Afroholopogon nubilus * (Wiedemann in Meigein, 1820)

* unpublished yet data.

According to a personal communication with Dr. Fritz Geller-Grimm, a new combination is neccessary for Heteropogon nubilus and Heteropogon aureus.

Afroholopogon nubilus (WIEDEMANN in MEIGEN, 1820) comb. nov.
    Dasypogon nubilus WIEDEMANN in MEIGEN, 1820: Syst. Beschr., 2: 268.
    Ceraturgus nubilus BRAUER (1883: 54).
    Heteropogon nubilus BECKER & STEIN (1913b: 64)
    = Isopogon brevis SCHINER, 1868: Reise Fregatte Novara, Zool., 2(1)B: 158 sensu BECKER & STEIN (1913b: 64).

New records: ALMEIDA (2016) (unpublished yet). Afroholopogon nubilus has a new record for Portugal. The new record was found on 4th July 2014 by Luís Guilherme de Sousa in Herdade da Mitra- Évora. SCHUMMAN (1973) discloses the first record of this species for Portugal.

Remarks: BECKER & STEIN (1913b: 64) list H. nubilus from Morocco and place H. aureus and H. brevis in synonymy of that taxon. BECKER (1915) describes H. albibarbatus from Tunesia, distinguished from H. nubilus by the longer arista. Subsequently, ENGEL (1930) lists H. aureus and H. nubilus as valid taxa, he places H. albibarbatus in synonymy to H. aureus and H. brevis in synonymy to H. nubilus. Unfortunately he does not mention his acknowledgements. The two species can simply distinguished by their different shape of antenna. The arista of H. aureus is longer than the arista of H. nubilus (Check the a, b in the figure - click here to check the drawings in bigger size).
LONDT (1994) writes: "Evidence is provided to show that all Afrotropical taxa previously assigned to Cyrtopogon LOEW, Heteropogon LOEW and Holopogon LOEW are not congeneric, and should be combined in a separate genus-group taxon, Afroholopogon gen. n." He calls the following characteristics, which distinguish Afroholopogon: (1) anatergite