by about their diameter or a little more. Dusting of frons more conspicuous and extensive, extending down between eye and oral margin. Mesonotal vestiture often slightly shorter, the paramedian vittae often obscure so acrostichal rows difficult to distinguish. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to rounded point; apical sternite subrectangular, the basal part partially divided from main part, apical notch present but not deep, although often visible in undissected specimens. Main part of apical sternite with raised transverse ridge clothed with long whitish hairs. Furca arms very long, but tip poorly sclerotised, membranous so difficult to see, conspicuous, rectangular, dark-pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. This common eastern Mediterranean species is very close to U. crinipes Becker and possibly conspecific, but the two are allopatric or parapatric and separated attitudinally. Also close to U. lata Loew, which shares the dusted occiput and epandrium lacking apical V-notch. Distribution. Egypt (where only known from the holotype collected by Bigot at Cairo (Macquart 1855) so perhaps rare but likely to be found in the Sinai), Iran, Israel (very common), Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey (coastal provinces from Mersin to Hatay). As far as can be ascertained from locality data, this is a lowland species, especially abundant on coastal dunes in Israel, but with occasional specimens up to 1335m in Turkey., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 26-29, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090

Usia putilla Becker, 1906 (Figure 12; Plate IX) Usia putilla Becker, 1906 b: 215, stat. rev. Type material examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; France, putilla, Lyon, Coll. Winthem / putilla det. Becker/ Type / Usia angustifrons B., Dr E.O. Engel det. [♂ in NMW]. PARALECTOTYPES; putilla, Lyon, Coll. Winthem / putilla det. Becker/ Type / Usia angustifrons Beck., Dr E.O. Engel det. [♂ in NMW]; 103 [on micropin]/ putilla, Lyon, Coll. Winthem / putilla det. Becker/ Type / Usia angustifrons B., Dr E.O. Engel det. [♀in NMW]; putilla, Lyon / putilla, Lyon, Coll. Winthem / putilla det. Becker/ Type / Usia angustifrons B., Dr E.O. Engel det. [♀ in NMW]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens of both sexes from Winthem���s collection, Vienna. Four syntypes were found in NMW, the male in best condition selected as lectotype. Other material examined. Spain, Cha��e (Segovia) 18.v��� 3.vii 2000, T. Malaise [♂] (leg. J.F. G��mez) (PCDG). France, Cavaliea [sic. = Cavalaire, Var], June [19]06, Museum Paris, ex coll. Hesse [♀ MNHN]. Etymology. from Latin putus, meaning pure or clear, + illa, a diminutive suffix; perhaps referring to its shininess and small size. Diagnosis. A small to very small shining black species, known only from a few specimens from France and Spain. Entirely black, vestiture fine, relatively sparse and silvery white, hairs erect or slightly inclined. Occiput shining, male frons narrow, eyes separated by less than distance across lateral ocelli, rear half of frons parallel, silvery dusting coalescing in front of anterior ocellus or, in females, dust spots separated. Acrostichal setulae proclinate in all specimens seen. Pleurae dusted apart from small shining dorsal and posterior margin on anepisternum in some individuals. Wings faintly yellow-grey tinged, distinctly yellow basally, veins yellow, becoming darker distally, anal lobe narrow but trailing edge clearly curved, more than half width of anal cell. Genitalia typical of group, differing only subtly from close congeners, most importantly in membranous apical margin of epandrium, which extends for more than half length of sclerite. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 3.4���4.5mm. Wing length. 2.7���3.4mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin very narrow, almost absent towards rear of oral opening, frons at narrowest point a little less than distance across lateral ocelli, equal to three times diameter of anterior ocellus, lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by about its radius or less. Ocellar tubercle shining black, anterolateral silvery grey dust spots on frons extending back to narrowest part where they coalesce, a covering of fine pale setulae on anterior part of frons. Occiput shining black without any noticeable pollinosity except in the two vertical occipital tumescence but even here black ground colour not obscured. Hairing moderate length, on ocellar area about as long as width of vertex at narrowest point. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as the head and thorax together; palps very short and thin, black to brown with short pale hairs apically; antennae black, third antennal segment longer than the scape and pedicel together, all segments shortly-haired above. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black except for dorsum of post pronotal lobes, anteroventral corner of notopleuron and small areas above the wings. Shining between punctures, in some individuals these punctures rather stellate, bare paramedian lines relatively conspicuous and extending back to the mid point of the mesonotum, each a little broader than the acrostichal area which has 5���6 lines of proclinate hairs, most of hairs on disc of mesonotum also proclinate. Mesonotum covered with short white hairs, that on the disc no longer than distance between lateral ocelli, on scutellum about as long as vertex at level of lateral ocelli. Laterally hairing a little longer and denser, the hairs erect or inclined inwards. Pleurae black with a covering of grey dust sufficiently dense to obscure the black ground colour except for small shining patch along dorsal and posterior margin of anepisternum. Posterior half of anepisternum and pronotum with rather longer white hairs. Wing. Wing membrane clear, only faintly tinged yellowish-grey, becoming yellow basally, the veins also yellow basally becoming conspicuously darker brownish in the apical half. Anal lobe narrow, but with rounded margin, just a little narrower than anal cell (France) to a little over half width of anal cell (Spain, Figure 12), r-m a little before the middle of the discal cell. Haltere. Whitish yellow, slightly infuscated at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black, the coxae grey dusted as in pleurae; femora ventrally with mid-length, pale hairs, up to length of width of tibia, tibia and tarsi with a covering of short, white setulae, longer on tibia. Abdomen. Shining aeneous black, the disc of the tergites covered with short, whitish hairs issuing from transverse welts. Laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites are clothed with rather longer, whitish hairs. Middle tergites with a shining, impunctate apical margin often with longitudinal grooves. Sternites grey dusted with whitish hairs confined to the posterior margin. Genitalia. Relatively large and conspicuous for this species group, few useful details visible in pinned specimens, shining black and covered in whitish hairs. Most useful character is the membranous apical ���V��� notch of the epandrium which extends for more than half of the sclerite. Female. As male except as follows: broader, though still very narrow, oral margin, and conspicuously wider frons, lateral ocellus separated the eye margin by about diameter of that ocellus. Posterior half of frons shining black, parallel sided, about four times diameter of anterior ocellus, as wide or wider than length of longest hairs on ocellar tubercle. Anterior half of frons widening, lateral margins each side covered in dense whitish dust obscuring ground colour, central two-thirds shining black or dark brown. Third antennal segment sometimes a little shorter. Anal lobe broader, margin more convex, as broad as anal cell. Abdomen conical tapering to rounded point. Discussion. This small shining black species is clearly very closely allied to U. manca Loew, and could possibly be the end of a cline of this species. If specimens come to light between north Italy and central south France that show intermediate characters then U. putilla Becker might need synonymising under U. manca. However, in the absence of such specimens the differences, though small, are sufficient to retain it as a full species. Engel (1932) treated this taxon as a subspecies of U. angustifrons Becker and he wrote that he could understand why Becker described it again under the name U. putilla. If Engel had the types of U. putilla in front of him then his decision is inexplicable, even without dissection these two species are abundantly distinct. Perhaps Engel did not have the U. putilla types available, in which case he might have worked from Becker���s description alone. Becker (1906 b) did list some useless features in his key (e.g., colour of wing membrane and position of vein r-m), but the width of the frons and nature of occiput, accurately described by Becker, should have been sufficient to convince Engel he was dealing with a distinct taxon. In his description Engel (1932) mentioned several characters (entirely dusted lower frons and dusted occiput) that do not fit Becker���s description of U. putilla. Distribution. A rare and little known species so far only known from the Rhone valley near Lyon, and the Mediterranean coast, southern France and a single specimen from central Spain., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 42-45, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 a) Die Ergebnisse meiner dipterologischen Fruhjahrsreise nach Algier und Tunis 1906 [part]. Zeitschrift fur Systematische Hymenopterologie und Dipterologie, 6, 1 - 16.","Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228.","Engel, E. O. (1932) Bombyliidae. In: Lindner, E., (Ed.), Die Fliegen der palaarktischen Region. Vol. 4. pt. 3. E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, pp. 49 - 96."]}

Usia greatheadi Gibbs sp. nov. (Figure 6, Plate VI) Type material examined. HOLOTYPE; Turkey, 5 June 2005, I��el, Camalan, 663m, N 37 �� 11 ��� 33.1 ��� E 34 �� 48 ��� 33.9 ���, Leg. Dils J. Faes J. [♂ in NMWC]. PARATYPES; Greece, Lesvos, Ag. Georious, S of Mytilini/ 24 April 2001, [leg.] D.J. Greathead [6 ♂ 5 ♀ in BMNH]. Turkey, 5 June 2005, I��el, Camalan, 663m, N 37 �� 11 ��� 33.1 ��� E 34 �� 48 ��� 33.9 ���, Leg. Dils J. Faes J. [2 ♂ 6 ♀ in PCJD, 1 ♀ in NMWC]; 29 April 2001, Mulğa, Mumcular (Karaova), 200m, N 37 �� 4 ��� 9 ��� E 27 �� 40 ��� 54 ���, Leg. J. Dils-J. Faes [8 ♂ 6 ♀ in PCJD, 1 ♀ NMWC, 1 ♂ in OUMNH]; 22 April 2001, Mulğa, Reşadiye Yarimadasi, N 36 �� 45 ��� 51 ��� E 27 �� 45 ��� 59 ���, Leg. J. Dils-J. Faes [12 ♂ 6 ♀ in PCJD, 1 ♀ in NMWC]; 24 April 2001, Mulğa 50m, Yuvacik, N 36 �� 49 ��� 41 ��� E 28 �� 11 ��� 27 ���, Leg. J. Dils-J. Faes [4 ♂ 2 ♀ in PCDG, 1 ♀ in NMWC]; 6 June 2005, Adana, Pozanti, 656m, N 37 �� 23 ��� 51 ��� E 34 �� 51 ��� 20.3 ���, Leg. Dils J.��Faes J. [6 ♀ in PCJD, 1 ♀in NMWC, 1 ♀ in OUMNH]; Antalya Prov., Olympos, 25km S Kemer, 26 April 2000, 0m, leg. Merz & Senay [♂ in MHNG]; Cavusk��y (Andrasan), 28 April 2000, 50m, leg. Merz & Senay [1 ♂ 2 ♀ in MHNG]; Kursunlu Selalesi, 29 April 2000, 150m, leg. Merz & Senay [5 ♂ 1 ♀ in MHNG]; Phaselis, 10km S Kemer, 27 April 2000, 0m, leg. Merz & Senay [♂ in MHNG]; Mulğa, Sazak-Otmanlar, 1050m, N 37 ��0��� 13 ��� E 28 �� 55 ��� 6 ���, 11 June 2005, leg. D.J. Gibbs [2 ♂ 3 ♀ in PCDG]; Road 635 between G��ltarla and Calallar, N 36 �� 31 ��� 35 ��� E 30 ��00��� 39 ���, 850m, 10 May 2001, leg. D. Mann & Barclay [1 ♂ in OUMNH]; Rt. 685, 30km N Antalya, 400m, 5 May 2000, A. Freidberg, H. Ackerman, L. Friedman [2 ♀ in TAU]. Other material examined. Greece, Lesvos, 10 km S Mytilene, 100m N 39 ��0��� 51 ��� E 26 �� 35 ��� 26 ��� Poor phrygana simple landscape/ blue pantrap#4, 23��� 25 April 2004 (leg. Dahm/Greenwell/Lamborn/Messinger)/ Aegean University 0 0 0 6721 1 ♂; 0 0 0 6747, 1♂; 23 April 2004 10.45���11.15 (leg. M. Greenwell)/ Aegean University 0 0 14073 1 ♀; 9.1 km S Mytilene, 130m 39 ��02' 19 "N 26 �� 35 ' 58 "E, Phryganic habitat complex landscape/ blue pantrap#5, 11��� 13 May 2004 (leg. Dahm/Greenwell/Lamborn/Messinger)/ Aegean University 0 0 0 7005 1 ♂; white pantrap#2, 16��� 18 May 2004 (leg. Dahm/Lamborn/Messinger)/ Aegean University 0 0 0 4534, 1♀; 8.9 km SSE Mytilene, 60m, N 39 ��02��� 16 ��� E 26 �� 36 ��� 13 ���, Olive grove complex landscape/ white pantrap#2, 16��� 18 April 2004 (leg. Dahm/Greenwell/Lamborn/Messinger)/ Aegean University 0 0 0 2842 1 ♂. Etymology. Named in memory of David John Greathead who helped me considerably in getting started with this revision. Diagnosis. A relatively small blue-black species that appears to be fairly common in western Turkey and on Lesvos. An all black species, often with bluish and coppery reflections and short, erect whitish vestiture. Occiput densely grey dusted, including triangle behind ocellar tubercle, oral margin very narrow, in male almost invisible, frons narrow, male eyes separated by no more than distance across lateral ocelli, about one seventh head width. Anterolateral dust spots extending almost to level of anterior ocellus, in male coalescing. Mesonotal vestiture short and neat, very even in length. Wings brown tinged, most intense in first basal cell, both veins and wing yellower basally. Genitalia typical of the group differing only subtly from close congeners; epandrium with apical membranous ���V���. Description. Measurements. Body length. 3.5���5.7mm. Wing length. 2.9���4.5mm. Male. Head. Oral margin exceedingly narrow, barely discernable even close to insertion of proboscis, shining black above, yellow below. Frons black, rather matt due to rough surface sculpture, conspicuously grey-dusted, the dusting extending almost to anterior ocellus, the area in front of anterior ocellus dusted across whole width of frons (Figure 6). Eyes separated at their narrowest by about one seventh head width, no more than the width across lateral ocelli inclusive. Lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by less than half the diameter of that ocellus. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus parallel initially before diverging relatively rapidly, then running parallel to insertion of proboscis before diverging rapidly to rear of oral opening. Translucent white hairs on ocellar tubercle averaging a little longer than width across lateral ocelli, rear of frons forward of anterior ocellus often with tiny, adpressed setulae close to eye margins, absent or invisible in some males, front of frons with a scattering of short setulae across most of width. Occiput grey dusted, the black ground colour just showing through, including on the triangular area behind ocellar tubercle. A fairly dense covering of translucent white hairs across dusted area, shorter and more even above, significantly longer close to lower oral margin. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment, a little less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, narrow swollen below basally, concave medio-ventrally, sensilla inconspicuous, white to translucent brownish. All antennal segments with very short yellowish hairs above, longest just before apical sulcus. Palps small, black, apically, clavate tip noticeably broader than the very narrow oral margin, the pale brown apical setae about two thirds as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis about as long as thorax and scutellum together, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black, often with bluish and coppery reflections, grey dusting on upper part of post-pronotal lobe, notopleuron narrowly and above wing root. Disc densely punctorugose, anterolaterally the individual punctures often discernable and separated by about their diameter. On disc surface sculpture shagreened and transversely wrinkled effacing the individual punctures. Paramedian vittae usually discernable by their different surface sculpture, more strongly transversely wrinkled, extending from anterior slope of thorax almost to wing insertions. Mesonotum fairly densely clothed with fine whitish vestiture, on the disc and posteriorly these are short, neat, erect to slightly proclinate, longer and orientated inwards laterally, most hairs little longer than those on upper occiput. Acrostichal hairs between the bare paramedian vittae multiserial, entirely erect to slightly proclinate, the front most more reclinate, widening posteriorly, dorsocentrals not distinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellum shining as adjacent parts of mesonotum, hairing as mesonotum. Pleurae uniformly grey dusted largely obscuring ground colour, often thinner in upper front corner of anepisternum. White hairs, similar to those on mesonotum, on pronotum and upper and posterior corner of the anepisternum. Wing. Membrane brown tinged, this infuscation more intense in first basal cell in most individuals, the veins brown, but sc yellower and all veins proximal to basal cells yellow, membrane here also yellow tinged, squama very pale yellow. Crossvein r-m at or a little before the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe relatively narrow, trailing edge only slightly curved, about half to two-thirds width of anal cell. Haltere. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below the setulae. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with moderately long, white hairs, on the mid and hind femora a little more than the greatest depth of the tibia, slightly shorter on front femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, white hairs. Abdomen. All tergites shining aeneous black, often with bluish, greenish or coppery reflections, undusted. Each tergite densely puncto-rugose, the punctures seriate, shining apical margin with longitudinal groves. Disc uniformly and densely covered with very short, whitish, recumbent hairs, longer, and more erect laterally. Sternites grey dusted, faintly punctate, with fairly long, erect white to very pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Relatively small and simple, globular. Epandrium flask-shaped with apicolateral blunt extensions and a distinct median ���V���-notch, in undissected specimens this can often be discerned as an apicomedian crease. Shining black, the cuticle punctate evenly coated with pale yellow hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, shining black basally, rufous brown apically, the tips well separated, haired as epandrium, gonostylus simple, curved with basal ���thumb���. Female. As male except as follows: oral margin broader, although still narrower than most species. Frons appreciably wider, about one-sixth head width, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by about their diameter. Dusting of frons extending up to level of anterior ocellus but not coalescing, centre of frons shining black. Lateral setulae on frons in front of anterior ocellus more numerous and conspicuous but still short. Mesonotal and scutellar vestiture often slightly shorter. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical sternite rhomboidal, apical notch present but small, difficulty to see in undissected specimens. Main part of apical sternite domed and transversely wrinkled clothed with long whitish hairs. Furca typical of the group, tip sclerotised but variable in structure, pointed, blunt-ended or partially membranous, arms long and strongly curved, conspicuous triangular, dark-pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. A distinct species, externally very similar to U. bicolor Macquart but with male genitalia closer to U. manca Loew. Probably not very closely related to either but clearly part of the lata species group. Distribution. Greece (Lesvos), western half of Turkey, from sea level to just over 1000m., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 33-36, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090

Usia notata Loew, 1873 (Figure 15, Plate XXI) Usia notata Loew, 1873: 201. Type material examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Uzbekistan, Кизилъкумъ [= Kizil Kum]/ 9692 / Usia notata Lw / Coll. H. Loew/ Type / Zool. Mus. Berlin [♀ ZMHB]; PARALECTOTYPE; Kazakhstan, Узуната [= Uzunata]/ Coll. H. Loew/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin [♀ ZMHB]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens. Two syntypes were found in ZMHB, both females, the specimen in best condition being selected as lectotype. Other material examined. Turkmenistan, Bairam-Ali, 28 April 1934, leg. N. Shibanov [♀] (ZMUM). Etymology. from Latin notatus, meaning ���marking���, probably referring to the brown spot in the middle of the wings. Diagnosis. A small to medium-sized Usia of central Asia. Mostly black with a faint greenish hue, immediately distinguished from all known species by the yellow anterior half of the frons, sharply demarcated from the shining black hind half. Occiput mostly shining, frons remarkably short and relatively wide, proboscis much shorter than other species, third antennal long. Mesonotal vestiture short, white, marginal scutellar hairs less than half midlength of scutellum. Knees narrowly but distinctly yellow, tergites all dark, sternites all pale. Wings clear but for a brownish infuscation over middle of first basal cell. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 2.4 ���5.0mm. Wing length. 2.2���5.5mm. Male. Material not seen, but Paramonov (1950) stated ���males extremely similar to females���. Female. Head. Noticeably small and short, frons barely longer than width at antennae. Mouth-margin strikingly broad, clearly visible from directly above, convex, about as broad as length of pedicel; shining, undusted. Anterior half of frons clear yellow, the frons laterally with silvery dust spots leaving central thirds shining undusted. The yellow front of the frons sharply demarcated from the shining black hind half, ocellar tubercle and occiput, latter only dusted on occipital ���cushions���. Frons narrowest level with hind corners of eyes, broadening anteriorly, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about the diameter of that ocellus. Vestiture very short, on ocellar area no longer than distance between lateral ocelli; on black part of frons a group of short, forwardly curved white hairs occupy lateral quarters. Antennae relatively long, scape brown about a little longer than wide, pedicel blackish, brown ventrally, quadrate, third segment black, very narrowly brownish as base, elongate, narrow, longer than width of frons. Proboscis black, hairless, shorter than most species of Usia, about 1.5 ���2.0 times the length of the head; palps short, dark brown, clearly clavate with pale hairs, the longest almost as long as the palps. Thorax. Broad relative to head (as in U. lata Loew), mesonotum and scutellum shining black except for light dusting narrowly on notopleuron and above wing base. Surface conspicuously punctate, although punctures small and simple, separated by their diameter or a little more, with a tendency towards transverse wrinkles in hind part, scutellum decidedly transversely wrinkled. Bare paramedian lines inconspicuous, apparent only on anterior slope of mesonotum. Pleurae predominantly black with a dense covering of grey dust largely obscuring the ground colour; area around anterior spiracle yellow, hind half of anepimeron dull brown to yellow below dust. Mesonotum and scutellum covered with short, arcuate pale yellowish or white hairs, those on disc orientated towards head, those laterally a little longer and orientated towards disc of mesonotum, scutellar hairing similar. Anepisternum and pronotum with hairing similar to that on notopleuron, covering whole sclerite. Wing. Wing membrane clear, only faintly yellow tinged but for a distinct, diffuse brown spot in the first basal cell above the base of the discal cell, spreading to the fork of veins R 2 + 3 and R 4 + 5. Veins yellow basally, beyond R 2 + 3 ���R 4 + 5 fork R and M veins plus r-m are darker and browner. Anal lobe as broad as anal cell, margin convex; r-m just before the middle of the discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming slightly infuscated at base of stem. Legs. Predominantly shining black, tips of femora and bases of tibia narrowly yellow-brown. Coxae grey dusted and haired as on anepisternum; femora with relatively long, pale hairs, the longest as long as the depth of the femora medially. Tibia and tarsi with a covering of minute pale setulae, a little longer and more erect on tibia, especially basally. Abdomen. Shining aeneous black, the disc of the tergites covered with very short, pale yellow hairs, appearing naked at low power. Laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites are clothed with rather longer, whitish yellow hairs. Sternites mostly pale yellow with inconspicuous short pale hairs, last visible sternite darker brownish. Genitalia. Furca pigmented, apical part rather robustly constructed, arms long and strongly curved; apical sternite wider than long, brownish, darker than foregoing sternites. Discussion. A very distinct species with no obvious affinities with any other known species. The very short head and proboscis, long third antennal segment, very broad oral margin and pattern of yellow on head are not found in any other species. The female genitalia also do not suggest any close relationship to other species. Distribution. Only three specimens seen, one each from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Records from Tajikistan are likely to be correct. The area is certainly very under-recorded, but even so the scarcity of specimens suggests that it is far from being a common species., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 76-77, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Loew, H. (1873) Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europaischen zweiflugeligen Insecten. Von Johann Wilhelm Meigen. Zehnter Theil oder vierter Supplementband. Beschreibungen europaischer Dipteren. Dritter Band. H. W. Schmidt, Halle, viii + 320 pp.","Paramonov, S. J. (1950) Bestimmungstabelle der Usia - Arten der Welt (Bombyliidae, Diptera). Eos, 26, 341 - 78."]}

Gibbs, David (2014): A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto. Zootaxa 3799 (1): 1-85, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1

Usia annetteae Gibbs sp. nov. (Plate II) Type material examined. HOLOTYPE; Lebanon, 25km SE of Tripoli, Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve /, Alt. 1300���1600 m, 29 May��� 3 June 2001, J.C. Deeming [♂ NMWC]. PARATYPES; Israel, Mt. Hermon, 1600 m, Israel, 28 May 1980, leg. Kugler [♀ TAU]; 600 m, Hermon, 9 June 1975, F. Kaplan [♂ TAU]; 1800 m, Mt. Hermon, 12 June [19] 96, Merz & Freidberg leg. [1 ♂ 3 ♀ MHNG]; 1600 m, Mt. Hermon, 29 May 2000, leg. B. Merz [2 ♂ MHNG]; Mt. Hermon, Astra, 9 July 1987, A. Freidberg [♂ TAU]; Mt. Shalhavit, 1900 m, 9 July 1987, I. Nussbaum [2 ♂ 1 ♀ TAU]; Hermon Mt., 1750m, 8 July 1987, I. Naussbaum [♂ TAU]; Hermon, 1600 m, 23 May 1994, F. Kaplan & A. Freidberg [♂ TAU]; 1800 m, Har Hermon, 12 June 2003, T. Stern [♂ TAU]; 1800m, Har Hermon, 11 & 12 June 2003, A. Freidberg [1 ♂ 3 ♀ TAU]. Lebanon, 25km SE of Tripoli, Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve/ Alt. 1300���1600 m, 29 May��� 3 June 2001, J.C. Deeming [♂♀, NMWC]; Horsh Ehden NNR, Mixed forest 1500 m, 29 May��� 1 June 2001, [leg.] P. Gatt [2 ♂ PCME]. Etymology. Named in honour of Annette Greathead, who generously allowed me access to the literature and collection of the late David Greathead. Diagnosis. A relatively small shining black species but very variable in size, known only from Lebanon and the Golan Heights on the Israli/Syrian border (disputed territory. Entirely black, lacking metallic reflections, vestiture relatively sparse, fine and white so appearing a rather naked fly. Occiput shining, male eyes separated by the distance across lateral ocelli, mesonotal vestiture orientated inwardly or forward, but the anterior acrostichal reclinate. Wings brown-tinged with anal lobe a little narrower than anal cell. Genitalia typical of the group differing only subtly from close congeners. Description. Measurements. Body length. 3.0��� 6.4mm. Wing length. 2.5���5.1mm. Male. Head. Oral margin very narrow, almost linear, almost disappearing below, shining blackish to vaguely brown. Frons black, shining, with conspicuous linear silvery dust spots laterally on anterior half, depressed in front of anterior ocellus where slightly more rugose. Eyes separated at their narrowest by less than one sixth head width, equal to width across lateral ocelli. Lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about diameter of that ocellus. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus diverging relatively evenly to rear of oral opening. Translucent white hairs on ocellar tubercle averaging width of frons, rear of frons in front of anterior ocellus with a few inconspicuous, pale, proclinate hairs laterally, anterior part of frons with denser hairing across most of width. Occiput shining black with grey dusting confined to occipital callosities, especially on external side, pale hairs, shorter and more even above. Ommatidia uniform in size across eyes. Antennae black, third segment, a little less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, narrow and parallel sided or slightly swollen basoventrally, sensilla inconspicuous, translucent pale brownish. All antennal segments with very short whitish hairs above, longest just before apical sulcus. Palps small, black, apically about as broad as oral margin at widest, pale apical setae about two-thirds length of palps. Proboscis shorter than head-thorax length, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black, grey dusting on dorsum of post pronotal lobe and above wing root. Disc relatively sparsely punctured, many areas with smooth shining cuticle, the punctures separated by distancesignificantly wider than a puncture, anterior slope of thorax and anterior part of paramedian vittae entirely impunctate, latter shallowly transversely wrinkled. Paramedian vittae extending from anterior slope of thorax to about half way to wing insertions. Mesonotum relatively sparsely clothed with pale whitish vestiture, in places very faintly yellow tinged. All hairs nearly perpendicular, those on disc and posteriorly slightly leaning forward. Laterally hairs longer, inclined towards middle of mesonotum. Acrostichal hairs between bare paramedian vittae in 4���5 irregular lines, posterior ones proclinate, anterior ones reclinate, dorsocentrals indistinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellum shining as adjacent parts of mesonotum, erect-hairs on disc as dense as on rear of mesonotum. Pleurae grey dusted except for ventral half of katepisternum and all but lower hind corner of anepisternum, which are polished black. Fairly long white hairs on pronotum and posterior half of anepisternum. Wing. Membrane with brownish tinge often a bit more intense in middle of first basal cell, squama very pale yellow, veins yellow basally, browner in apical half. Crossvein r-m at or slightly before middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe broad, with evenly curved trailing edge, a little narrower than anal cell. Haltere. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with coating of grey dust like that on pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below setulae. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with moderately long, white hairs, on femora a little more than greatest depth of tibia. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, white hairs. Abdomen. All tergites shining black, undusted, each densely puncto-rugose, apical margin a little less densely punctate, instead more shining. Disc uniformly and densely covered with pale brownish, recumbent hairs, longer paler and more erect laterally. Sternites grey dusted basally, more shining apically, faintly punctate, with fairly long, erect white to very pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Relatively small and simple, globular. Epandrium flask-shaped with apicolateral blunt extensions and median ���V���-notch extending half length of epandrium, shining black, cuticle punctate, evenly coated with pale yellow erect hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, shining black, haired as epandrium, gonostylus simple, curved with basal ���thumb���. Female. As male except as follows: frons wider, about one-fifth head width, diverging a little more anteriorly, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by twice their diameter. Dusting of frons more conspicuous and extensive. Oral margin a little wider, especially medially and with a greater tendency to be brownish. Occipital usually with some dusting above neck. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical sternite almost square, with an apical notch, in undissected specimens it can be seen to be apically silvery dusted. Furca typical of the group, with pointed tip and with long arms, conspicuous dark-pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. This species is very similar to the two European species U. manca Loew and U. putilla Becker, also small, shining black species with an undusted occiput. These three species have very similar male and female genitalia and are clearly sibling species. Indeed if it were not for the intercession of manca between them, then putilla and annetteae would probably be better considered conspecific at opposite ends of a cline. However, manca differs from both in having a linear anal lobe to the wing. So far there is no evidence that any of these species occur in either the Balkans or Turkey so annetteae is very widely separated from manca in Italy and putilla in France and Spain. Distribution. Northern Israel (Golan Heights), Lebanon from 600 to 1900m., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 24-26, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090

florea species group Included species: U. accola Becker, 1906 U. atrata (Fabricius, 1798) U. maghrebensis Gibbs sp. nov. U. cornigera Gibbs sp. nov. U. florea (Fabricius, 1794) U. vestita Macquart, 1846 Diagnosis. All are very similar in external appearance, averaging larger than members of the lata group and relitively robust. Integument black with a green or aeneous shine often apparent. All species with at least the upper part of the occiput shining, undusted. Anal lobe broad with strongly curved trailing edge. Although male genitalia are quite different between species, all have relatively small basal and lateral ejaculatory apodemes compared to the rest of the aedeagus. Female terminalia all have a heavily sclerotised apical sternite, longer than wide with relatively elongated apical processes, thus producing a deep cleft between them. Discussion.. This group encompasses six species that represent a radiation confined to the Maghreb, North Africa. All appear to be closely related, differing externally mainly in the length of the vestiture, from very short (U. accola) to exceptionally long (U. vestita). There is also some variation in the degree of brownish infuscation of the wings, two species being distinctly infuscated, one slightly, the remainder yellow tinged. However, the genitalia are abundantly distinct almost all parts showing remarkable modifications in one or more species. Female genitalia are also diverse in form, the furca particularly varying from entirely sclerotised and pigmented to almost entirely membranous and transparent., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 47-48, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 a) Die Ergebnisse meiner dipterologischen Fruhjahrsreise nach Algier und Tunis 1906 [part]. Zeitschrift fur Systematische Hymenopterologie und Dipterologie, 6, 1 - 16."]}

Usia transcaspica Paramonov, 1950 (Plate X) Usia transcaspica Paramonov, 1950: 351. Type material examined. HOLOTYPE; Turkmenistan, Transcaspia mont, Kopet-dag Tshulli, 21���25 May 1913, A. Hohlbeck / 1104 / Usia transcaspica sp. nov. S. Paramonov det. ♀ / Holotypus / Zool. Mus. Berlin [♀ in ZMHB]. Other material examined. Turkey, Adiyaman, Nemrutdagi, 1500���2100m, 1 June 1985, ♂ (leg. H. v. Oorschot) (PCJD); Armenia, 7km N Armash, 2 July 1959, ♀ (leg. L. Zimina) (ZMUM); Iran, Ghazvin, 1463m, road to Abazar village, N 36 �� 17 ��� E 50 �� 10 ���, pan trap, 16���17 June 2009, Leg. Babak Gharali [♂♀] (PCDG). Etymology. named for the type locality east of the Caspian Sea. Diagnosis. Perhaps one of the most readily identified Usia species, superficially more reminiscent of some Parageron. A strikingly marked black and yellow species, Both sexes easily identified by the combination of shining black disc of mesonotum, densely grey dusted marginally, largely undusted, shining black tergites with broad yellow apical margins and legs yellow but for blackish apical tarsomeres. Similarly patterned species of Parageron always have densely dusted or at least matt second to terminal visible tergite and all sympatric species have densely grey dusted disc of mesonotum. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 3.7 ���6.0mm. Wing length. 3.3���5.2mm. Male. Head. Oral margin narrow but quite prominent above oral margin, disappearing below in lateral view, shining brown. Frons blackish in ground colour, sometimes paler medially adjacent to eye margin, grey-dusted except for small rounded shining patch, on some extending forward of antennal bases. Eyes separated at their narrowest by between one sixth and one fifth head width, about equal to width across lateral ocelli inclusive. Lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by about half to two thirds the diameter of that ocellus. Ocellar tubercle shining, thinly dusted, subshining, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus diverging slightly, then relatively abruptly before continuing parallel to insertion of proboscis, there diverging to rear of oral opening. Fine white hairs on ocellar tubercle short, barely longer than space between lateral ocelli, frons in front of anterior ocellus glabrous. Occiput black in ground, often browner below close to oral opening, densely grey dusted, except small triangular area behind ocellar tubercle which is thinly dusted. Upper part of occiput with fairly dense covering of fine white hairs with conspicuously procurved tips, the hairs thinning out and becoming shorter below, opposite to the usual condition in Usia. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, sometimes yellower on scape and pedicel, third segment, a little less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, narrow swollen below basally, narrowing apically, sensilla white. All antennal segments with very short fine white setulae above. Palps relatively long, yellow, barely clavate tip a little wider than oral margin, short white hairs below, those on tip hardly longer than width of palp a widest point. Proboscis relatively long, approximately equal to headthorax length, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum with a shining black patch on disc of variable extent, broadly grey dusted on anterior slope of mesonotum outside paramedian vittae, leaving a shining black stripe extending to the pronotum or almost so, post-pronotal lobe, notopleuron along thoracic suture, above wing root, prohumeral area and rear quarter to third of disc up to scutellum. Disc finely punctured, the hair insertions well separated by smooth shining cuticle. Paramedian vittae can be distinct, impunctate and finely transversely striated, reaching to wing insertions, or almost invisible. Mesonotum clothed with fairly long, fine silky white vestiture, erect to slightly reclinate, tending to proclinate close to scutellum, hairs as long as those on upper occiput. Laterally the hairs are longer and erect or inclined inwards. Acrostichal hairs between the bare paramedian vittae multiserial, entirely erect to slightly reclinate, widening slightly posteriorly, dorsocentrals not distinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellum dusted as adjacent parts of mesonotum, hairing as mesonotum, cuticle smooth, unwrinkled. Pleurae uniformly grey dusted largely obscuring ground colour, except for a small area of shining cuticle on anepisternum anterodorsal in some individuals. Fine white hairs, like those on mesonotum, on pronotum and upper half of the anepisternum. Wing. Membrane clear, lacking any infuscation, veins all yellow, darkening slightly distally. Crossvein r-m at or a little before the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe well developed, with strongly curved trailing edge, wider than anal cell. Haltere. Yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae brown, becoming blacker basally, with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleurae. Remainder of legs yellow, undusted, shining below the setulae, except tip of basitarsus and apical tarsal segments which are dark brown to blackish. Coxae externally covered with moderately long, white hairs, especially apically. Femora, tibia and tarsi covered with short setulae, even those on femora shorter than width of tibia. Abdomen. All tergites shining black on disc with broad yellow apical margins that continue on to down-curved margin where it narrows slightly, tergite one thinly dusted laterally. Each tergite densely punctate, the punctures somewhat transverse forming a surface sculpture that gives the appearance of transverse striations. Disc uniformly and densely covered with fine, pale yellow, recumbent hairs, longer and more erect laterally. Sternites blackish brown with thin grey dusting, faintly punctuation almost invisible, with fairly long, recumbent pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Relatively large and conspicuous, elongate. Epandrium yellow with apicolateral extensions bluntly pointed, the tips black, in dorsal view apical margin rectangularly emarginated, shining, the cuticle distinctly punctate evenly coated short pale yellow hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, dusky basally, yellow in apical half, the tips curving towards each other but well separated, haired as epandrium, gonostyli slightly curved, truncate with basal ���thumb��� and an external ���step���. Female. As male except as follows: oral margin decidedly broader, more convex but still disappearing below. Frons a little wider, about one-fifth head width, a little wider than distance across lateral ocelli. Mesonotal vestiture often slightly shorter. One female from Armenia with black coxae, trochanter and all but tip of femora. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical sternite rather rectangular, yellow, the basal part partially divided from the main part, no apical notch present but short median projection. Main part of apical sternite with raised basal boss, sclerite clothed with very short white hairs. Furca typical of the group, with rounded tip sometimes with short spine apically, arms long, conspicuous rectangular, dark-pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. This very distinctive species is by far the most differentiated of the lata -group. Apart from the very obvious pattern of yellow, it has more extensive mesonotal dusting, longer occipital hairs above than below, smoother more finely punctured mesonotum and scutellum and broader anal lobe than in other species. In the latter two characters it approaches the condition seen in some Parageron with similar abdominal pattern. However, the male and female genitalia clearly place it in the lata -group and lack the diagnostic characters of Parageron so the similarities with Parageron are coincidental. Only five specimens have been seen which exhibit considerable variation in size, extent of mesonotal dusting and leg colour in the females. When much more material becomes available it will be worth looking to see if there is more than one species involved. However, amongst the four dissected specimens there no clear evidence of more than a single species. Distribution. Armenia, western Iran, eastern Turkey and Turkmenistan, poorly studied areas but does not appear to be very common., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 45-47, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Paramonov, S. J. (1950) Bestimmungstabelle der Usia - Arten der Welt (Bombyliidae, Diptera). Eos, 26, 341 - 78."]}

Usia manca Loew, 1846 (Figure 11; Plate VIII) Usia manca Loew, 1846: 412. Usia sicula Egger, 1859: 400, syn. nov. Type material of Usia manca examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Italy (Sicily), 306 / Mt. Etna/ Usia manca m/ 9684 / Coll. H. Loew/ Type / Zool. Mus. Berlin [♀ in ZMHB]. Originally described from an unspecified number of females. One syntype was found in ZHMB and is here designated as lectotype. Type material of Usia sicula examined . LECTOTYPE here designated; Italy, [small gold circle/ small red strip]/ Sicily 1858 / Schiner 1869 / Type / sicula det. Becker [♀ in NMW]; PARALECTOTYPE; Italy, [small gold circle/ small red strip]/ Sicily 1858 / Schiner 1869 / Type / sicula det. Becker [♀ in NMW]; Schiner 1869 / sicula [undecipherable]/ Type / sicula det. Becker [♀ in NMW = Usia versicolor Fabricius]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens. Three females found in NMW, one of which proved to be a female Usia versicolor Fabricius. Of the remaining specimens the one in best condition was chosed as the lectotype. Other material examined. Italy, Sicily, Etna, 3km NW Milo, 1000m, 5 June 1999, ♂ ♀; N��brodi, Mt. Soro, 1700m, 7 June 1999, ♀; Catania, Randazzo, Monte Spagnolo, 1200m, 6 June 1999, ♂ ♀ (leg. B.Merz) (MHNG); 4 ♂ 1 ♀; Mt Etna, Monte Spagnolo, 6 June 1999, 2♀ leg. J.C.Deeming (NMWC); Puglia, Forest a Umbra, 400m, 24 May 1995, 1♂ 6 ♀ (leg. J. Dils); Vieste, 450m, N 41 �� 48 ��� 8 " E 16 �� 7 ��� 3 ���, 2 June 1999, ♂; Vico del Gargano, 450m, N 41 �� 52 ��� 15 " E 15 �� 58 ��� 36 ���, 1 June 1999, 19♂ 7 ♀; Mattinata SS 89, 500m, N 41 �� 45 ��� 20 " E 16 �� 4 ��� 47 ���, 2 June 1999, 4♂ (leg. J. Dils & J. Faes); Toscana, Colognole, 275m, N 43 �� 30 ��� 43 " E 10 �� 25 ��� 4 ���, 26 May 2000, 1♂; Tirrenia, 0m, N 43 �� 37 ��� 18 " E 10 �� 17 ��� 30 ���, 30 May 2000, ♀ (leg. G. van de Weyer); Museum Paris, Roy de Naples, O. Costa, 1 -55, 1- 55, 607, sicula Egger det. Becker [2 ♂]; Sicilia, Messina, 15 May 1947, Barajon [2 ♀] (MNHN); Sicilia (PA), Bosco della Ficuzza, 865m, Pulpito del Re, N 37.53174 E 13.23768, (Ferula communis), 15 & 16 May 2004 (retino), D. Birtele, P. Cerretti, G. Nardi, D. Whitmore leg. [♂ 2 ♀]; Sicilia (PA), Ficuzza, Valle Cerasa, UTM 33 S 362011 4190550, 986m, 23 June 2005, net, Legit D. Birtele, P. Cerretti, M. Lopresti, D. Whitmore [♀]; Sicilia (PA), Bosco della Ficuzza, Cima Cucco (hill top) 995m, UTM 33 S 360328 4192550; 25 June 2005, hand net, Legit D. Birtele, P. Cerretti, M. Lopresti, D. Whitmore [♀]; 25 June��� 1 July 2005, Malaise trap [8 ♀]; Sicilia (PA), Parco della Madonie, Battaglietta, 1630m, UTM 33 S 414589 4192881, 29 June 2005, hand net, Legit D. Birtele, P. Cerretti, M. Lopresti, D. Whitmore [♀]; Sicilia (PA), Bosco della Ficuzza, Nr. Alpe Cucco, 776m, UTM 33 S 360943 4193339, 23 June 2005, hand net, Legit D. Birtele, P. Cerretti, M. Lopresti, D. Whitmore [♂]; Sicilia (PA), Bosco della Ficuzza, Torretta Torre, 950m, UTM 33 S 359993 4196856, 24 June 2005, hand net, Legit D. Birtele, P. Cerretti, M. Lopresti, D. Whitmore [♀]; Sicilia (Palermo), Bosco della Ficuzza Torretta Torre, 940m, Plot Conrcofor SIC 1, ���Luglio���Agosto��� 2005, trappola a bicchiere, A. Gatto legit, Conecofor programme ��� CNBF [♂] (CNBFVR). Etymology. from Latin manca possibly means ���crippled?��� but it is difficult to see why such an epithet would be chosen; sicula from Sicels (Latin Siculi; Greek ������ε������ Sikeloi), a tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age and gave their name to the type locality, Sicily. Diagnosis. A small to very small shining black species but somewhat variable in size, known only from Italy. Entirely black, sometimes with gold and violet reflections, especially in females, vestiture fine and brownish, darker than similar species, the hairs erect or slightly inclined. Occiput shining, male eyes separated by the distance across lateral ocelli, rear half of frons parallel, silvery dusting coalescing in front of anterior ocellus or, in females, almost reaching level of anterior ocellus. Acrostichal setulae mostly proclinate but in some males a few of the most anterior ones reclinate. Pleurae dusted apart from shining anterodorsal third of anepisternum. Wings decidedly brown-tinged, the anal lobe very narrow, rear margin almost straight, half width of anal cell. Genitalia typical of the group differing only subtly from close congeners, most importantly in the membranous apical margin of epandrium which extends for less than half of length of sclerite. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 2.3���5.5mm. Wing length. 2.4���5.1mm. Male. Head. Oral margin very narrow, almost linear, disappearing below viewed laterally, shining blackish to vaguely brown. Frons black, subshining, with conspicuous silvery dust spots laterally that extend back almost to anterior ocellus where they coalesce to occupy whole width of frons. Eyes separated at their narrowest by less than one seventh head width, equal to width across lateral ocelli inclusive. Lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by about the diameter of that ocellus. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus parallel, then widening relatively evenly to rear of oral opening. Pale yellowish hairs on ocellar tubercle longer than the width of the frons, rear of frons in front of anterior ocellus lacking hairs laterally, anterior part of frons a scattering of setulae on the undusted area. Occiput shining black with any brownish dusting confined to occipital callosities, but even here not obscuring black ground colour, and erect pale hairs, shorter and more even above those closest to upper eye margin with procurved tips. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment about one and half times longer than scape and pedicel together, narrow and swollen basoventrally, sensilla inconspicuous, translucent pale brownish. All antennal segments with very short brown hairs above, longest just before apical sulcus. Palps very small, brown to black, apically broader than very narrow oral margin, the brown apical setae small about one-third as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis shorter than head-thorax length, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black, grey dusting on dorsum of post-pronotal lobe and adjacent anterior slope of mesonotum, notopleuron and above wing root. Disc relatively sparsely and distinctly punctured, many areas with smooth polished cuticle significantly wider than a puncture diameter, anterior slope of thorax and anterior part of paramedian vittae entirely impunctate. Paramedian vittae extending from anterior slope of thorax to about half way to wing insertions. Mesonotum relatively sparsely clothed with pale yellow to brownish vestiture, most hairs nearly perpendicular, those on the disc and posteriorly slightly leaning forward. Laterally the hairs are longer and are inclined towards the middle of the mesonotum. Acrostichal hairs between the bare paramedian vittae in 4���5 irregular lines, in most specimens all proclinate, occasionally a few of the anterior ones reclinate, dorsocentrals not distinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellum shining as adjacent parts of mesonotum, erect-hairs on the disc a little lass dense than on rear of mesonotum. Pleurae entirely grey dusted except for a variable shining patch in anterodorsal corner of anepisternum which is polished black. Fairly long white hairs on pronotum and posterior and dorsal margin of the anepisternum. Wing. Membrane distinctly and uniformly brown tinged, yellower proximal to the basal cells, squama very pale yellow, the veins brown, yellower basally. Crossvein r-m at or a distinctly before the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe very narrow, linear, trailing edge almost straight, about half width of anal cell. Haltere. Yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below the setulae. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with moderately long, white hairs, on the femora a little more than the greatest width of the tibia. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, white hairs. Abdomen. All tergites shining black undusted, each densely punctorugose, the punctures connected by transverse groves, a very narrow shining apical margin. Disc uniformly and densely covered with relatively dark brownish, recumbent hairs, longer paler and more erect laterally. Sternites grey dusted basally, more shining apically, faintly punctate, with fairly long, erect white hairs. Genitalia. Relatively large for this species group, simple, globular. Epandrium tapering, with apicolateral extensions short and rounded, apical margin with a median ���V���-notch extending less than half length of epandrium, shining black, the cuticle punctate evenly coated with pale brown erect hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, shining, uniform black, haired as epandrium, gonostyli simple, curved with basal ���thumb���. Female. As male except as follows: frons wider, about one-sixth head width, wider than width across lateral ocelli and diverging more evenly, not parallel in hind half. Dusting of frons extending back almost to anterior ocellus but not coalescing, a few short setulae close to eye margins forward of anterior ocellus. Oral margin a little wider, especially medially. Acrostichals almost always entirely proclinate, even the foremost. Wings slightly less intensely infuscated, especially marginally, anal lobe broader, trailing edge relatively evenly rounded, just a little narrower than anal cell. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical sternite almost rectangular, a little wider than long, with a small apical notch, in undissected specimens it can be seen to be apically silvery dusted. Furca typical of the group, with narrowly rounded tip and fairly long arms, conspicuous dark-pigmented rectangular vaginal plate. Discussion. This small Italian endemic is a sibling species of Usia putilla Becker of France and Spain but with a slightly wider frons and a much narrower anal lobe. It is also very close to Usia annetteae Gibbs of the Middle East which has an even broader frons and anal lobe than both. The type specimen of Usia manca Loew in ZMHB and the two types of U. sicula Egger in NMW are all female; a third female syntype in NMW labelled as a type of U. sicula proved to be an example of U. versicolor Fabricius. The most important characters of the male frons, wings and genitalia were not available to Becker (1906 b) who retained these two as separate species. He seemed to have had non-type material of both available to him when he described the male of U. sicula and listed a female U. manca from ���Transkaspien��� in Loew���s collection. Unfortunately, these specimens were not discovered during this study, but if the locality was accurate, they were very likely examples of U. annetteae. If so then Becker���s conclusion that there are two species involved was correct. There are now numerous specimens available from Sicily and mainland Italy and it is quite clear that there is only one species of Usia belonging to the lata species group present in this geographical region. The single U. manca type and two U. sicula types are essentially identical, the differences mentioned in Becker (1906 b) such as the position of crossvein r-m and colour of wing membrane are variable and of no use in species diagnoses. Distribution. Southern Italy (including Sicily) north at least to Tirrenia., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 39-42, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228."]}

Usia calva Loew, 1869 (Figure 19, Plate IV) Usia calva Loew, 1869: 250. Type material examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Turkey, Bosdagh [=?Boz Dağlari near Izmir], Lederer/ calva sn./ 9690 / Coll. H.L. Loew/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin [♀in ZMHB]. Originally described from an unspecified number of females. One syntype was found in ZHMB and is here designated as lectotype. Other material examined. Turkey, vil. Eskisehir, 900m, 11 July 1972, M. e G. Osella leg. [♀ in CNBFVR]. Etymology. from Latin calvus for ���bald��� presumably referring to the mesonotum although it is merely shorter haired than most Usia, rather than naked. Diagnosis. A medium sized species known only from two female specimens from two locations in western Turkey (location of lectotype not verified). All dark, aeneous black with a distinct greenish shine and very short, pale vestiture. Oral margin very narrow, almost linear, frons relatively narrow for a female Usia, about five times diameter of anterior ocellus, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by a little more than its diameter, occiput shining black, dusted only on the two occipital ���cushions��� or thinly grey-dusted below. Mesonotum evenly, and relatively densely, covered with short yellowish hairs (shorter than other Usia except lata and the quite different U. aeneoides). Wings yellowish with anal lobe relatively convex, approximately the same width as the anal cell. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 5mm. Wing length. 4mm. Male. Not seen. Female lectotype. Head. Oral margin very narrow, almost linear, frons relatively narrow for a female Usia, widening slightly and evenly towards the front, about five times diameter of anterior ocellus, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by a little more than its diameter. Frons shining black, only narrowly whitish dusted laterally in anterior half. Pale hairs on ocellar tubercle very short, shorter than the distance between the lateral ocelli. Occiput shining black, dusted only on the two occipital ���cushions��� (thinly pale dusted below in the non-type specimen); covered with relatively short pale yellow hairs. Proboscis black, hairless above, a little shorter than head-thorax length; palps dark, very short with short, pale hairs. Antennae blackish, elongated and relatively slender. Thorax. Mesonotum shining aeneous black with a very small patch of grey dust above the wing base and dorsal margin of post pronotal lobe. Between the numerous hair insertion punctures, the surface of the mesonotum wrinkled, especially on the anterior slope either side of the paramedian stripes, laterally and adjacent to scutellum, the disc smooth between simple punctures. Paramedian lines short, about a fifth the mesonotal length, transversely wrinkled, narrower than mid-line which has about 5 rows of hairs. Scutellum transversely wrinkled, the hair insertions not conspicuous; posterior face rugosely sculptured. Mesonotum evenly, and relatively densely, covered with short yellowish hairs (shorter than other Usia except lata and the quite different U. aeneoides), these hairs with a tendency to lean towards the middle of the mesonotum. Anepisternum shining black anteriorly, grey dusted on posterior margin, posterior half with a scattering of short whitish hairs. Remaining pleurae lightly grey dusted, not entirely obscuring the dark ground colour, pronotum with white hairs but katepisternum bare. Wing. Membrane clear, slightly yellow tinged, veins yellow basally becoming browner beyond middle. Anal lobe relatively convex, approximately the same width as the anal cell. Crossvein r-m at middle of discal cell. Halter. Pale yellow, slightly darker on base of stem. Legs. Entirely blackish, the coxae partially thinly grey dusted, both femora and tibia covered in short white hairs. Abdomen. Dark aeneous, tergites with a distinct green shine in type (blackish in the non-type specimen), densely covered by raised hair insertions which form a rough, transversely wrinkled texture, most dense on anterior third of each tergite. Tergites undulating, anteriorly convex, posteriorly concave (as in U. lata and U. anatoliensis) Hairs short and whitish, longest on down-curved margins of the tergites. Sternites black dulled by a thin dusting, covered by whitish hairs, longer and less dense that those on the tergites. The furca of the non-type specimens differs from that of the type illustrated in that the tip is entire (lacks a transparent triangular ���window���), and the vaginal plate, while equally long, tapers more evenly coming to a point so more triangular in shape. Discussion. With only two specimens seen during this study and no males known, the possibility that these are aberrant examples or represent hybrids must be considered. The obvious candidate species for hybrid origin of U. calva Loew is U. lata Loew with a naked mesonotum and U. anatoliensis Gibbs sp. nov, with undusted occiput. However, U. calva has some unusual characters that suggest it cannot be derived from these two. The very narrow, linear oral margin and narrow, almost parallel-sided frons are closer to the males of these two species than females. No other known species seem likely to have produced the suite of characters present in U. calva. The most likely aberration that might produce such specimens is some form of gynandromorphy, females with male-like oral margin and frons. However, such specimens usually show undeveloped or vestigial genitalia which is not the case in the two species studied. Given the information currently available it is best to treat it as a good species. Distribution. West Turkey. Although the lectotype location, Bosdagh, (also spelt Dosz-dagh in Lederer���s account) does not accord with any modern spelling, it is known that the collector, Julius Lederer, visited Izmir in 1864 (Lederer 1866) so is very likely be Boz Dağlari near this city., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 29-30, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Lederer, J. (1866) Excursion Lepidopterologique en Anatolie. Annales de la Societe Entomologique de Belgique, 9, 49 - 80."]}

Key to Species of Usia sensu stricto As with most parasitoid insects, Usiini can be exceptionally variable, some specimens of the same species being several times the size of the smallest examples. Such large discrepancies in size can often be accompanied by differences in proportions, width of frons, density of dusting, hairiness, surface sculpture and many other minor variations. While every effort has been made to avoid the more variable characters, there will always be specimens that will not run cleanly through a key or may even run to the wrong species. If in any doubt, it is essential to dissect and examine the male and/or female genitalia. Even this precaution might not be adequate for some females. Such specimens collected outside of an expected range and/or without associated males should be treated with extreme caution. [♂ Usia calva and ♀ U. incognita unknown so not included in the key] 1. Males............................................................................................... 2 - Females............................................................................................ 25 2. Occiput densely grey dusted obscuring black ground colour, except in many species, small triangular area behind ocellar tubercle shining black...................................................................................... 3 - Occiput shining black, at least immediately behind eyes, any grey dusting present thin not obscuring ground colour....... 14 3. Frons laterally with outstanding hairs almost as long as those on ocellar tubercle and extending about half way to front of frons (Figure 1)............................................................................................ 4 - Frons lacking long hairs forward of anterior ocellus, any hairs in this position short and procumbent.................... 5 4. A shorter haired, neater species, almost all hairs on mesonotum of same length, none longer than hairs on ocellar tubercle. Tibia covered with short, mostly adpressed setae. Epandrium more obviously swollen basally, sides concave apically, apices of gonocoxite convergent, tips touching or almost so (Plate III).................................... ♂ bicolor Macquart - Vestiture longer and with uneven, shaggy appearance. Mesonotum with both short hairs and much longer ones which are often as long as those on ocellar tubercle (Figure 2). Tibia usually with outstanding hairs. Epandrium more rectangular, sides straight apically, apices of gonocoxite parallel, tips distinctly separated (Plate VI)........................... ♂ crinipes Becker 5. Femora and tibia entirely yellow; tergites with conspicuous yellow apical margins. Epandrium and gonocoxites distinctive..................................................................................♂ transcaspica Paramonov - Legs and abdomen entirely shining blackish or aeneous....................................................... 6 6. Gonocoxite either side with characteristic blunt-ended ���horn��� which can usually be seen in pinned specimens............. 7 - Gonocoxite lacking such ���horns���.......................................................................... 8 7. A very short-haired species, disc of mesonotum almost naked, usual vestiture reduced to tiny blackish spicules marginally, absent or practically invisible on disc. Oral margin very narrow, narrower than apical diameter of palps. Anepisternum shining at least along anterior and dorsal margin. Gonostylus T-shaped............................... ♂ aeneoides Paramonov - Mesonotum with covering of short pale yellowish-white hairs, most clearly seen on notopleuron. Oral margin wider, equal to apical diameter of palps. Anepisternum entirely or mostly dusted, no more than narrow anterodorsal shining strip. Gonostylus T-shaped with extra tooth externally....................................................... ♂ similis Paramonov [From here on external features will often be inadequate to arrive at a reliable name, always check genitalia.] 8. Wing sub-basally yellowish contrasting with dark infuscation from humeral crossvein to middle of wing (Figures 3 & 4) (very variable and occasional specimens lack this feature so will only be determinable by dissection) and grey dust spots on frons clearly separated...................................................................................... 9 - Wing either clear or if infuscated then without contrasting yellowish area basal to humeral crossvein. If with yellow base and vague infuscation beyond humeral crossvein (U. greatheadi) then dust spots on frons connected anterior to anterior ocellus, Figure 6............................................................................................ 10 9. Longer haired species, longest ocellar hairs longer than narrowest width of frons, third antennal segment about 2 x scape plus pedicel, isolated spots of infuscation over origin of R 4, r-m and m-cu crossveins, 1 st basal cell clear subapically, 2 nd basal cell largely clear (Figure 3). Epandrium shorter, about as long as wide, curving tip of aedeagus viewed laterally almost parallel. Spain.....................................................................♂ aenea (Rossi) long-haired form - Shorter haired species, longest ocellar hairs shorter than narrowest width of frons, third antennal segment about 1.5 x scape plus pedicel, infuscation of wing filling 1 st and 2 nd basal cell so without isolated darker spots over origin of R 4, r-m and m-cu crossveins (Figure 4). Epandrium longer, about as 1.5 times longer than wide, curving tip of aedeagus capped with a triangular, membranous structure. Italy...................................................♂ aenea (Rossi) short-haired form 10. Anal lobe very narrow, linear, clearly narrower then anal cell (Figure 5)......................................... 11 - Anal lobe broad with a convex margin, as broad as or broader than anal cell...................................... 12 11. Frons narrow, lateral dust spots separated anteriorly, coalescing across narrow part. Mesonotal vestiture relatively dense, neat and short, hairs just forward of middle of disc proclinate, shorter than those on upper occiput. Anterior slope of mesonotum undusted except on post pronotal lobe. Wing faintly infuscated fading into yellower base (Figure 6). Shape of gonostyli and apec of epandrium characteristic....................................................♂ greatheadi Gibbs sp. nov. - Frons broader, lateral dust spots broader and coalescing immediately above antennae. Mesonotal vestiture much longer more sparsely haired, hairs just forward of middle of disc erect to slightly reclinate, longer than those on upper occiput. Anterior slope of mesonotum conspicuously dusted between paramedian lines and post pronotal lobes, undusted centrally (Figure 7). Wing clear. Genitalia characteristic...........................................................♂ unicolor Loew 12. Hairs around margin of scutellum shorter than length of scutellum; hairs on disc of mesonotum shorter than width of frons (Figure 8); wings more or less infuscated, most intense basally along leading edge; frons between grey dust spots smooth and shining. Genitalia relatively small, characteristic....................................................♂ lata Loew - Hairs around margin of scutellum longer than length of scutellum; hairs on disc of mesonotum longer than width of frons; wings clear, no more than yellowish; frons between grey dust spots wrinkled or matt. Genitalia relatively larger.......... 13 13. Larger species relatively densely covered in rather shaggy, yellowish hairs. Cuticle of mesonotum shining black. Genitalia characteristic.............................................................................♂ pubera Strobl - Smaller species less densely covered in rather fine, whitish hairs. Cuticle of mesonotum shagreened, matt. Genitalia characteristic..............................................................................♂ incognita Paramonov 14. Frons at narrowest point no wider than diameter of anterior ocellus; anterior part of frons entirely grey dusted obscuring ground colour (Figure 9)...............................................................♂ angustifrons Becker - Frons more widely separated; at least small triangular area above antennal bases undusted, ground colour clearly visible... 15 15. Lower half of frons entirely yellow in ground colour (see Figure 15)..................................♂ notata Loew - Lower half of frons black, concolorous with vertex, at most small yellow spots laterally below dust spots............... 16 16. Acrosticals_proclinate 16.. Most acrostichals proclinate; if a small shining black species from Europe with a few hairs nearest head erect to reclinate then katepisternum dusted and dust spots on frons confluent in front of anterior ocellus........... 17 - At least anterior acrostichals reclinate or too short to judge; if a small shining black species from the Middle East with both proclinate and reclinate acrostichals or anterior reclinate acrostichals missing then katepisternum subshining and undusted on ventral half and dust spots on frons well separated........................................................... 19 17. Hairs_on 17. Hairs on disc of mesonotum short, adpressed, orientated inward or forward (Figure 10); frons wider, separated by............................................................................. ♂ anatoliensis Gibbs sp. nov. - Hairs on disc of mesonotum longer, erect, not so clearly orientated inward or forward; frons narrower, separated by about distance across lateral ocelli, grey dust spots on frons contiguous; anal lobe narrow, linear or only slightly convex, narrower then anal cell............................................................................................ 18 18. Wing_uniformly 18. Wing uniformly brown infuscated, except for yellower base, veins beyond humeral crossvein brown; anal lobe very narrow, linear (Figure 11); eyes separated by about distance across lateral ocelli; longer-haired species, anterior acrostichals longer then bare paramedian lines; epandrium with median unsclerotized area not exceeding mid point................................................................................................. ♂ manca Loew i- Wing yellowish, veins beyond humeral crossvein yellow-brown. Anal lobe narrower than anal cell but clearly with convex hind margin (Figure 12). Eyes separated by less than distance across lateral ocelli. Shorter-haired species, anterior acrostichals shorter than bare paramedian lines. Epandrium with median unsclerotized area exceeding mid point....... ♂ putilla Becker 19. Marginal_hairs...................................................................................... 19. Marginal hairs of scutellum shorter than half mid-length of scutellum........................................... 20 - Marginal hairs of scutellum longer than length of scutellum or almost so......................................... 23 20. Occiput_entirely 20. Occiput entirely shining black. Genitalia characteristic (Plate II). Asia Minor......................................................................................................♂ annetteae Gibbs sp. nov. [U. calva Loew, with very short mesonotal hairs, will probably run here but ♂ unknown] - Occiput not entirely shining black, at least some thin dusting below around mouth cavity. Africa...................... 21 21. Epandrium with, truncate, slightly apically expanded, apicolateral elongations that are longer than their apical width, usually quite visible in pinned specimens (Figure 13). Gonostyli with long, curved process on inner face basally................................................................................................♂ cornigera Gibbs sp. nov. - Any apicolateral extensions of epandrium not or hardly longer than apical width, gonostyli lacking long, curved basal process................................................................................................... 22 22. Very_short-haired 22. Very short-haired species, hairs on ocellar tubercle and mesonotum shorter than distance between lateral ocelli. Epandrium much longer than broad, protuberant below tip of abdomen, usually enclosing gonocoxite and aedeagus. Genitalia characteristic.....................................................................♂ accola Becker - Longer-haired species, hairs on ocellar tubercle usually and those on mesonotum longer than distance between lateral ocelli. Epandrium much broader than long, almost as wide as abdomen at that point, hooked tip of aedeagus protruding beyond apex of epandrium and gonocoxite, genitalia characteristic..........................................♂ florea (Fabricius) 23. Genitalia_very 23... Genitalia very large, as large as remainder of abdomen. Very long-haired species, abdomen laterally with long, outstanding foxy vestiture. Gonocoxite and aedeagus characteristic............................♂ vestita Macquart - Genitalia smaller, not as large as remainder of abdomen. Shorter-haired species, abdomen with shaggy yellowish-white hair. Gonocoxite and aedeagus different....................................................................... 24 24. Wing_membrane 24.Wing membrane clear, faintly yellow tinged basally, veins dark brown, subcosta and base of stem of R yellow. Genitalia with yellow areas, tip of gonocoxite with brush of golden hairs (Figure 14)... ♂ maghrebensis Gibbs sp. nov. - Wing membrane basally infuscated, veins brown, subcosta and base of stem of R blackish. Genitalia entirely black, tip of gonocoxite lacking differentiated hairs......................................................♂ atrata (Fabricius) 25. At least knees contrastingly yellow....................................................................... 26 - Legs entirely black................................................................................... 27 26. Lower half of frons and oral margin yellow, strongly contrasting with black hind part (Figure 15). Legs black other than yellow knees, tergites all dark, sternites all yellow.......................................................♀ notata Loew - Frons and oral margin black in ground colour. Tibia and basal tarsal segments yellow, tergites with yellow apical margins, sternites partly dark.................................................................. ♀ transcaspica Paramonov 27. Occiput dusted such that ground colour essentially obscured, triangle behind vertex often more thinly dusted so subshining..................................................................................................... 28 - Occiput either entirely undusted and shining, or with strip behind eyes shining and undusted or very thinly dusted so shining black cuticle clearly evident............................................................................ 37 [From here on many characters are prone to variation so any specimens that fail to fit description and distribution well must be dissected.] 28. Wing with well demarcated pattern, basally yellowish, from level of humeral crossvein to approximately level with crossvein r-m dark brown, beyond which wing membrane is clear, this pattern often best seen with the naked eye (e.g. Figure 3)(in some small specimens the wing pattern can be very poorly developed and only dissection will permit identification)........... 29 - Wing either clear, or if infuscated AND with a yellowish base (greatheadi), with brown infuscation fading out so no clear demarcation between brown area and clear apical part of wing................................................. 31 29. Mesonotum very short haired, practically naked, those setulae that are present are most readily seen on notopleuron and sides of mesonotum above wing bases and are dark brown to blackish spicules. Similarly setae on ocellar tubercle dark and very short, no longer than diameter of an ocellus...............................................♀ aeneoides Paramonov - Mesonotum longer haired, hairs, even in rubbed specimens, clearly visible on notopleuron and sides of mesonotum above wing bases and are pale yellowish white. Hairs on ocellar tubercle yellowish white and as long as the distance between lateral ocelli................................................................................................... 30 30. Upper half of frons with series of relatively deep, diagonal grooves either side meeting in middle (Figure 16). Occiput immediately behind vertex dusted, only slightly more thinly so than rest of occiput. Disc of mesonotum with strongly stellate hair insertions which in places coalesce to form a reticulate surface sculpture. Oral margin broader than apical diameter of palp. Apical sternite transverse, furca characteristic...............................................♀ similis Paramonov - Upper half of frons smooth and shining, no more than shallow wrinkles medially (Figure 16). Occiput immediately behind vertex with a shining undusted triangular area, often continuing as a black line to neck. Disc of mesonotum with hair insertions, while often stellate, not coalescing to form a reticulate surface sculpture. Oral margin no broader than apical diameter of palp. Apical sternite longer than broad, furca characteristic.............................................♀ aenea (Rossi) 31. Frons forward of anterior ocellus with a line of long hairs close to eye margins, at least half as long as those on ocellar tubercle and extending to about mid-point of frons (see Figure 1)...................................................... 32 - Frons forward of anterior ocellus bare or with very short, strongly proclinate, setulae only........................... 33 32. A shorter-haired, neater species with a ���clipped��� appearance, ocellar hairs no longer than separation of eyes at vertex (this latter character can be difficult to interpret in the absence of reference material so examination of furca and apical sternite reccommended), tip of furca membranous (Plate III)................................................. ♀ bicolor Macquart - A longer-haired, rather untidy looking species, ocellar hairs longer than separation of eyes at vertex, but this is variable and reference to furca and apical sternite required, tip of furca pigmented (Plate VI).......................♀ crinipes Becker 33. Short-haired species, marginal hairs on scutellum less than half length of scutellum, ventral hairs on hind femora shorter than width of femora. Wing often infuscated or tinged with brown and sometimes with yellower base...................... 34 - Longer haired species with marginal hairs of scutellum exceeding half length of scutellum, sometimes almost as long as scutellum medially, ventral hairs of hind femora longer than width of femora. Wing either clear, u, Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 8-21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Evenhuis, N. L. & Greathead, D. J. (2003) World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae) Corrigenda and Addenda. Zootaxa, 300, 1 - 64."]}

Usia crinipes Becker, 1906 b (Figure 2, Plate V) Usia crinipes Becker, 1906 b: 208. Type material examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Armenia, 53098 / U. crinipes [folded blue label]/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin [♂ (head missing) in ZMHB]. Originally described from at least one specimens of each sex. A specimen in ZSMC was not seen, so the only specimen in ZMHB was chosen as lectotype. Other material examined. Turkey, Amasya, 1400ft, 1���2 June 1959, 7 ♂ 7 ♀ leg. K.M. Guichard (BMNH); 1. Van, m. Nemrut, 2700m, 16 June 2006, ♂♀ (leg. D. Schepotkin); Erzurum, Kire��li Ge��idi, 2200m, N 40 �� 21 ���09.1��� E 41 �� 40 ��� 58.7 ���, 31 July 2004, ♀; Hakkari, S��varihalil Ge��idi, 2021m, N 37 �� 29 ��� 49.7 ��� E 43 �� 20 ��� 30 ���, 17 June 2005, 4♂ 9 ♀; 1645m, N 37 �� 29 ��� 56.3 ��� E 43 �� 27 ��� 46.8 ���, 18 June 2005, 1♂ 2 ♀; Niğde, Darboğaz, 1754m, N 37 �� 28 ��� 7.1 ��� E 34 �� 35 ��� 27.5 ���, 6 June 2005, 3♂ 2 ♀ (leg. J. Dils & J. Faes) (PCJD); vil. Tunceli, P��l��m��r ge��idi, 900m, 29 June [19] 75, Osella leg. [2 ♂ 2 ♀] (PCDG).; vil. Sivas, ��amlıbel ge��idi, 1650m, 24 June [19] 75, Osella leg. [♂♀]; vil. Erzurum, Askale, 1800m, 30 June [19] 75, Ocella leg. [♀]. Etymology. from Latin crinis + pedis, for ���hairy legs���. Diagnosis. A medium sized species so far only known from the eastern half of Turkey and Armenia. Very similar to Usia bicolor Macquart all black usually with a greenish or coppery reflections to thorax and to a lesser extent the tergites and clothed with variable, erect whitish vestiture. Occiput densely grey dusted, male eyes separated by distinctly more than distance across lateral ocelli, a series of distinct long hairs bordering eye margins in front of anterior ocellus, hairs on ocellar tubercle longer than width of frons. Mesonotal vestiture rather untidy, usually numerous long hairs mixed amongst the more numerous shorter ones. Tibia often also with longer erect hairs amongst the short, recumbent ones. Wings clear with a yellowish or brownish infuscation basally. Genitalia typical of the group differing only subtly from close congeners; apices of gonocoxite parallel, tips clearly separated; furca with tip pigmented. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 4.4���6.5mm. Wing length. 4.0��� 5.5mm. Male. Head. Oral margin narrow, becoming narrower rearwards, disappearing below, shining black. Frons black, shining, conspicuously grey-dusted anterolaterally, area in front of anterior ocellus depressed. Eyes separated at their narrowest by about one fifth head width, distinctly more than width across lateral ocelli inclusive. Lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by about its diameter or slightly more. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus parallel, about half way to front of frons diverging rapidly for short distance before becoming subparallel to rear of oral opening. Translucent white hairs on ocellar tubercle conspicuously longer than the width of the frons at narrowest, rear of frons in front of anterior ocellus with distinct uniserial rows of long proclinate setulae close to eye margins, longer than scape and pedicel together, anterior part of frons with numerous fine pale setulae across entire width. Occiput densely grey dusted, the black ground colour obscured except on a triangular area behind ocellar tubercle which is shining black. Fairly dense covering of translucent white hairs across dusted area, shorter and more even above, significantly longer close to lower oral margin. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment averages shorter than close congeners, less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, swollen below basally, contracted apically, sensilla brownish. All antennal segments with very short yellowish hairs above, longest just before apical sulcus. Palps small, black, apically, clavate tip a about as wide as oral margin, the yellowish white apical setae about half as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis relatively short, about as long as mesonotum, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black with greenish and or coppery reflections, thin grey dusting on anterior slope of mesonotum laterally, post-pronotal lobe and above wing root. Disc clearly punctured, less densely than average U. bicolor Macquart, the punctures quite distinct with the cuticle between smooth and shiny, punctures often separated by greater than their diameter. Paramedian vittae usually just discernable by their different surface sculpture, faintly transversely wrinkled and lacking punctures, extending from anterior slope of thorax half way to wing insertions. Mesonotum clothed with fine pale yellowish vestiture, sparser than in U. bicolor, consisting of short, erect or inwardly inclined hairs and significantly longer hairs scattered across disc, especially laterally, some of these hairs longer than those on upper occiput (Figure 2). Acrostichal hairs between the bare paramedian vittae multiserial, tending to be inclined inwards or proclinate, widening posteriorly, dorsocentrals not distinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellum shining, punctured as adjacent parts of mesonotum, hairing as mesonotum, the longest hairs about half mid scutellar length. Pleurae uniformly grey dusted largely obscuring ground colour, occasionally small shining area in upper anterior corner of anepisternum. Long white hairs, as long as any on mesonotum, on pronotum and upper and posterior margins of the anepisternum. Wing. Membrane brown tinged, this infuscation slightly more intense in cells c, sc, base of r 1, and all but tip of first basal cell in most individuals, squama very pale yellow, the veins all brown, darkest at base of costa and Rs, often paler level with base of basal cells. Crossvein r-m at or before the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe moderately well developed, with evenly curved trailing edge, about as two-thirds width of anal cell. Haltere. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below the setulae. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with moderately long, white hairs, on the mid and hind-femora these as long as femora is deep, shorter on front femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, white hairs, longer erect hairs often present on anterior and posterior surfaces in basal third. Abdomen. All tergites shining aeneous black, usually with green and coppery reflections, any thin dusting confined to down-curved margins of first few tergites. Each tergite densely punctate, the punctures tending to form transverse welts, a clear, smooth, shining apical margin present on most tergites. Disc uniformly and densely covered with very short, pale brownish, recumbent hairs, longer, whiter and more erect laterally. Sternites grey dusted, faintly punctate, with long, erect white to very pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Relatively small and simple, globular. Epandrium rather square, apicolateral blunt extensions but lacking any median ���V���-notch, mostly shining black, the cuticle punctate evenly coated with pale yellow curved hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, shining black basally, rufous-brown apically, the tips well separated, haired as epandrium, gonostyli simple, curved with basal ���thumb���. Female. As male except as follows: oral margin decidedly broader, in lateral view visible right to rear of oral opening. Frons a little wider, about one-fifth head width, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by about twice their diameter. Vestiture as male, but acrostichals rows often sparser. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical sternite rather rectangular, apical notch present but not deep although often visible in undissected specimens. Main part of apical sternite with raised transverse ridge clothed with long whitish hairs. Furca with tip sclerotised, usually with blunt, rounded tip, arms very long and semicircular, conspicuous pyriform, dark-pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. This is a rather obscure taxon, clearly a sibling species of U. bicolor Macquart, differing only in its longer vestiture and slight structural differences, including of the male and female genitalia. As far as can be deduced from the available data this species and U. bicolor do not overlap in range, the latter occurring further south and in the lowlands, while U. crinipes is found in the mountains from the Taurus Mountains east to Armenia, usually above 1000m, although lower down in the northern part of its range. Distribution. Armenia (lectotype only), mountains of the eastern half of Turkey., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 31-33, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228.","Becker, T. (1906 a) Die Ergebnisse meiner dipterologischen Fruhjahrsreise nach Algier und Tunis 1906 [part]. Zeitschrift fur Systematische Hymenopterologie und Dipterologie, 6, 1 - 16."]}

Usia cornigera Gibbs sp. nov. (Figure 13, Plate XIV) Type material examined. HOLOTYPE; Morocco, Museum Paris, Maroc, Sidi Bettache, R. Benoit [sic] 1928 / May [♂ in MNHN]; PARATYPES; Morocco, Tangier, April 1902, leg. Lord Walsingham [1 ♂ 1 ♀ in BMNH]; Museum Paris, Maroc, Sidi Bettache, R. Benoit [sic] 1928 / May [2 ♂ 4 ♀ in MNHN]; Mekn��s (550m.), R. Benoist 1919 / April [♂♀ in MNHN]; Ain Leuh (1350m.), 65 k Au S. de Mekn��s, R. Benoist 1919 / June [♀ in MNHN]; Dar Kaid M���tougui, P. Pallary 1914 [♀ in MNHN]; Rabat, 30 May 1934, Surcouf [♂ in MNHN]. Etymology. from Latin cornigera, ���bearing a horn���, refers to the blunt apical elongations either side of the epandrium. Diagnosis. A fairly large black, short-haired species of northern Morocco. All shining black, under natural light with a faintly bluish hue, all vestiture relatively short. Occiput shining and undusted on upper part, thinly grey dusted below, hairs on ocellar tubercle shorter than distance across frons at vertex, frons in front of anterior ocellus essentially glabrous. Mesonotal vestiture fairly short so fly does not have hairy appearance to naked eye, acrostichal setulae about as wide as this line of hairs. Marginal scutellar hairs much less than half median length of scutellum. Anepisternum mostly shining, a narrow band of dusting along posterior margin. Genitalia fairly large, epandrium longer than wide, apicolateral extensions distinctly longer than wide, truncate, usually visible in dried specimens; furca with tip pigmented, coming to a point. Description. Measurements. Body length. 4.3 ���8.0mm. Wing length. 4.2 ���7.0mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin narrow, shining dark brown, obsolete below, almost as broad as palp at widest point. Frons shining brown-black, the frons longitudinally wrinkled posterolaterally, grey dusting laterally on anterior half. Frons narrowest at level of anterior ocellus, as wide as scape and pedicel together, about one fifth head width, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by the longest diameter of that ocellus. Hairing relatively short, on ocellar area about as long as the distance across frons at vertex, yellowish brown, front half of frons glabrous or with minute setulae on dust spots. Occiput shining black above, thinly grey dusted centrally, becoming more densely grey-dusted on lower half. White hairs covering occiput similar to those on mesonotum, longer below. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third antennal segment longer than the scape and pedicel together, relatively narrow especially apically, all segments with very short setae above. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as thorax and scutellum together; palps short, black with paler stem, clavate with pale hairs, the longest conspicuously shorter than the length of the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black except for a narrow area of light dusting on dorsal margin of post pronotal lobe, very narrowly along lower notopleural area and above the wings. Cuticle smoother between hair insertions slightly wrinkled posteriorly. Bare paramedian lines hardly apparent in some, quite evident in other specimens extending to mid-point of mesonotum, acrostichals in 4���5 irregular lines. Scutellum shining with shallow transverse wrinkles. Pleurae black with a covering of grey dust except anepisternum which is shining dark brown and undusted on at least anterior two thirds. Anterior of mesonotum covered with moderate length whitish hair, those on the disc of the mesonotum a little shorter than the width of the vertex, laterally longer. Rear of mesonotum and scutellum with conspicuously shorter hairs, barely overlapping. Posterior third of anepisternum and pronotum covered with rather longer whitish hairs. Wing. Wing membrane faintly brownish yellow tinged anteriorly and basally, fading to a grey cast posteriorly and apically, the veins pale brown, base of costa blackish. Anal lobe as broad as anal cell, r-m before middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellowish white, becoming slightly brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely dark brown to black, the coxae grey dusted; femora with the longest pale ventral hairs barely longer than half the greatest depth of a femur, tibia and tarsi with a covering of minute setulae only. Abdomen. Shining black, with faint bluish hue, roughened by tuberculate hair insertion most dense at the base of each tergite and tending to form pattern of transverse welts, the disc of the tergites covered with short, yellowish hairs only slightly overlapping each other. Laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites are clothed with relatively longer, more whitish hairs. Sternites also with similar long, whitish hairs along their posterior halves. Genitalia. Prominent and conspicuous, fairly large, shining black the gonocoxite covered in long, whitish hairs similar to those on the lateral margins of the tergites, hairs on epandrium shorter. In dried specimens the elongated lateral corners of the epandrium are usually visible. Female. As male except as follows: conspicuously broader oral margin, frons wider and grey dust spots more widely separated. Mesonotum and scutellar vestiture a little shorter. Abdominal hairs likewise shorter than in the male. Apical sternite rather square with small point in apical incision. Discussion. Although with well differentiated epandrium and gonostylus, this species clearly belongs with the florea -group based on external features and the form of the aedeagus and female genitalia. Probably closest to Usia atrata Fabricius with which it shares a curved spur at base of gonostylus. Distribution. So far only known from the northern half of Morocco. All the records are pre-WWII, despite its former wide distribution and significant field work in Morocco in recent years, no further specimens have come to light. It would now appear to be a rare species., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 56-58, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090

Usia unicolor Loew, 1873 (Figure 7, Figure 17, Plate XXIV) Usia unicolor Loew, 1873: 201. Type material examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Uzbekistan, Келесъ/ coll. H. Loew/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin ♂ [ZMHB]; PARALECTOTYPES; Uzbekistan, Келесъ/ coll. H. Loew/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin ♀; Ташкентъ [= Tashkent]/ coll. H. Loew/ Typus / Zool. Mus. Berlin ♂; Ташкентъ[= Tashkent]/ unicolor Lw. / 9693 / coll. H. Loew/ Type / Zool. Mus. Berlin ♀ [ZMHB]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens of both sexes. Four syntypes were found in ZMHB, two males and two females. A male in the best condition was selected as lectotype. Other material examined. Kazakhstan (south), area south ��� 3, Kzul-Kumi ur. Kara-mulia, 11 May 1960, leg. P. Lev [♀] (ZMUM); 20km SE of Cajan, Glinkovo, 530m, 6 May 1994, [♂ ♀] (MHNG). Kyrgyzstan, Kara-Arthsa Tal, 35km ESE Dzhambul, 1220m, 2 May 1994, leg. B. Merz [1 ♂ 2 ♀] (MHNG). Turkmenistan, Imam-baba, 2 April 1964 [1 ♂ 2 ♀] (ZMUM); Imam-baba, Tugai, 31 March 1964, leg. Yu. Chernov [♀] (ZMUM), Kopet-Dag, Kara-Kala, 27 April 1960, leg. Zhelokhovtsev [♀] (ZMUM). Uzbekistan, Surkhand, Jar-kurgan, 3 April 1959 [♂♀] (ZMUM); 4 April 1959, leg. Zhelokhovtsev [3 ♂ 1 ♀] (ZMUM). Etymology. from Latin uni + color, ���one colour���. Diagnosis. A small shining black species known only from Central Asia. Entirely black, including the mesonotum which is smooth and shining, with no more than shallow wrinkles, the punctures small but readily seen. Anterior slope of mesonotum with extensive grey dust between paramedian lines and post pronotal lobes. Occiput entirely dusted, almost obscuring dark ground colour. Frons diverging slightly, hairless on hind half away from ocellar area, anterolateral dust spots contiguous across the frons above the antennae bases, dusting lightly thinner centrally in some females. Longest scutellar hairs at least half scutellar mid-length, all vestiture rather fine and white. Pleurae entirely grey dusted. Wings clear the anal lobe narrow, almost linear in male, as wide as anal cell in female. Genitalia fairly large and conspicuous. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 2.5���4.5mm. Wing length. 2.8���4.6mm. Male. Head. Black in ground colour, mouth-margin very narrow, linear, shining brown to black. Frons shining black centrally immediately in front of front ocelli, rather more matt and with reticulate surface sculpture adjacent to eye and across middle, densely grey dusted anteriorly, this dusting extending further back laterally. Frons almost parallel sided for hind half, widening slightly but noticeably anteriorly, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about the diameter of that ocellus. Occiput rather densely grey dusted, quite obscuring ground colour except on triangle behind ocellar tubercle which is a little less densely dusted. Hairing on head white, that on ocellar area conspicuously long, wider than width of frons. Hairs on upper occiput about half length of ocellar hairs, ventrally as long or even longer. Antennae black, third segment longer than the scape and pedicel together, third segment tapering to a blunt tip, all segments with short setae above, those just before the apical sulcus only a little longer than remainder, sensilla very small and inconspicuous. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as head and thorax together; palps short, black, clavate with pale hairs, the longest shorter than the length of the palps. Thorax. Black with post alar callus very slightly browner; mesonotum and scutellum largely smooth and shining with only shallow wrinkles, most noticeably on scutellum. Grey dusting obscuring ground colour on anterior slope of mesonotum lateral to the paramedian lines, on post pronotal lobe, notopleuron, above wing and more thinly so on post alar callus. Despite the smooth surface of the mesonotum, the hair insertions are inconspicuous, being small and simple; hairing long, whitish, the longest hairs almost as long as the mid-length of the scutellum (base to apex), very evenly distributed but more sparse than in U. incognita Paramonov especially laterally. Bare paramedian lines noticeable, extending one third of the way back; acrostichal row narrow 2���3 serial. Pleurae with a covering of dense grey dust obscuring ground colour, pronotum and posterior half of anepisternum sparsely covered with rather long white hairs. Wing. Wing membrane faintly yellow tinged, the veins a little darker yellow-brown, base of stem of r and base of costa darker brown. Anal lobe exceptionally narrow, linear, barely half the width of the anal cell, hind margin straight, r-m at or beyond middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely shining black, the coxae grey dusted like the pleurae, with long pale hairs; femora with rather long, sparse, pale hairs, longest posteroventrally exceed depth of femora; tibia and tarsi with only a covering of minute setulae. Abdomen. Shining black, surface sculpture consisting of short transverse wrinkles or ridges and warts, much more textured than the smooth mesonotum. Disc of the tergites covered with very short (but longer than in U. incognita), dense, whitish, backwardly directed hairs; laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites the hairs are longer, approaching the length of those on mesonotum. Sternites also with similar long, pale whitish hairs. Genitalia. Quite large and conspicuous below the tip of the abdomen, shining black and covered with pale hairs similar to those on the sternites but more brownish, longest and densest on the middle of the lobes of the gonocoxite. Female. As male except as follows: frons wider and broadening evenly anteriorly, oral margin wider, hairing on mesonotum and abdomen a little shorter and anal lobe broader, as wide as anal cell and with an evenly convex margin. Abdomen conical tapering to a rounded point, apical sternite wider than long, convex basomedially, apical emargination small and shallow, in dry specimens pale dust discernable apicomedially. Furca poorly sclerotised, membranous apically, arms strongly arched. Discussion. This species is clearly closely related to U. incognita which has closely similar male genitalia. These two taxa show no obvious affinities with any other known species. Distribution. Only known from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Specimens relatively numerous for such a poorly studied area, probably not uncommon., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 82-84, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Loew, H. (1873) Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europaischen zweiflugeligen Insecten. Von Johann Wilhelm Meigen. Zehnter Theil oder vierter Supplementband. Beschreibungen europaischer Dipteren. Dritter Band. H. W. Schmidt, Halle, viii + 320 pp."]}

Usia atrata (Fabricius, 1798) (Plate XII) Voluccella atrata Fabricius, 1798: 570. Usia claripennis Macquart, 1840: 105 [1841: 383], syn. nov. Type material of U. atrata examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Morocco, Type / V. atrata, Mogador Schousboe/ ZMUC 0 0 503996 [♀ in ZMUC in almost perfect condition, only left mid-leg missing]. PARALECTOTYPE; Morocco, atrata / Volucella, Marocco / ZMUC 0 0 503997 [♀ in ZMUC in poor condition, most of head and abdomen missing, left wing and all but left mid-leg missing]. Originally described from an undspecified number of specimens. Two of these were found in ZMUC, both females, one of them now severly damaged, the other in remarkable condition was selected as lectotype. Type material of U. claripennis examined. LECTOTYPE; Algeria, Museum Paris, Env. D���Alger, Bov�� 126 - 38 / 126, 38 [on reverse of round blue label]/ U. claripennis Macquart det. [in Macquart���s own hand][♂ in MNHN, in very good condition]. PARALECTOTYPES; Museum Paris, Env. D���Alger, Bov�� 126 - 38 / 126, 38 [on reverse of round blue label]/ TYPE / Usia claripennis [♀ in MNHN]; Museum Paris, Env. D���Alger, Bov�� 126 - 38 / 126, 38 [on reverse of round blue label]/ U. pusilla (H. Lucas det.?)/ claripennis Macq., det. Becker [♀ in MNHN]. Other material examined. Algeria, A��n Sefra, South Oran, 1���18 May 1913, (W.R. & E.H.)/ atrata, 26 B [♀] ; Museum Paris, M��cheria, M. Pic 1928 [♀] (MNHN). Morocco, Bou Jarif/Goulimine, N 29 �� 5 ��� W 10 �� 20 ���, 17 February 1992, ♂; 21 February 1992, ♀, leg. P.C. Matteson (NMWC); 5 February 1992, ♂; 21 February 1992, ♂ leg. P.C. Matteson (BMNH ex Greathead coll.); Agadir, Tamri, 215m, N 30 �� 45 ��� 47.4 ��� W 9 �� 48 ��� 34.8 ���, 28 March 2006, 3♂ 5 ♀; Tiznit, El Merabtine, 70m, N 29 �� 20 ��� 6.1 ��� W 10 �� 8 ��� 18.4 ���, 22 March 2006, 2♂ 3 ♀; Arbaa-Sahel, 320m, N 29 �� 39 ��� 26.5 ��� W 9 �� 52 ��� 11.4 ���, 21 March 2006, 18♂ 30 ♀; Marrakech, ��it Ourirn, 530m, N 31 �� 34 ��� 37.2 ��� W 7 �� 49 ��� 52.4 ���, 6 April 2006, ♀; Ouka��meden, 2200m, N 31 �� 14 ��� 0.6 ��� W 7 �� 49 ��� 1.4 ���, ♂♀; Tizi-n-Test, 1450m, N 30 �� 55 ��� 55.9 ��� W 8 �� 16 ��� 19.7 ���, 3 ♂ 5 ♀; Taroudant, Tizi-n-Test, 1200m, N 30 �� 48 ��� 13 ��� W 8 �� 23 ��� 43.8 ���, 29 March 2006, 2♂; Ingherm, 1660m, N 30 �� 2 ��� 54.3 ��� W 8 �� 27 ��� 18.1 ���, 26 March 2006, 5♂ 6 ♀; Timzit, 1700m, N 30 �� 5 ��� 7.5 ��� W 8 �� 29 ��� 58 ���, 26 March 2006, 2♂ 6 ♀; Tata, Iguiour, 1260m, N 29 �� 54 ��� 18.8 ��� W 8 �� 31 ��� 47.5 ���, 25 March 2006, 2♂ 4 ♀; Khemisset, Oulmes R 701, 700m, N 33 �� 31 ��� 37.8 ��� W 6 �� 54 ��� 23.8 ���, ♂♀ leg. J. Dils & J. Faes (PCJD); Moyen-Atlas, Ifrane, June 1949 / 1949, L. Chopard/ Standing over, florea F., [♀].(BMNH Bowden coll.). Tunisia, Tabarka, Cap Negro oak forest, maquis, 15 May 1995, ♀ leg. M.J. Ebejer (PCME); Zw. Maktar u. Thala, 910m, N 35 �� 30 ��� E 9 �� 1 ���, 29 May 1982, ♀ leg. E. Buttinger. Etymology. atrata from Latin meaning ���dressed in black���; claripennis from Latin clarus = clear and penna = wing, ���clearwinged���. Diagnosis. A usually large black species but variable in size, a relatively long-haired species of the Maghreb. All shining black, abdomen sometimes with faint blue and coppery reflections, occiput shining and undusted above, thinly dusted below, hairs on ocellar tubercle longer than width of frons at narrowest point, frons in front of anterior ocellus with long conspicuous hairs. Mesonotal vestiture long, all acrostichals reclinate, marginal scutellar hairs longer than mid-length of scutellum. Mesonotum and anepisternum almost devoid of dust, shining. Ventral hairs on hind femora longer than femora is deep. Wing with brown infuscation basally, veins brown, becoming blackish proximally, Genitalia small within the florea -group, with epandrium longer than wide, apicolateral extensions rounded; furca with tip pigmented. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 3.7���9.5mm. Wing length. 3.7���8.6mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin narrow, almost linear just close to rear of oral opening, shining black. Frons shining black, shallowly, transversely wrinkled laterally and with scattered punctures, narrowest a little in front of anterior ocellus, approximately one fifth head width, distinctly wider than width across lateral ocelli, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by one and a half to two times the diameter of that ocellus. Frons grey dusted laterally on anterior third, the dust spots separated by an undusted area rather more than one third of the frons width at this point. Hairing long and abundant, on ocellar area clearly longer than width of frons at this point, pale yellow, these hairs contiguous with similar ones on laterally in several rows forward of anterior ocellus, shorter bet spreading across frons anteriorly. Occiput shining black above, thinly grey dusted centrally and below such that ground colour clearly evident. Pale yellow hairs covering occiput shorter than those on mesonotum above, similar in length below. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment about as long as scape and pedicel together, relatively narrow apically, swollen below basally, all segments with relatively long setae above especially on scape, pedicel and just before apical sulcus. Sensilla small, brown and inconspicuous. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as mesonotum; palps short but strongly clavate, blackish with pale hairs, the longest about as long as the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black almost devoid of dusting except in recess above the wing bases. Cuticle smooth and shiny, hair insertions fairly conspicuous, on disc separated by their diameter or a little more. Bare paramedian lines extending back to about the mid point of the mesonotum, each a little narrower than the midline which has 5���6 irregular lines of hairs, uniform width throughout its length. Hind part of mesonotum slightly rougher textured close to scutellum, scutellum usually with noticeable transverse groves. Pleurae black with a thin covering of grey or brown dust except anepisternum and lower part of katepisternum which are shining or subshining black. Mesonotum and scutellum covered with long pale yellow to almost golden hair, that on the disc of the mesonotum anteriorly is as long or longer than width of frons, the majority of hairs overlapping their neighbours by most of the length of a hair. In many individuals the hind part of the mesonotum adjacent to the scutellum with much shorter hairs. Posterior half of anepisternum and pronotum covered with equally long pale yellow. Sometimes a few fine pale hairs on the middle of the katepisternum. Wing. Wing membrane conspicuously brownish infuscated anteriorly and basally, fading to grey-brown posteriorly and apically, the veins dark brown, base of costa and vein R blackish. Anal lobe well developed with smoothly curved posterior margin, as broad as anal cell, r-m close to middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming slightly brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black, the coxae thinly grey-brown dusted with long pale yellow hairs on outer surface; femora shining, undusted with the longest pale yellow ventral hairs decidedly longer than the greatest depth of a femur, tibia and tarsi with covering of minute dark setulae, the tibia also with longer erect yellow-brown hairs on basal half. Abdomen. Undusted black, often with faint bronzy or bluish reflections, dulled by closely packed punctures that are joined by transverse furrows, the disc of the tergites covered with pale yellow recumbent hairs significantly shorter than those on mesonotum. Laterally and on the down-curved margins the tergites are clothed with relatively longer, more erect yellowish hairs. Sternites grey dusted, also with similar long, pale yellowish hairs along their posterior halves. Genitalia. Prominent and conspicuous but smaller than in related species, shining black the gonocoxite covered in long, yellowish hairs similar to those on the lateral margins of the tergites, hairs on epandrium shorter but still quite long. In dried specimens the apex of the epandrium and lateral lobes of the gonocoxites usually dark like the rest. The characteristic shape of the gonostyli can often be seen, the curved basal spur being particularly distinctive. Female. As male except as follows: wider frons and less clearly brown infuscation to wings in some individuals. Apical sternite longer than wide, apicomedially with a prominent blunt projection coverer in grey dust. Furca with tip pigmented, bluntly pointed or narrowly rounded, arms very short and almost straight. Discussion. When Becker (1906 b) did the first revision of the Usiini, he had at his disposal the Macquart types from the Paris Natural History Museum, but appears not to have seen the Fabrician types of U. atrata held in Copenhagen. He thanks Hansen and Lundbeck of Copenhagen for ���valuable notes���, but does not list Copenhagen as contributing specimens. It would seem that either these notes were inadequate or he misinterpreted them. Perhaps because he had Macquart���s U. claripennis available for study he used this name for the North African species already named U. atrata by Fabricius, applying the Fabrician name to a rather different European species later described by Strobl as U. pubera. It would appear that all subsequent workers simply accepted Becker���s interpretation, continuing to propound his error. The two Fabrician types still exist, one now in poor condition, the other, designated the lectotype, in remarkable preservation after 215 years. The lectotype is very readily identified with the common Moroccan species that previous authors have referred to U. claripennis Macquart, and is quite different to the European species which must now be called U. pubera Strobl. Distribution. Northern Algeria, Morocco and northern Tunisia. A very common species in Morocco, occurring across most of the country, extending east through Algeria to northern Tunisia where only a couple of specimen have been seen., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 50-52, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228."]}

Usia pubera Strobl, 1906 (Plate XX) Usia pubera Becker, 1906 b [May]: 204. Nomen nudum. Usia florea var. pubera Lw. in litt.: Strobl, 1906 [June]: 287. Usia atrata: of authors, misidentification. Type material of U. florea var. pubera examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Italy, [small red square]/ Usia pubera Lw. Calabria ♀ [corrected to ♂]/ Syntypus (leg. Erber) [NMBA]; PARALECTOTYPES; [small green square]/ Neapel [Naples] ♀/ Syntypus [NMBA]; Spain, Escorial, Puerto/ Colecci��n, [leg.] Lauffer/ M.N.C.N., Madrid [♀ MNCN]. Other material examined. France, Alpes-Haute Provence, Sisteron, Gap, Peipin, N 44 ��07��� E 5 �� 56 ���, 31 May 2002, 1♂ leg. D.A. & E.T. Levy; Sault, Monte Ventoux, 1300���1400m, 27 June 1991, ♀ leg. L. Lanioreijer & W. van Steenis (PCJD). Italy, Puglia, Castel del Monte, 300m, 24 May 1995, 4♂ ♀; Foresta Umbra, 400m, 24 May 1995, ♂ leg. J. Dils (PCJD); Abruzzes, L���Aqulla, Monte Lucco, 700���990m, 7 June 1952, ♂ 2 ♀; 19 June 1852, ♀; San Giuliano, 700���990m, 2 June 1952, ♀ leg. F.G. Overlaet; ex coll. B. Aldgren (PCJD). Spain, Meigen, Usia florea, Spanien [♀] (MNHN); Palencia, Aguilar de Campoo, 19 June 1980, 2♂ leg. P.J. Chandler(PCDG); Bnco., Moreno, S.Almijara-M��, 4 ♂ leg. A. Cobos; ex coll. B. Aldgren (PCJD); Andalucia, Colado de las Sabinas, N 32 �� 6 ��� 38 ��� E 3 �� 25 ��� 14 ���, 2145m, 6 June 2006, 2♂ ♀ leg. D.J. Gibbs (PCDG); Algeciras, S. Rogue, 1 May 1974, ♀ leg. K.M. Guichard (BMNH); Palencia, 8km S of Cervuera de Pisuerga, 9 June 1986, ♂ leg. J.P. Duffels (PCJD). Etymology. from Latin puber meaning ���downy��� or ���hairy���, referring to the relatively long, dense vestiture of this species. Diagnosis. A usually large black species with a distinctly hairy look found in southwest Europe. All shining black, often appearing aeneous green, occiput densely dusted except behind vertex, hairs on ocellar tubercle longer than width of frons at narrowest point. Mesonotal vestiture long, all acrostichals reclinate, marginal scutellar hairs almost as long as mid-length of scutellum. Anepisternum entirely dusted. Ventral hairs on hind femora longer than femora is deep. Wing tinged yellow basally, otherwise clear, veins yellow to pale brown. Genitalia rather small gonocoxite particularly short and often sunk into apical tergites; furca with tip pigmented, spermathecal reservoirs uniquely subspherical. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 7���10mm. Wing length. 6.0��� 8.5mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin narrow, becoming narrower below but still visible to rear of oral opening, shining black. Frons shining black, partly matt due to fine surface sculpture and small punctures, narrowest a little in front of anterior ocellus, approximately one fifth head width, distinctly wider than width across lateral ocelli, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by one and a half to two times the diameter of that ocellus. Frons grey dusted laterally on anterior half, the dust spots separated by an undusted area rather more than one third of the frons width at this point. Vestiture on ocellar area clearly longer than width of frons at this point, pale yellow, these hairs contiguous with much smaller and strongly proclinate ones laterally forward of anterior ocellus, fine white hairs across frons anteriorly, most conspicuous on undusted area. Occiput entirely grey dusted such that ground colour obscured, pale yellow hairs covering occiput shorter than those on mesonotum above, similar in length below. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment distinctly longer than scape and pedicel together, relatively narrow apically, swollen below basally, all segments with relatively long setae above especially on scape, pedicel and just before apical sulcus. Sensilla small, brown, occasionally whitish, usually inconspicuous. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as mesonotum; palps short but strongly clavate, blackish with pale base and hairs, the longest about as long as the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black dusted on dorsum of post pronotal lobe and adjacent parts of anterior slope, notopleuron narrowly and above the wing bases. Cuticle smooth and shiny, hair insertions small and simple, on disc separated by their diameter, often rather more. Bare paramedian lines extending back to about the wing roots, each a little narrower than the midline which has 5���6 irregular lines of hairs, widening out slightly behind. Hind part of mesonotum with a more wrinkled or puckered cuticle, punctures hard to see, scutellum usually with shallow transverse grooves. Pleurae black with a covering of grey dust sufficient to obscure the ground colour except on a very narrow anterior strip of the anepisternum which is shining black. Mesonotum and scutellum covered with long pale yellow to almost golden hair, that on the disc of the mesonotum anteriorly is as long or longer than width of frons, the majority of hairs overlapping their neighbours by most of the length of a hair. In many individuals the hind part of the mesonotum adjacent to the scutellum with much shorter hairs. Posterior half of anepisternum and pronotum covered with equally long pale yellow. Sometimes a few fine pale hairs on the middle of the katepisternum. Wing. Wing membrane distinctly yellow-tinged anteriorly and basally, clear posteriorly and apically, the veins yellow, becoming pale brown distally, extreme base of costa blackish. Anal lobe well developed with smoothly curved posterior margin, as broad or broader than anal cell, r-m close to middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming slightly brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black, the coxae grey dusted with long pale yellow hairs on outer surface; femora shining, undusted with the longest pale yellow ventral hairs decidedly longer than the greatest depth of a femur, tibia and tarsi with covering of minute yellow to brown setulae, the tibia also with longer erect pale yellow hairs on basal half. Abdomen. Black, often with faint bronzy or greenish reflections, thinly dusted on lateral margin of first few tergites. All tergites dulled by closely packed punctures that are joined by transverse furrows or ridges forming the appearance of transverse striations, the disc of the tergites covered with yellow recumbent hairs significantly shorter than those on mesonotum. Laterally and on the down curved margins the tergites are rather densely clothed with long, erect yellowish hairs. Sternites grey dusted, also with similar long, pale yellowish hairs along their posterior halves. Genitalia. Rather small and contracted into tip of abdomen, shining black the gonocoxite covered in long, golden hairs similar to those on the lateral margins of the tergites, hairs on epandrium shorter, especially on disc. Apicolateral lobes of the epandrium with straight dorsal margin joining curved ventral margin at a right angle. The gonostyli are flattened and parallel sided with a small basal spur often visible without dissection (not visible in illustrations due to angle of view). Female. As male except as follows: wider frons and significantly wider oral margin. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point, apical sternite longer than wide, trapezoidal, apicomedially with a pair of blunt processes separated by a space about as wide as one process. Furca with tip pigmented, tip narrowly rounded, spermathecae subspherical, pyriform, unique in the genus. Discussion. This species has been misinterpreted by all workers from Becker (1906 b) onwards (see discussion under U. atrata Fabricius) all of whom referred it to U. atrata. Examination of the types of U. atrata showed it to be a quite different species, which seems to be confined to North Africa and has hitherto been known as U. claripennis Macquart. The only valid name that proved to be referable to this species is U. pubera Strobl (Chv��la 2008). The affinities of this species are difficult to assess but it is closest in appearance to the U. florea group, especially U. atrata with which it was so long confused. The surface sculpturing, vestiture, including possession of a few hairs on the katepisternum, and shape of anal lobe are all highly suggestive of affinity with the U. florea group. Particularly significant is the small spur at the base of the gonostyli ventrally which, although smaller and straighter, is very reminiscent of the curved spur at the base of the gonostyli of U. atrata and U. cornigera Gibbs. However, U. pubera differs from the U. florea group in having an entirely densely grey-dusted occiput and, especially, uniquely shaped spermathecal reservoirs. Female genitalia in the Usiinae so often prove to be more informative than male genitalia or external features regarding inter-specific relationships that this latter feature suggests that U. pubera is best left out of the U. florea group. Distribution. A fairly frequently encountered species of southern France, Italy and Spain (reported from Portugal under the name U. atrata and these will almost certainly prove to be correct)., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 73-76, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228.","Chvala, M. (2008) The types of Diptera (Insecta) described by Pater Gabriel Strobl, Studia Dipterologica Supplement, 17, 1 - 1281."]}

Usia vestita Macquart, 1846 (Plate XVI) Usia vestita Macquart, 1846: 351 (223). Usia anus Becker, 1906 b: 207, syn. nov. Type material of U. vestita examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; Algeria, Oran / Museum Paris, Alg��rie, coll. H. Lucas 78 - 49 / TYPE [red label]/ 1215 [on reverse of round blue label]/ Usia vestita Macqt. sp. nov. [♂ in very good condition, right third antennal segment missing]; PARALECTOTYPES; Oran / Museum Paris, Alg��rie, coll. H. Lucas 78 - 49 / Oran [reverse of round blue label]/ COTYPE/ U. vestita H. Lucas det. [♂ in very good condition, slightly mouldy]; Oran / Museum Paris, Alg��rie, coll. H. Lucas 78 - 49 / Oran, [illegible?date] [reverse of round blue label]/ COMPARE AU TYPE / Usia aenea, Macqt. / vestita Macq. Det. Becker [♀ in reasonable condition, slightly mouldy and wing-tips broken][all in Macquart coll. MNHN]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens of both sexes. Three, two males and one female, were found in the Macquart collection in MNHN. The male in best condition was selected as lectotype. Other material examined. Algeria, Alger [Algiers], U. vestita Ex coll. Bigot [2 ♂ 2 ♀ in OUMNH. These four specimens are listed as syntypes in Greathead & Evenhuis 1999 but this is most unlikely to be the case (A.C. Pont pers. comm.; see discussion below)]. Type material of U. anus examined. HOLOTYPE; Algeria, Alger [Algiers], U. vestita Ex coll. Bigot, Holotype of anus Becker [1 ♂ in OUMNH]. Etymology. vestitus from Latin vestiti meaning ���clothed��� referring to its covering of long hairs; anus from Latin meaning ���rectum���fundament, buttocks or ring��� presumably referring to the very large-sized genitalia relative to the size of the abdomen. Diagnosis. A usually large black species with very long-haired reddish yellow vestiture only known from northern Algeria. All shining black, occiput shining and undusted above, thinly dusted below, hairs on ocellar tubercle longer than width of frons at narrowest point. Mesonotal, scutellar and abdominal vestiture very long, giving the insect a very furry appearance (diminutive specimens with much reduced vestiture do occur). Ventral hairs on hind femora much longer than femora is deep. Genitalia exceptionally large, equal to remainder of abdomen; furca with tip pigmented, coming to elongated blunt point. Redescription. Measurements; Body length. 8���10mm. Wing length. 7���8mm. Male. Head. Mouth-margin about as broad as the tip of the palps, relatively linear, shining black. Frons shining black except for grey dusting laterally on anterior half of frons, separated by an undusted area about one third of the frons width at this point. Frons narrowest level with anterior ocellus, lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by about the diameter of that ocellus. Occiput shining black above, thinly dusted below. Vestiture long, on ocellar area about as long as frons is wide at this point, pale golden yellow fading to white on lower part of head. Antennae black, third segment longer than the scape and pedicel together, all segments with pale hairs above, longest on scape. Proboscis black, hairless, about as long as head and thorax together; palps short, black, slightly clavate with pale hairs, the longest as long as the palps. Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining black except for light dusting laterally and on post pronotal lobe. Smooth except for hair insertions, front third of mesonotum with bare paramedian lines as broad as acrostichal rows which has 3���4 lines of hairs. Hind part of mesonotum slightly wrinkled, scutellum strongly, transversely wrinkled. Pleurae black with a thin covering of grey dust not entirely obscuring the shine. Mesonotum, scutellum and posterior half of anepisternum covered with long, somewhat uneven hair (i.e. some hairs longer and standing proud of the general vestiture), hairs on the margin of the scutellum the longest. Hair pale golden yellow, more white on the anepisternum. Paler and sparser hairs on the pronotum and dorsal part of katepisternum. Wing. Wing membrane clear, faintly yellow tinged, the veins brown, becoming blackish on base of costa and stem of R. Anal lobe as broad as anal cell, r-m beyond middle of discal cell. Haltere. Yellow, becoming brown at base of stem. Legs. Entirely black, the coxae grey dusted; femora with rather long, pale hairs, tibia and tarsi with only a covering of minute setulae. Abdomen. Shining aeneous black, the disc of the tergites covered with relatively short, pale yellow hairs. Laterally the tergites are clothed with significantly longer, tawny yellow hairs, those on the down-curved lateral and ventral parts of the tergites conspicuously long and outstanding. Sternites also with long, outstanding hairs, rather paler than those on the lateral margins of the tergites. Genitalia. Large and bulbous, as large as the remainder of the abdomen, shining black and covered in long, outstanding tawny hairs, longest on the gonocoxite. Gonostylus long and sinuate, the tip outcurved, often visible without dissection. Female. As male except as follows: slightly wider frons and rather shorter and less richly coloured abdominal hairs. Acrostichal row of hairs on the anterior of the mesonotum wider, 5���6 rows of hairs, wider than bare paramedian rows. Abdomen conical tapering to a rounded point. Furca pigmented apically with a long, drawn out blunt appendix, no vaginal plate, arms of furca almost in line with main part. Discussion. The holotype of Usia anus Becker is no more than a diminutive specimen of U. vestita with rather sparser vestiture. It has a single original label, a small (now yellowing) rectangle of paper with ��� Alger ��� handwritten in ink, probably in Bigot���s own hand. Interestingly there is an almost identical label in the same hand on a female specimen of U. vestita in the Bigot collection. It seems likely that the holotype of U. anus and the U. vestita specimens in the Bigot collection in the OUMNH are part of the same series. The genitalia of the male holotype of U. anus are identical to those of U. vestita. The four specimens in the Bigot collection at OUMNH listed in Evenhuis & Greathead (1999) as syntypes are unlikely to have been part of Macquart���s original series in MNHN. The labels on the OUMNH specimens, in Bigot���s hand, give ��� Alger ��� [Algiers] as the collecting locality. The Lucas specimens in MNHN described by Macquart were from Oran and environs (Lucas 1849: 453), some 400 km to the west. Further, there are no Macquart labels on the OUMNH specimens, just Bigot���s locality labels. As Bigot sent his collection to Macquart to describe in the 1850 s, after Macquart���s description of vestita, it is improbable that any Macquart types described before 1850 would be in the Bigot collection (A.C. Pont, pers. comm.). Distribution. Only known from northern Algeria. The Macquart specimens were collected by or on behalf of H. Lucas during the Algerian Scientific Expedition between 1838 and 1841 (Evenhuis 2012). The Bigot specimens could also be Lucas specimens that Bigot obtained later as he did little or no collecting himself. During this study no later specimens were located, so it appears probable this species has only ever been collected by the Algerian Scientific Expedition. Data labels cite Algiers and Oran which, if accurate, suggest that this species was distributed along the coastal plain between the Mediterranean and the Atlas Mountains. However, Lucas and fellow collectors did venture inland bringing specimens back to the scientists based in coastal areas so these specimens could be from further inland (Evenhuis 2012). This was clearly a rare or very local species even back in the mid-nineteenth century., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 61-64, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228.","Evenhuis, N. L. & Greathead, D. J. (1999) World Catalog of Bee Flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, 1 - 756.","Lucas, P. H. (1849) Exploration scientifique de l'Algerie pendant les annees 1840, 1841, 1842 publiee par ordre du Gouvernement et avec le concours d'une Commission Academique. Sciences Physiques. Zoologie. Histoire naturelle des animaux articules. Part III. Insectes. \" 1849 \" A. Bertrand, Paris, 527 pp.","Evenhuis, N. L. (2012) Publication and Dating of the Exploration Scientifique de l'Algerie: Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Articules (1846 - 1849) by Pierre Hippolyte Lucas. Zootaxa, 3448, 1 - 61."]}

Usia aenea (Rossi, 1794) (Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 16, Plate XVII) Bombylius aeneus Rossi, 1794: 78. Usia vicina Macquart, 1840: 105 [1841: 383], syn. nov. Type material of U. aenea. Not seen and apparently missing. Rossi was a contemporary of Meigen who exchanged specimens with others so it has been postulated that the three Meigen specimens in MNHN might be syntypes. However, this is very unlikely as all specimens seen from mainland Italy, the type locality, are the shorthaired form, whereas the three Meigen specimens are all long-haired forms so probably from Spain or France. Type material of U. vicina examined. LECTOTYPE here designated; France, Museum Paris, France Merid., Dufour 135 - 38 / 11,38 [round white label]/ 5 / TYPE [red][♀ long-haired form; very mouldy so difficult to interpret but only missing left fore-leg and right hind-leg, in Macquart coll. MNHN]. Originally described from an unspecified number of specimens. A single female syntype was found in the Macquart collection in MNHN which becomes the lectotype. Other material examined. Short-haired form France, Var, Toulon, Le Lavandou, Foret de Dome, N 43 �� 11 ��� E 6 �� 22 ���, 3 June 2002, leg. D.A. & E.T. Levy [♂]; July, Museum Paris, St Aygulf, Var, R. Azle 1929 [♀] (MNHN). Italy, Lazio, Piano de Rascino, 19 vi 2003, leg. D.J. Gibbs [♂♀] (PCDG). Long-haired form France, Museum Paris, France, Royan, (Carente-inf.), Ch. Delval, 1902, Roytan, July 0 2 [♀]; Arcachon, Gironde, June���July 1912, Coll. A. Bayard, Usia aenea Rossi, Museum Paris, ex coll. Hesse [♂] (MNHN); Portugal, Minho, Vilar da Veiga, 20 June 2005, leg. C.E. Dyte [♂] (PCDG); Algarve, Parque Natural de Ria Formosa, 4 May 1998, leg. P.M. Pavett, NMWZ 1998 0 53 [♂] (NMWC). Spain, Trujillo, N 39 �� 50 ��� W 5 �� 30 ���, 500m, 4 May 2001, E leg. B. Merz [♂] (MHNG); Bnco., Moreno, S.Almijara-M�� leg. A. Cobos; ex coll. B. Aldgren ♂. Mixed characters. Italy, Sicily, Etna 3km NW of Milo 1000m 9 June 1999 leg. B. Merz [♀] (MHNG). Etymology. aeneus from Latin meaning ���bronzy���; vicina from Latin meaning ���similar��� or ���kindred��� presumably referring to its similarity to other Usia. Diagnosis. Often a fairly large species but diminutive specimens are not uncommon, one of the commonest Usia, especially in Italy and Iberia. An all black species, in natural light often with a bluish hue, erect whitish vestiture of variable length. Occiput densely grey dusted, oral margin very narrow, frons shining black. Mesonotal cuticle distinctly punctured but not so roughened to eliminate all smooth shining areas. Wings in most specimens with clear pattern of yellow base, brown mid-anterior patch and clear tip and trailing edge. Genitalia fairly small and globular, lacking lateral horn-like projections on the gonocoxa. Redescription. Measurements. Body length. 3.0��� 8.7mm. Wing length. 2.7���6.5mm. Male. Head. Oral margin narrow, almost linear, disappearing below, shining black to brownish. Frons black, shining, conspicuously grey-dusted anterolaterally often with some fine striations but not enough to eliminate the shine. Eyes separated at their narrowest by about one fifth to one sixth head width, a little more than width across lateral ocelli inclusive. Lateral ocellus separated from the eye margin by one to two times the diameter of that ocellus. Ocellar tubercle shining, undusted, eye margins in front of anterior ocellus diverging relatively evenly to rear of oral opening. Translucent white hairs on ocellar tubercle varying from as long as width across lateral ocellus (short-haired form) to rather more than the width of the frons (long haired form). Rear of frons in front of anterior ocellus with short, strongly proclinate uniserial lines setulae close to eye margins (long haired form) or glabrous here (short-haired form), anterior part of frons with a scattering of short setulae across most of width in places. Occiput densely grey dusted, the black ground colour obscured except on a triangular area behind ocellar tubercle which is shining black, this often extended to neck. A fairly dense covering of white hairs across dusted area, shorter and more even above, significantly longer close to lower oral margin. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, third segment, about longer than twice length of scape and pedicel together (long-haired form), significantly shorter in the short-haired form. narrow swollen below basally, concave medio-ventrally, sensilla inconspicuous, translucent brownish. All antennal segments with very short brown hairs above, longest just before apical sulcus. Palps small, black, apically, clavate tip a little wider than oral margin, the pale apical setae about half as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis shorter than head-thorax length, black, dorsally hairless. Thorax. Mesonotum shining black with faint bluish hue under natural light, grey dusting on anterior slope of mesonotum laterally, post-pronotal lobe, notopleuron and above wing root. Disc densely punctate, on disc some areas of smooth cuticle greater than the diameter of a puncture. Paramedian vittae usually readily discernable by their different surface sculpture, faintly transversely wrinkled and impunctate, extending from anterior slope of thorax almost to wing insertions. Mesonotum fairly densely clothed with fine whitish vestiture, in the long-haired form with mid-length hairs anteriorly and laterally, towards scutellum both long and short hairs present; in the short-haired form shorter and neater hairs anteriorly and laterally contrasting with very short, proclinate hairs close to scutellum. Acrostichal hairs between the bare paramedian vittae multiserial, entirely reclinate, widening posteriorly, dorsocentrals not distinguishable from the general vestiture. Scutellar punctuation and hairing as adjacent parts of mesonotum, marginal hairs more than half mid-scutellar length (long-haired form) or very short, less than a fifth mid-scutellar length (short-haired form). Pleurae uniformly grey dusted largely obscuring ground colour, except for a narrow strip of shining cuticle along the anterior margin of the anepisternum (long-haired form) or anepisternum dusted on a vertical central strip only and a shining patch in middle of anepimeron (short-haired form). Long white hairs, a little longer than any on mesonotum, on pronotum and across whole of the anepisternum. Wing. Membrane with distinct brown markings extending from costa to vein M contrasting with yellow base proximal to the humeral crossvein. This infuscation different in the two forms, isolated spots of infuscation over origin of R 4, r-m and m-cu, 1 st basal cell clear subapically, 2 nd basal cell largely clear (long-haired form)(Figure 3), infuscation of wing filling 1 st and 2 nd basal cell so no isolated darker spots over origin of R 4, r-m and m-cu are discernable (short-haired form)(Figure 4). Veins all dark brown except proximal to humeral crossvein where they are paler, yellowish. Crossvein r-m close to the middle of discal cell, conspicuously beyond dm-cu. Anal lobe moderately well developed, with evenly curved trailing edge, a little narrower than width of anal cell but variable, in some individuals of long-haired form it is narrow, only about half width of anal cell. Haltere. Yellow, base of stem slightly brownish. Legs. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleurae. Remainder of legs black, undusted, shining below the setulae. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with moderately long, white hairs, on the mid and hind-femora a little more than the greatest depth of the femora, shorter on front femora (long-haired form), or not much longer than depth of tibia (short-haired form). Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with short, recumbent, yellow-brown setulae some longer more erect hairs on tibia basodorsally (lacking in short-haired form). Abdomen. All tergites shining black, often with faint bluish reflections, slight dusting on down-curved margins, only obvious on first tergites. Each tergite densely puncto-rugose, surface sculpture of transverse welts each furnished with a hair, very narrow, often shining, sometimes reflexed apical margin. Disc uniformly and densely covered with short to very short, pale brownish, recumbent hairs, longer and more erect laterally. Sternites grey dusted, faintly punctate, with fairly long, erect white to very pale yellow hairs. Genitalia. Relatively small and simple, globular. Epandrium flask-shaped with apicolateral blunt extensions, longer in short-haired form, mostly shining black, the cuticle punctate evenly coated with pale yellow curved hairs. Gonocoxite about twice as broad as long, shining black, the two forms differing in small details, hairs rather longer than on epandrium, gonostyli ���S���-shaped. Female. As male except as follows: oral margin slightly broader. Frons marginally wider, about one-fifth head width, lateral ocelli separated from eye margin by about twice their diameter. Short setulae on front of frons between grey dust spots fewer. Anal lobe of wing averages wider, the trailing edge more convex, than males from the same population. Genitalia. Tip of abdomen coming to a rounded point; apical sternite rather rectangular, a little longer than deep, apical notch very small, barely visible in undissected specimens. Apical sternite strongly domed basally, apicomedial area covered in grey dusting. Furca pigmented, coming to a blunt point, arms short, lacks any pigmented vaginal plate. Discussion. Usia vicina Macquart was synonymised under U. atrata Fabricius by Becker (1906 b) (which he misinterpreted, applying this name to U. pubera Strobl and using U. claripennis Macquart for the true U. atrata). Despite the mouldy condition of the Macquart lectotype, it is quite clearly an example of U. aenea Rossi and quite unlike U. pubera (= U. atrata of Becker). As Becker (1906 b) claims to have examined the Macquart types, his conclusion is surprising. Even if the Rossi types were unavailable even then, as seems likely, Becker certainly seems to have interpreted U. aenea correctly otherwise. The possibility of the two forms of this species being sufficiently distinct to be named as different species needs to be considered. When examining extreme examples the more discrete wing pattern, narrow anal lobe and dusted anepisternum of the long-haired form provide better characters than are used to justify other Usia species. The male genitalia also show differences, the shorter epandrium and different tip to aedeagus in long-haired forms, that might support separation. However, on examining a large number of specimens it became apparent that the width of the anal lobe was highly variable, although always narrower in long-haired form, and the male genitalia seem to be rather unstable. A further complication comes with a female specimen from Sicily which has long vestiture but a wing pattern and anepisternum dusting of the short-haired form. Given this ambiguity it seems best to retain them as a single, rather variable, species for the moment. Distribution. A relatively frequently found species in southern France, Italy (including Sicily), Portugal, and Spain. The long-haired form is known from Iberia and along the Atlantic coast of France north at least to Saintes. The short-haired form occurs in Italy and along the French Riviera almost to Toulon. A single specimen examined from Sicily exhibited mixed characters., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2014, A world revision of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) Part 2: Usia sensu stricto, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 3799 (1) on pages 64-66, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3799.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286090, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906 b) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 (1905), 193 - 228."]}

Usia versicolor (Fabricius, 1787) Diagnosis. From all other members of the Usiini by a combination of entirely black vestiture and the presence conspicuous suberect black bristles on mid-tibia apicoventrally. Mesonotum smooth and unwrinkled, in the male the disc densely dusted so as to obscure the ground colour, female uniformly thinly brown dusted so ground colour still apparent. Labium in males distinctly hairy both ventrally and laterally, especially in the typical form (Micrusia has no more than microscopic setae on labium while a few typical Usia possess short setae ventrally). Females lack these long hairs on the labium, possessing short setae along much of its length ventrally, decidedly more conspicuous than in Micrusia. The hairs on U. versicolor, especially in males, are more bristle-like, stiffer looking and parallel-sided, coming to an abrupt point. In Micrusia vestiture hair-like, tapering along their length to a fine point. The male genitalia are not particularly large but fall within the range seen in Micrusia. Epandrium, gonocoxite and epiphallus show no similarity with any other species within Micrusia or typical Usia. The gonostyli are bifurcate quite unlike any Micrusia and not very similar to any typical Usia. Female genitalia similar to many species of both Micrusia and typical Usia, furca simple V-shaped, vaginal plate very small and translucent. Apical sternite relatively flat, rather different from most Micrusia. History and affiliations. One of the earliest species of Usiini to be named and treated with the other blackhaired species by Becker (1906), Engel (1932) and Paramonov (1950). Evenhuis (1990) placed U. versicolor in his new subgenus Micrusia and this was followed in (Evenhuis & Greathead 1999). The genitalia were first figured by Engel (1932) with external lateral and ventral views of the male genitalia (his Textfig. 28). Theodor (1983) was the first to publish detailed illustrations of the macerated male genitalia (his Figs. 143–145). Both male and female genitalia were illustrated by Evenhuis (1990) (his Fig. 29 and 30 although the male genitalia are mislabelled Usia (Micrusia) forcipata). As set out in the diagnosis section above, U. versicolor has some unique features that set it apart from other members of the genus. Males are strikingly colourful insects with dense olive brown and rufous dusting quite different to the dusting seen on other Usia. Probably of particular systematic importance is the group of short, black spicules on the mid-tibia apicoventrally not seen in any other species of the subfamily. The male genitalia also do not fit with any other species in either Micrusia or Usia sensu stricto suggesting a separate linage. However, females are superficially very like some species of Micrusia and the genitalia suggest that U. versicolor is perhaps closer to Micrusia than to Usia sensu stricto. This species is probably a very early radiation from the base of the Micrusia linage that has spread around the western Mediterranean without speciating., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on page 73, {"references":["Becker, T. (1906) Usia Latr. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 50 [1905], 193 - 228.","Engel, E. O. (1932) Bombyliidae. In: Lindner, E., ed., Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region, p. 49 - 96. Vol. 4, pt. 3. E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart.","Paramonov, S. J. (1950) Bestimmungstabelle der Usia - Arten der Welt (Bombyliidae, Diptera). Eos, 26, 341 - 78.","Evenhuis, N. L. (1990) Systematics and evolution of the genera of the subfamilies Usiinae and Phthiriinae of the world (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Entomonograph, 11, 1 - 72.","Theodor, O. (1983) The genitalia of Bombyliidae (Diptera). Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem. 275 p."]}

Usia pusilla Meigen, 1820 (Fig. 9 & 23, Plate XVII) Usia pusilla Meigen, 1820: 229. Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: “Carpentras” = France, [round label] Meigen, [reverse], 928/40, Usia pusilla, coll. Meigen. [♂ in Meigen coll. in MNHN]. The specimen is pinned through the dorsum of the thorax with an orange-headed pin. Head, left-fore and left-hind legs missing. Otherwise in good condition, no mould. Other material examined. France, Provence, Mt. De Lure, 1200m Oak & conifer forest 2 June 2000, leg. M.J. Ebejer [♀ in PCME]; (26 [Drome]) Mornans, Ferme de Fondoresse, 2 July 1980, [leg.] P. DuMerle [♀ in MNHN]. Spain, Torres de la Alameda (M) 31 May 2000 Malaise, leg. A. Bari [♂ in spirit PCMC-T]; Andalusia, Cortija del Alcazar N36˚55'15" W4˚5'18" 990–1200m 4 June 2006, leg. D.J.Gibbs [2♂ in PCDG]; above Alcaucin N 36˚54'44" W4˚6'17" 800–1050m 7 June 2006, leg. D.J.Gibbs [♀ in PCDG]; above Capileira N 36˚57'44" W3˚20'37" 1837m 8 June 2006, leg. D.J.Gibbs [3♀ in PCDG]; W of Capilerilla N36˚56'21"W3˚20'26" 1480m 7 June 2008, leg. D.J.Gibbs [10♂ 5♀ in PCDG]; Roman Br. Fondales, N 36˚55'20"W3˚19'10" 920m 8 June 2008, leg. D.J.Gibbs [1♂ in PCDG]; above Portugos, N 36˚56'55"W3˚19'14" 1500m 9 June 2008, leg. D.J.Gibbs [4♂ 2♀ in PCDG]. Etymology. The specific epithet derives from the Latin “ pusillus = very little”. Although this is not an especially small species, the holotype male is a small individual. Diagnosis. A small black short-haired species confined to southwest Europe. Hind femora with short, adpressed hairs, marginal hairs of scutellum about half mid-length of scutellum, hairs on ocellar triangle short, about as long as distance between lateral ocelli. From the very similar U. susanae by wider mouth-margin (in respective sexes) and usually duller, more roughened and matt mesonotum. Male readily identified by shorter, more globular genitalia, gonocoxite more convex and gonostyli not recessed. Female genitalia and apical sternite variable, females sometimes not reliably identifiable, even with dissection (Plate XVII). Redescription. Measurements . Body length. 2.3–5.8mm Wing length. 2.4–6.1mm. Male. The following description refers to Spanish specimens, Where they differ from French specimens characters of latter are in parenthesis. Head. Frons about a fifth head width (wider, between fifth and quarter), at narrowest point about as wide as length of third antennal segment, rather matt with poorly defined narrow stripes of whitish dust on anterolateral corners. Frons widens towards front relatively evenly, with no more than a slight discontinuity of the eye margin medially (barely perceptible). Mouth margin narrow but quite visible, broader than tip of palp but almost absent below, wider than in U. susanae. Ocellar triangle equilateral (very slightly obtuse), lateral ocelli separated from the eye by their diameter or a little less. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle short, about as long as distance between lateral ocelli and appreciably shorter than width of frons at vertex (even shorter). Occiput covered with grey dust, including area behind vertex which is slightly more shining, and relatively short black hairs, shorter above, longer below. Antennae black, relatively long, third segment elongate, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined, straight dorsally, convex ventrally at base, blunt ended, a few short setae dorsally, especially just before sulcus. Proboscis black, naked, about as long as mesonotum and scutellum. Palps small, clavate, black with distinct apical setae. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum subshining, more or less dulled by shagreened surface sculpture (less pronounced, more shining) hair insertions often difficult to trace. Lightly pale dusted on pronotum, postpronotal lobe, notopleuron and above wing. Hairs short, on disc of mesonotum similar to that on vertex, acrostichals irregularly biserial, paramedian lines bare back to level of wing base, duller than midline, laterally hairs evenly distributed becoming longer on notopleuron. Scutellum subshining, dulled like mesonotum, disc largely bare, marginal hairs barely exceed half the length of the scutellum. Pleurae black, predominantly covered in grey dust, anepisternum often with a narrow shining strip along front margin, anepimeron with small central shining patch and katepisternum ventrally dust-free. Anepisternum with dark hairs similar to those on mesonotum in upper half and posterior margin. Wing. Clear to vaguely tinged brownish yellow, veins pale brown, decidedly more yellow basally. Anal lobe convex, as wide as anal cell. Haltere. Yellow-white knob, stem infuscated. Legs. Black, coxae dusted on anterior face, otherwise legs shining but with rough texture to cuticle, with very short, adpressed dark hairs, the longest on mid-femora anteroventrally, but even these barely exceed half width of tibia. Hairs shorter and denser on tibia. Abdomen. Black, compact with broad tergites, rough surface sculpture of stellate hair insertions, covered with relatively short dark hairs. Tergite 1 and 2 grey dusted laterally on reflexed margin. Sternites grey-dusted with black hairs along posterior margins. Genitalia. Fairly large but compact and not very elongated, rather globular, positioned under the tip of the abdomen. Epandrium oblong with broadly rounded apical projections that, in dry specimens, wrap around the cerci and tip of gonocoxite. Epandrium rather evenly covered with short, dark hairs, shining, undusted. gonocoxite with longer hairs, bilobed basally, convex in lateral view. Gonostyli placed apically, relatively simple, blunt tipped. PLATE XVII. Usia pusilla Meigen, 1820; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f female genitalia ventral (France), g female genitalia ventral (Spain), h female sternite 8 ventral (Spain). Female. Very similar to male, frons marginally wider diverging more evenly and dust spots a little more conspicuous. Mouth margin also a little broader and clearly broader than in susanae. Hairs generally slightly shorter, especially on tergites. Sternite eight broadest basally, quite clearly embossed in basal half. In dry specimens apical half with long fold where sclerite membranous, this often with covering of grey dust. When macerated this area shows as a triangular translucent apical patch, either side of which, in sclerotised area, are often round translucent patches (single dissected female from France simpler, like U. susanae). Furca pointed (rounded). Discussion. Rather variable with the few French specimens differing from Spanish specimens in frons width, and very slightly in the nature of surface sculpture, especially on mesonotum. Genitalia also differ slightly, especially in female, however, differences in male genitalia too small to consider separating them at this stage. Forms a sibling pair with the sympatric U. susanae, the two often occurring together, even in the same flowers. Also probably has affinities with U. novakii and U. hyalipennis that have similar epiphallus. Distribution. Southern France, Spain. Probably quite common in the southern part of its range but French specimens are very few. Can often be found in good numbers in Andalusia, frequenting blue Campanula, pink Convolvulus, various species of Linum and a range of other flowers. In the literature this species is recorded widely in North Africa and Europe east to Croatia (Evenhuis & Greathead 1999). While Portuguese records are likely to be this species (or U. susanae), on current evidence all records from countries other than France, Spain and Portugal are probably misidentifications., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 60-63

Subgenus Micrusia Evenhuis, 1990 Micrusia Evenhuis, 1990: 38 (as subgenus of Usia Latreille). Type species: Usia forcipata Brullé, 1833, by original designation. Included species, Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on page 22, {"references":["Evenhuis, N. L. (1990) Systematics and evolution of the genera of the subfamilies Usiinae and Phthiriinae of the world (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Entomonograph, 11, 1 - 72."]}

Usia dahli Gibbs sp. nov. (Plate VI) Usia (?) pusilla: Theodor, 1983: 62, Figs. 168–170, misidentification. Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: Tunisia, Kartago, 24 April 1973 [leg. R.] Dahl / Pres. by R. Dahl, BMNH(E) 1997-240 [♂ in BMNH]. PARATYPES: Algeria, La Calle, Le Boul / Usia / n.sp./ Museum Paris, Coll. E Séguy 1919 [♀ in MNHN]; Philippeville, Algérie, A. Thery [♀ in MNHN; ♂ in TAU]. Tunisia, Kartago, 24 April 1973 [leg. R] Dahl / Pres. by R. Dahl, BMNH(E) 1997-240 [♀ in BMNH]. Monastir, salin, 25 April 1973 [leg. R.] Dahl / Pres. by R. Dahl, BMNH(E) 1997-240 [♀ in BMNH]; Tabarka, dunes 13 May 1995 / Tunisia, J.C. Deeming, NMW.Z, 1995:026/ Usia pusilla det M.J. Ebejer ’96/ NMW.Z 1981.001 [♀ in NMWC]; Mahadia, dunes N of Chebba 0m, N35º18'24.28" E11º3'16.12", 28 April 2009, leg. D.J. Gibbs [2♀ in PCDG]. Etymology. Named after Richard Dahl who collected the holotype and two of the paratypes. PLATE VI. Usia dahli Gibbs sp. n.; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f epandrium lateral, g female genitalia ventral, h female sternite 8 ventral. Diagnosis. A small, compact, almost entirely black species very close to U. carmelitensis but confined to the eastern Maghreb. Hind femur with short, adpressed hairs, marginal hairs of scutellum as long as scutellum medially. Male with large, globular genitalia, gonocoxite medially with a pair of convergent processes tipped with setae, these often visible in pinned specimens. Female apical sternite strongly and evenly domed. From allopatric U. carmelitensis, only be details of genitalia (Plate VI). Description. Measurements . Body length. 1.8–3.3 mm Wing length. 2.0– 3.1mm. Male. Head. Frons relatively broad, at narrowest point as wide or wider than length third antennal segment, rather matt but without discrete grey dust spots, front of frons more brown. Mouth margin exceedingly narrow, practically absent, broader and browner level with antennae. Ocellar triangle obtuse, lateral ocelli separated from the eye by their diameter or a little less. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as width across lateral ocelli. Occiput covered with grey dust, including area behind vertex which is slightly more shining, and black hairs, shorter above, long below. Antennae black, relatively short, third segment obovate, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined, almost bare above. Proboscis black, naked, about as long as mesonotum. Palps very small, black with small apical setae. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum shining and mostly smooth, lightly grey dusted on pronotum and postpronotal lobe. Posterior part of mesonotum slightly wrinkled, Vestiture as long as that on vertex, evenly distributed such that distinct acrostichal and paramedian lines not discernable. Scutellum shining, but surface slightly roughened, disc sparsely haired, longer marginal hairs longer than scutellum is long. Pleurae black, predominantly shining, scattered hairs on rear part of anepisternum which is thinly dusted centrally. Wing. Clear to vaguely tinged brownish, veins brown. Anal lobe convex, as wide as anal cell. Haltere. Yellow knob, stem infuscated. Legs. Black, shining but with rough texture to cuticle, with very short, adpressed black hairs, more dense on tibia. Abdomen. Black, short with very broad tergites, rough surface sculpture, covered with relatively short black hairs. Genitalia. Almost as large as abdomen, but smaller than in some similar species. Epandrium long with blunt apico-lateral projections, often enclosing tip of gonocoxites. Gonocoxite short, with a pair of convergent processes tipped with setae medially, these often visible in pinned specimens. Epiphallic complex similar to that of carmelitensis but with tip of aedeagus conspicuously longer and clearly separated from the blunt process below it. Female. Differs from the male only in wider frons, almost as wide as antennae is long, which widens more conspicuously towards the front. Mouth margin wider, as wide as the tips of the tiny palps. Abdomen shorterhaired, tapering to a rounded point. Apical sternite relatively large (although no as large as in carmelitensis), basal two thirds strongly domed, transversely ridged, long scattered black hairs laterally, apical third with weak central ridge and shallow apical notch. Discussion. This species is clearly very closely related to U. carmelitensis Becker. The absence of specimens from Libya and Egypt makes it impossible to rule out the possibility of a cline from east to west. However, given the material at hand, the two species are quite distinct in both sexes. Distribution. Algeria, Tunisia. Specimens are few but include some recent ones; given the relative lack of collecting within its known range probably under recorded. Recent observations suggest that this species is quite common in the lowlands of Tunisia in April., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 33-35, {"references":["Theodor, O. (1983) The genitalia of Bombyliidae (Diptera). Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem. 275 p."]}

Usia falcata Gibbs sp. nov. (Palte X) Material examined. HOLOTYPE: Morocco, Middle Atlas Mts., Azrou 4400ft, 18 June 1936 / K.H. Chapman, & G.A. Bisset., B.M. 1936-527 [♂ in BMNH]. PARATYPES: Morocco, Middle Atlas Mts., Azrou 4400ft, 18 June 1936 / K.H. Chapman, & G.A. Bisset., B.M. 1936-527 [3♀ in BMNH]; Museum Paris, Maroc, Moyen Atlas, Azrou, R. Benoist 1928/ Foret/ 15 June 1928 [5♀ in MNHN]; Medio Atlante, Ifrane Mischliffen 2200m, 22 June 2002, P. Rosa legit [♀ in CNBFVR, ♀ in MSNM, ♀ in NMWC]. Etymology. The name derives from the Latin “ falcatus = sickle-shaped”; referring to the epiphallus which, in lateral view, is decidedly reminiscent of a sickle blade. PLATE X. Usia falcata Gibbs sp. nov.; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f epandrium lateral, g female genitalia ventral, h female sternite 8 ventral. Diagnosis. A medium-sized black Moroccan endemic with relatively short hairs. Only one male seen so degree of variation in this sex unknown. Hind femora with short, adpressed hairs, marginal scutellar hairs short, barely longer than half length of scutellum at mid point and mesonotum matt with shagreened surface sculpture. Male with genitalia folded tightly under abdomen, large and globular with epandrium wider than long, a few apical hairs with wavy tips, epiphallus sickle-shaped, diagnostic. Female only reliably identified by examination of genitalia (Plate X). Description. Measurements . Body length. 3.0– 5.2mm Wing length. 2.9–5.0mm. Male. Head. Frons relatively wide, almost a quarter head width, at narrowest point about as wide as length of third antennal segment, eye margins straight diverging evenly towards front. Rather matt, frons surface shagreened, with at most faint white-dusted spots at level of antennae, hardly extending on to anterolateral corners. Mouth margin very narrow, practically absent, broader and grey-dusted level with antennae. Ocellar triangle obtuse, lateral ocelli separated from the eye by their diameter. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle short, about as long as width between lateral ocelli and appreciably shorter than width of frons at vertex (but these mostly lost in holotype). Occiput covered with grey dust, including area behind vertex which is hardly more shining, and relatively short black hairs, shorter above, longer below. Antennae black, relatively short, third segment long-obovate, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined, almost bare above. Proboscis black, naked, about as long as mesonotum. Palps very small, black with small apical setae. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum subshining and disc decidedly shagreened effacing hair insertions, very lightly pale dusted on pronotum, postpronotal lobe, notopleuron and above wing. Hairs short, on disc of mesonotum shorter than on vertex, acrostichals tri- to quadriserial, bare paramedian lines very indistinct, narrower than acrostichal line, laterally hairs evenly distributed becoming longer on notopleuron. Scutellum subshining, shagreened, with shallow transverse striations, disc a little more sparsely haired than mesonotum, marginal hairs longer but only a few exceed half the length of the scutellum. Pleurae black, predominantly covered in thin pale dust, anepisternum shining in posterodorsal half and a narrow anterior strip, small shining patch in middle of anepimeron, katepisternum ventrally also dust free. Anepisternum with dark hairs similar to those on notopleuron in upper half and posterior margin. Wing. Tinged brownish yellow, veins pale brown. Anal lobe convex, almost as wide as anal cell. Haltere. Yellow-white knob, stem infuscated. Legs. Black, hind coxae thinly dusted, otherwise shining but with rough texture to cuticle, with very short, dark, femoral hairs, adpressed, none exceed width of tibia. Hairs shorter and denser on tibia. Abdomen. Shining black, short with rather broad tergites, rough surface sculpture of short, transverse welts at hair insertions, covered with short dark hairs, longer laterally. Sternites dusted, fairly evenly haired. Genitalia. Large and decidedly globular and retracted under the tip of the abdomen. Epandrium very wide, swollen, with blunt apical lobes furnished with longer hairs with slightly wavy tips, Tip of gonocoxite enclosed by epandrium when dry. Epandrium rather evenly covered with short, dark hairs except tip, gonocoxite with longer hairs. Female. Very similar to male, even frons not appreciably wider, dust spots a little more conspicuous and extending on to frons along eye margins. Mouth margin noticeably a little broader. Hairs marginally shorter on thorax, bare paramedian lines a little wider, more obvious. Tergites a little longer, less densely haired. Sternite eight squarish, strongly domed basally, very short-haired with distinct, narrow apical notch. Apical processes large. Furca membranous proximally. Discussion. Part of the U. crispa complex of species, U. falcata is the most differentiated of the four, the apical epandrial hairs not nearly as clearly wavy-tipped as in the other three species. Distribution. Morocco. Exceedingly local, so far known from one male and 11 females from just three localities in a very small area of the Moyen Atlas at quite high altitude. Given the considerable amount of field work done by J. Dils in Morocco in recent years, if this species was much more widespread it should have been found elsewhere., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 43-45

Usia biconvexa Gibbs sp. nov. (Figs. 17 & 19, Plate II) Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: Israel, Yavne Rt. 4, 15 April 1994, A. Freidberg & Fini Kaplan [♂ in TAU]. PARATYPES: Israel, Yavne Rt. 4, 15 April 1994, A. Freidberg & Fini Kaplan [2♀ in TAU]; Nizzanim Beach, stable coastal dunes 43m. el, 15 April 1995 M.E. Irwin, N31º44.21' E34º36.89' [♂ 2♀ in TAU]; Nizzanim Park, 13 April 2008, A. Freidberg [♀ in TAU]; 18 April 2008 [2♀]; 21 April 2008 [♀ in TAU]. Etymology. Name derives from the Latin “ bis = two or double, convexus = arched”, refers to the gonocoxite when viewed from above, which forms two hemispheres deeply divided medially. Diagnosis. A small entirely black species, teneral or faded specimens browner; so far only known from Israel. Most individuals will be identifiable by a combination of short adpressed hairs on ventral side of hind femora, hairs on margin of scutellum about as long as length of scutellum medially. Male epandrium very large and elongate, placed at 90º to axis of abdomen, significantly larger than the abdomen, almost entirely bare. Female cerci remarkably developed, shining, rhomboidal, enclosing the tip of the apical sternite which is strongly raised proximally to form a transverse ridge which drops off very steeply on proximal side. Details of male and female genitalia diagnostic (Plate II). PLATE II. Usia biconvexa Gibbs sp. n.; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f epandrium lateral, g female genitalia ventral, h furca lateral, i female sternite 8 ventral, j female sternite 8 lateral. Description. Measurements . Body length. 2.0– 2.4mm Wing length. 2.1–2.8mm. Male. Head. Frons relatively broad, about a quarter head width, at narrowest point as wide or wider than length third antennal segment, rather matt but without discrete grey dust spots, front of frons close to antennal bases often obscurely brown. Mouth margin exceedingly narrow, almost disappearing below, above near antennae very thinly dulled by dust. Ocellar triangle obtuse, lateral ocelli separated from the eye by their diameter. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as width across frons at vertex or a little longer. Occiput covered with grey dust obscuring ground colour, marginally more thinly so on triangular area behind vertex. Black hairs on occiput short above, longer below, those on ventral side of head as long as the hairs on ocellar tubercle. Antennae black, relatively short, third antennal segment obovate, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined. Antennae lacking the usual dorsal setulae. Proboscis black, naked, relatively short, about as long as mesonotum. Palps small, black to brown, subclavate with small apical setae. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum shining and mostly smooth to inconspicuously wrinkled with hair insertions not strongly marked, thinly dusted on pronotum, postpronotal lobe, notopleuron and posterior part of mesonotum adjacent to scutellum. Mesonotum with long, scattered, perpendicular black hairs, acrostichals biserial, clearly separated by bare paramedian lines from generally distributed lateral hairs, the longest longer than length of third antennal segment. Scutellum smooth, surface thinly dusted, disc bare, hind margin with a somewhat irregular, in parts uniserial, row of long, upwardly directed black hairs the longest as long as scutellum is long. Pleura black to dark brown, predominantly subshining but with thin dusting covering most of anepisternum. Posterodorsal part of anepisternum with shortish dark hairs. Wing. Clear, the veins pale yellowish brown. Anal lobe convex, a little wider than anal cell, r-m before middle of discal cell. Haltere. Whitish knob, stem slightly infuscated basally. Legs. Black to dark brown, shining but with rough texture to cuticle, with very short, adpressed black hairs, those on the femora generally longer than those on tibia. Tarsi shorter than respective tibia, segments 2–4 short and almost equal in length, together a little longer than basitarsus. Abdomen. Black, short with broad tergites, surface sculpture obscure, no more than inconspicuous hair insertions. Basal tergites dulled by a thin coating of pale dust. Disc of tergites covered with relatively short black hairs, much longer hairs laterally. Sternites similar but difficult to see. Genitalia. Very large and elongate, placed at 90º to axis of abdomen, significantly larger than the abdomen and often completely obscuring the sternites. Epandrium evenly convex with apical triangular extensions folded around the cerci, almost entirely hairless. Viewed dorsally lobes of gonocoxite conspicuous, deeply divided such that the two halves form two almost separated hemispheres. Gonocoxite with perpendicular black hairs as long as any elsewhere on the insect. The simple, curved gonostyli often visible in pinned specimens but can be enclosed in apical part of epandrium. Tip of epiphallus with claw-like spine and spiny structure as in U. carmelitensis. Female. Very like male, frons a little wider, mouth margin very slightly broader, generally shorter haired and tarsi not so clearly shorter than tibia. Tergites dulled by dust with a rather greasy appearance. Cerci remarkably developed, shining, rhomboidal with an apical and ventral fringe of setulae. These enlarged cerci enclose the tip of the apical sternite which itself is characteristically structured. In pinned material this sternite is strongly raised proximally to form a transverse ridge which drops off very steeply on proximal side. When dissected the apical processes (sternite 9) can be seen to be well developed, shiny plates that mirror the well developed cerci. Discussion. The epiphallic complex clearly show the affinities of this species with U. carmelitensis and U. dahli. Distribution. Israel. So far only known from eleven specimens from the coastal plain south of Tel Aviv, Israel, so appears to be scarce, very local and potentially endangered., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 24-26

Usia theodori Gibbs sp. nov. (Figs. 16 & 18, Plate XX) Usia (?) carmelitensis: Theodor, 1983: 61 Figs. 162–167, misidentification. Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: Israel, Dunes Akko, Coastal Plain, Palestine, 8 April [19]54, O. Theodor [♂ in TAU]. PARATYPES: Israel, Dunes Akko, Coastal Plain, Palestine, 8 April [19]54, O. Theodor [9♂ 12♀ in TAU]; 19 May 1954, Cea Savea (dunes), Coll. Krystal J. [♀ in TAU]; Herzliyya, 13 March 1995, leg. B. Merz [♀ in MHNG]. Etymology. Named after Oskar Theodor, who first illustrated the genitalia of this species (Theodor 1983: 61). Diagnosis. A small entirely black species, teneral or faded specimens browner, only known from the coastal strip of Israel. Identifiable by a combination of short adpressed hairs on ventral side of hind femora, hairs on margin of scutellum about as long as length of scutellum medially and details of genitalia. Male epandrium fairly large and conspicuously constricted medially in dorsal view with elongated, clavate lobes apically that fold round the cerci in dried specimens. Female sternite 8 is conspicuously raised proximally to form forwardly directed boss that almost protrudes beyond the proximal margin of this sternite. Details of male and female genitalia diagnostic. PLATE XX. Usia theodori Gibbs sp. nov.; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f epandrium lateral, g female genitalia ventral, h female sternite 8 ventral. Description. Measurements . Body length. 1.6–3.0mm Wing length. 1.6–2.8mm. Male. Head. Frons a little more than a fifth, sometimes almost a quarter, head width, at narrowest point as wide just wider than length of third antennal segment, rather matt with no more than inconspicuous anterolateral dust spots, front of frons close to antennal bases often obscurely brown. Mouth margin exceedingly narrow, essentially absent. Ocellar triangle obtuse, lateral ocelli separated from the eye by less than their diameter. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as or longer than width across frons at vertex. Occiput covered with grey dust obscuring ground colour, marginally more thinly so on triangular area behind vertex. Black hairs on occiput short above, longer below, those on ventral side of head even longer than those hairs on ocellar tubercle. Antennae black, relatively short, third segment long-obovate, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined. Antennae largely bare dorsally but with a few short setulae just before the apical sulcus. Proboscis black, naked, relatively short, about as long as mesonotum. Palps very small, black to brown, clavate with small apical setae as long as the palps. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum shining and mostly smooth to inconspicuously wrinkled with hair insertions apparent but not strongly marked, thinly dusted on pronotum, postpronotal lobe, notopleuron and posterior part of mesonotum adjacent to scutellum. Mesonotum with fairly long, scattered, perpendicular black hairs, acrostichals biserial, clearly separated by bare paramedian lines from lateral hairs, latter generally distributed, the longest almost as long as the length of third antennal segment. Scutellum smooth, surface thinly dusted on anterior half, disc almost bare, just a few long black hairs, hind margin with a somewhat irregular, in parts uniserial, row of long, upwardly directed black hairs the longest almost as long as scutellum is long. Pleura black to dark brown, subshining but with thin pale dusting covering all but lower anterior corner of anepisternum all of meron, propleuron and more thinly so, dorsum of katepisternum. Dorsal half of anepisternum with shortish black hairs. Wing. Clear, the veins pale brown. Anal lobe convex, about as wide as anal cell, r-m before middle of discal cell. Haltere. Whitish knob, stem slightly infuscated basally. Legs. Black to dark brown, shining but with rough texture to cuticle, with very short, adpressed black hairs, those on the femora generally longer than those on tibia. Tarsi about as long as respective tibia, segments 1–5 steadily decreasing in length. Abdomen. Black, short with broad tergites, middle ones often exceedingly short, surface sculpture obscure, no more than inconspicuous transverse welts and hair insertions. Basal tergites laterally dulled by a coating of pale dust, visible dorsally on tergite 1 only. Disc of tergites covered with relatively short black hairs, lateral hairs a little longer. Sternites grey-dusted with apical fringes of short, dark hairs. Genitalia. Large and globular, occupying most of venter of abdomen, larger than the abdomen and often obscuring the sternites. Epandrium evenly convex with very conspicuous apical clavate extensions, viewed caudally these can be seen to encircle the cerci, disc of epandrium with short dark hairs. Viewed dorsally lobes of gonocoxite only just protrude beyond the apical sternite, divided by a relatively shallow sulcus. Gonocoxite with perpendicular black hairs as long as any elsewhere on the insect. In pinned specimens the shiny, rounded, apicolateral lobes of the gonocoxite are clearly visible. Epiphallus short, not extending much beyond aedeagus. Female. Very like the male, frons noticeably wider, mouth margin broader so quite apparent and disc of abdomen shorter haired. Tergites less clearly dusted, dusting thin and largely confined to tergite 1. Cerci normal. In pinned material sternite 8 is conspicuously raised proximally to form forwardly directed boss that almost protrudes beyond the proximal margin of this sternite. When dissected the apical processes (sternite 9) lightly sclerotised, yellowish with a clear U-shaped notch between them. Discussion. A very distinctive species not obviously affiliated to any of the other Micrusia. The genitalia show some characters in common with those of U. forcipata but other characters do not support a close relationship with this species. Distribution. Israel. So far only known from three sites, all probably dunes, along the coastal strip of Israel. Only at one of these has it been found in any numbers so this exceedingly local species is likely to be endangered., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 68-70, {"references":["Theodor, O. (1983) The genitalia of Bombyliidae (Diptera). Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem. 275 p."]}

Usia cryptocrispa Gibbs sp. nov. (Plate V) Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: Morocco, 15 April 2006, Beni Slimane 330m, SE Beni Slimane R 404, N33º32'19.6" W6º58'23.8" Leg. Dils J. Faes J. [♂ in NMWC]. PARATYPES: [Morocco], Maroc, Rabat, J.M.Mimeur coll./ Parageron sp. [♂ in MNHN]; 7 May 2008, Azilal 1150m, Afourer, N32º10'48.8" W6º31'13.6", leg. Dils J. Faes J. [♀ in PCJD]. Etymology. Name derived from the Greek “ crypto ” = κρʋπτóς, kryptos, hidden, secret, + the Latin “ crispa ” = curly, wavy; referring to the fact that this species was initially overlooked, hidden in the series of Usia crispa Gibbs sp. nov. Diagnosis. A small shining black species very similar to U. crispa and U. paracrispa and like them with short adpressed ventral hairs on hind femur and marginal scutellar hairs as long as scutellum medially. Male from all but U. crispa, U. paracrispa and potentially U. falcata by wavy-tipped hairs on tip of epandrium. From U. falcata by longer marginal hairs on scutellum and less globular epandrium. From U. crispa by dusted centre of anepisternum and base of tergites dulled by dust and U. paracrispa by matt tergites. Females more shining than U. crispa (mesonotum not matt) and shorter-haired then U. paracrispa. Both sexes only reliably identified by examining details of genitalia (Plate V). Description. Measurements . Body length. 3.7mm Wing length. 2.8–3.9mm. Male. Only three specimens available and many characters are likely to be more variable than shown in this series. Head. Frons relatively narrow and almost parallel sided in hind three fifths, at narrowest point about one sixth head width, rather matt, cuticle shagreened, shining around ocelli, anterolateral dust spots barely visible. PLATE V. Usia cryptocrispa Gibbs sp. n.; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f epandrium lateral, g female genitalia ventral, h female furca lateral, i sternite 8 ventral. Mouth margin exceedingly narrow, linear, practically absent, shining black. Ocellar triangle equilateral, lateral ocelli separated from the eye by about half their diameter. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle short, about equal to the width across vertex. Occiput covered with grey dust, almost obscuring black cuticle, area behind vertex is noticeably more shining; and a covering of short black hairs, becoming longer below. Antennae black, mid-length, third segment, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined, parallel sided, square ended, a few short setae just before apical sulcus, sensilla often whitish or transparent. Proboscis black, naked, about as long as mesonotum. Palps small, black with small apical setae. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum subshining with a shagreened surface sculpture most pronounced in front of scutellum, this tends to be more restricted than in U. crispa, lightly grey dusted on pronotum and above wing but postpronotal lobe and notopleuron almost dust-free. Vestiture as long as that on vertex, acrostichals biserial and separated from dorsocentrals by bare paramedian lines, laterally Vestiture evenly distributed. Scutellum subshining with rough surface sculpture similar to that on hind part of mesonotum, disc bare, longer marginal hairs about half as long as median length of scutellum. Pleurae black, variably grey dusted, particularly anterior half of anepisternum dusted (shining and undusted in U. crispa), anepimeron almost entirely dusted or medially shining, katepisternum dusted dorsally, scattered hairs on posterodorsal part of anepisternum. Wing. Clear to vaguely tinged brownish, veins brown. Anal lobe convex, narrower than anal cell and narrower than in U. crispa. R-m at middle of discal cell. Haltere. Whitish knob, stem infuscated. Legs. Black, shining but with transverse wrinkles on femur, with very short, adpressed black hairs, more dense on tibia. Abdomen. Black, subshining, with stellate surface sculpture at hair insertions creating a rough surface subtly different from U. crispa, tergites 2–7 with narrow dusted basal bands, most conspicuous laterally. Evenly covered with relatively short black hairs, becoming slightly longer laterally, Sternites often difficult to see, grey dusted with black hairs along the apical margins. Genitalia. Fairly large usually folded under the abdomen and pressed against the sternite (can be difficult to see in some specimens). Epandrium oblong with broad lateral lobes much larger than in U. crispa almost encompassing the apex, surface texture rough, covered with short hairs, those on the apical part longer, denser, often browner and with wavy tips. Gonocoxite often enclosed in epandrium, base bilobed, shining black and relatively long haired, apicolaterally with brown recurved processes, medially produced with a tuft of dense hair. Epiphallus pointed apically (bifid in U. crispa). Female. Very similar to the male differing only in its wider frons, about one-fifth head width, ocellar triangle usually more obtuse, lateral ocelli a little further from the eye margin. Mouth margin very slightly wider but still narrow and linear. Abdomen clearly shorter-haired, tapering to a rounded point. Apical sternite broader than in crispa, with a strongly convex boss basally, transversely striate, shining, hairy laterally. When macerated a narrow apical notch is visible, narrower than in U. crispa. Furca proximally pointed, strongly curved dorsally then recurved at tip. Discussion. Part of a complex with U. crispa, U. paracrispa, and U. falcata that seem to replace each other northeast to southwest in the western Maghreb. Distribution. Morocco. Only three specimens known from three different localities so seems to be local and very scarce., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 31-33

Usia susanae Gibbs sp. nov. (Fig. 22, Plate XVIII) Usia pusilla: Engel, 1932: 77, Textfig. 35, misidentification. Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: Spain, Andalusia, Cortija del Alcazar, 990–1200m, N36º55'15" W4º5'18" 4.vi.2006, leg. D.J. Gibbs [♂ in NMWC]. PARATYPES: Spain, La Cuenca Alta, La Pedriz, NW of Manzanares el Real, 1520m 10 June 1995 / Espana, Prov. Madrid, J.P. Duffels [♂ head missing, ♀ in PCJD]; 31 May 2000, Torres de la Alameda (M), Malaise, A. Bari leg. [5♂ 3♀ in spirit PCMC-T]; Salamanca, Las Coronas, Viller de Ciervo, 23–25 May 1999 / yellow pan trap (SA) leg. P. Tschorsnig, [2♂ 1♀ in BMNH]; Andalusia, Cortija del Alcazar, 990–1200m, N36º55'15" W4º5'18" 4.vi.2006 [♀ in NMWC, ♀ in BMNH, ♀ in OUM, 10♂ 7♀ in PCDG]; 9 vi.2006 [♀ in NMWC, 2♂ 2♀ in PCDG]; Mirador de las Vibodes, 1527m N37º8'23" W3º27'23" 6 June 2006, leg. D.J. Gibbs [1♀ in PCDG]; Roman Br. Fondales, N 36˚55'20" W3˚19'10" 920m 8 June 2008 leg. D.J. Gibbs [♂ in NMWC, 2♂ 1♀ in PCDG]; W of Capilerilla N36˚56'21" W3˚20'26" 1480m 7 June 2008 leg. D.J. Gibbs [♀ in NMWC, 3♂ 2♀ in PCDG]; 11 June 2008 [♂ in PCDG]; 14 June 2008 [1♂ in PCDG]; above Portugos, N 36˚56'55" W3˚19'14" 1500m 9 June 2008 leg. D.J.Gibbs [2♂ in PCDG]; nr. Haza del Cerezo, N36˚57'34" W3˚19'44", 11 June 2008 1860m, leg. D.J. Gibbs [1♀ in PCDG]; Hispania / Moucavo, Veruela 600m, 27 June 1979, Osella [1♂ 1♀ in CNBFVR]; Prov. Granada, Sierra de Alfacar, 1500m, 19 June 1968 / Hispania mer., K. Sattler & D.J. Carter, B.M. 1968-363 [♀ in BMNH]; Sierra de las Nieves, Rhonda, 21 May [20]05/ Usia sp., A. Sánchez Terrón det/ M.N.C.N, Madrid [♀ in MNCN]; Salamanca, 17 June [19]30, Dumest / Usia pusilla Now. / Usia pusilla ♂ Meig /. M.N.C.N, Madrid [♂ in MNCN]. Other material examined. (probably this species but excluded from type series) Spain, 1411, Museum Paris, Madrid, coll. Dufour, Usia pusilla [♀ in MNHN]; Museum Paris, Espagne, Penarroya, A. Seyrig 1923-24; 16 June [19]95, Albaracin, Teruel 1100m, Leg. T.W. Tolman / [♀ MNHN]; San Rafael, C. Bolivar/ M.N.C.N, Madrid [♀ in MNCN]. Etymology. Named after Susan Miles, who accompanied me on many field trips and tolerated me frequently being distracted by bee flies. Diagnosis. A small black short-haired Iberian endemic, very similar to U. pusilla. Hind femora with short, adpressed hairs, marginal hairs of scutellum about half mid-length of scutellum, hairs on ocellar triangle short, about as long as distance between lateral ocelli. From the very similar U. pusilla by narrower mouth-margin (in respective sexes) and usually smoother, more shiny mesonotum. Male readily identified by larger, elongate genitalia, especially epandrium, gonocoxite rather flat and gonostyli inserted sub-apically. Female genitalia and apical sternite very similar to U. pusilla, females sometimes not reliably identifiable, even with dissection (Plate XVIII). PLATE XVIII. Usia susanae Gibbs, sp. nov.; a epiphallic complex ventral, b epiphallic complex lateral, c gonocoxite ventral, d gonocoxite lateral, e epandrium dorsal, f female genitalia ventral, g female sternite 8 ventral. Description. Measurements . Body length. 2–6mm Wing length. 2.4–4.7mm. Male. Head. Frons relatively narrow, about a fifth head width, at narrowest point about as wide as length of third antennal segment, rather matt with poorly defined narrow stripes of whitish dust on anterolateral corners. Frons widens towards front relatively evenly, discontinuity of the eye margin medially a little more distinct than in U. pusilla. Mouth margin very narrow hardly visible, decidedly narrower than in U. pusilla. Ocellar triangle equilateral, lateral ocelli separated from the eye by their diameter or a little less. Longest hairs on ocellar tubercle very short, shorter than distance between lateral ocelli and appreciably shorter than in U. pusilla. Occiput covered with grey dust, including area behind vertex which is slightly more shining, and relatively short black hairs, shorter above, longer below. Antennae black, relatively long, third segment elongate, about twice as long as scape and pedicel combined, straight dorsally, convex ventrally at base, blunt ended, a few short setae dorsally, especially just before sulcus. Proboscis black, naked, about as long as mesonotum and scutellum. Palps small, clavate, black with distinct apical setae. Thorax. Entirely black, mesonotum subshining, surface sculpture roughened and wrinkled but not as matt as in U. pusilla, hair insertions more distinct than in U. pusilla. Lightly pale dusted on pronotum, notopleuron and above wing. Hairs short, on disc of mesonotum similar to those on vertex, acrostichal line wide bi- (in small specimens) to irregularly quadriserial or more (in large specimens), paramedian lines bare back to level of wing base, usually more transversely striate than mid-line, laterally hairs evenly distributed becoming longer on notopleuron. Scutellum subshining, rough-textured like mesonotum, disc sparsely haired, marginal hairs very short, hardly a third the length of the scutellum. Pleurae black, predominantly covered in grey dust, anepisternum often with a shining strip around dorsal half of margin, anepimeron with small central shining patch and katepisternum ventrally dust-free. Anepisternum with dark hairs similar to those on mesonotum in upper half and posterior margin. Wing. Clear to vaguely tinged brownish yellow, veins pale brown, decidedly more yellow basally. Anal lobe convex, as wide as anal cell. Haltere. Yellow knob, stem infuscated. Legs. Black, coxae dusted on anterior face, otherwise shining but with rough texture to cuticle, with very short, adpressed dark hairs, front and mid-femora ventrally practically bare. Hairs shorter and denser on tibia. Abdomen. Black, compact with broad tergites, surface sculpture of transverse welts at hair insertions, covered with relatively short black hairs. Only tergite 1 with any grey dust, this restricted to reflexed margin. Sternites grey-dusted with black hairs along posterior margins. Genitalia. Fairly large and noticeably more elongated than in U. pusilla, positioned under the tip of the abdomen. Epandrium flask-shaped, broadly rounded apicolateral projections that, in dry specimen, wrap around the cerci and tip of gonocoxite. Epandrium rather evenly covered with short, dark hairs, shining, undusted. Gonocoxite with longer hairs, lobed basally, in lateral view much flatter than in U. pusilla. Gonostyli placed subapically, relatively simple, sharp tipped. Female. Very similar to male, frons marginally wider diverging more evenly. Mouth margin very narrow, linear, hardly differing from male and clearly narrower than in U. pusilla. Hairs generally slightly shorter, especially on tergites. Abdominal dusting often also extending on to tergite 2 laterally. Sternite eight broadest basally, oblong, quite clearly embossed in basal half. In dry specimen apical half with short fold where sclerite membranous, this often with covering of grey dust. When macerated no significant translucent patches, a distinct apical notch. Furca pointed. Discussion. Forms a sibling pair with the sympatric U. pusilla, the two often occurring together, even in the same flowers. Also probably has affinities with U. novakii and U. hyalipennis that have similar epiphallus. Distribution. Spain. A rather frequent species in Andalusia, less frequent north to the Pyrenees, nearly always found together with U. pusilla and on current evidence usually the more abundant of the two. Records of U. pusilla from Portugal are as likely to be this species., Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2011, 2960, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 2960 on pages 63-65, {"references":["Engel, E. O. (1932) Bombyliidae. In: Lindner, E., ed., Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region, p. 49 - 96. Vol. 4, pt. 3. E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart."]}

Key to species of Mythenteles Hall & Evenhuis 1. A yellow notopleural stripe above wing base joining post pronotal lobe and post-alar callus (also both yellow)...... 2 - Sides of mesonotum above wing base with no more than a thin, yellow line along suture from post-pronotal lobe to wing base...................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2. Crossvein DM-Cu present............................................................................................................................................ 3 - Crossvein DM-Cu absent.............................................................................................................................................. 5 3. Pleura partly yellow, anepisternum about half yellow with black inverted comma-shaped spot anteriorly, coxae mostly yellow, often a little darkened basally. Proboscis relatively short, only exceeding oral margin a little, not exceeding antennae (Greece)......................................................................................................... rameli Gibbs, sp. n. - Pleura mostly black, anepisternum with no more than a pale dorsal streak. Proboscis extending well beyond oral margin........................................................................................................................................................................... 4 4. Femora entirely yellow; scutellum brown with yellow on extreme lateral margins; proboscis length more than 2 times head height (Bangladesh).................................................................................................. rigirostris (Evenhuis) - Femora black to brown basally, yellow apically; scutellum entirely yellow; proboscis shorter (China)....................... ........................................................................................................................................................ asiatica (Evenhuis) 5. Scutellum entirely black. Thorax with large, distinct yellowish white notopleural stripe but disc of mesonotum sol- idly black (Spain) .............................................................................................. infrequens Evenhuis & Blasco-Zumeta - Scutellum entirely yellow to white, no dark colour present. Mesonotum yellow with black medial pattern (Israel)... ..................................................................................................................................... wadimurri Evenhuis & Theodor 6. Scutellum entirely yellow to white, no dark colour present (Spain) .............. hispanicola Evenhuis & Blasco-Zumeta - Scutellum brown to black, yellow colour, if present, restricted to extreme lateral margins......................................... 7 7. Crossvein DM-Cu absent.............................................................................................................................................. 8 - Crossvein DM-Cu present.......................................................................................................................................... 10 8. Proboscis long, about 1.5 times head height; tibia with yellow apically (northern India) .................. indica (Brunetti) - Proboscis shorter than head height, tibia all dark, no yellow colour apically.............................................................. 9 9. Proboscis short, only slightly protruding beyond oral margin; abdominal tergites I-III all dark, without yellow fas- ciae; with only 2 spermathecae, the middle one missing (Israel) ................................................ coptopheles Evenhuis - Proboscis longer, about 0.6 times head height and clearly protruding beyond the oral margin; abdominal tergites I-III usually with yellowish fasciae laterally; with three subequal spermathecae, the middle one with a much shorter and simplified duct (Spain) ........................................................................................................................ andalusica Gibbs 10. Abdominal tergites yellow fasciate apically; postalar callus and apices of femora distinctly yellow........................ 11 - Abdominal tergites brown to black, not distinctly yellow fasciate; postalar callus and apices of femora black or yel- low............................................................................................................................................................................... 13 11. Second antennal flagellomere ca. 3 / 4 length of first flagellomere (Fig. 8); with two well developed spermathecae, medial spermatheca extremely reduced (Cyprus) ............................................................................ deemingi Evenhuis - Second antennal flagellomere less than 1 / 2 length of first flagellomere (e.g., Fig. 11); with three well-developed spermathecae............................................................................................................................................................... 12 12. Vein R 2 + 3 arising almost perpendicularly from Rs (Fig. 22) (western U.S.) ......................................... silus Evenhuis - Vein R 2 + 3 arising at an acute angle from Rs (Fig. 19) (Greece) ................................................... hellenicae Evenhuis 13. Legs all dark brown to black; propleuron with yellow to white colour (western U.S.) .......... propleuralis (Melander) - Legs with tips of femora and all of tibiae and tarsi yellowish brown; propleuron all dark brown in colour, no con- trasting white or yellow colour present (Israel) .............................................................................. freidbergi Evenhuis, Published as part of Gibbs, David, 2009, A new microbombyliid Mythenteles rameli sp. n. (Diptera, Mythicomyiidae) from Northern Greece, pp. 50-56 in Zootaxa 2162 on page 51, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.189027

Gibbs, David (2009): A new microbombyliid Mythenteles rameli sp. n. (Diptera, Mythicomyiidae) from Northern Greece. Zootaxa 2162: 50-56, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.189027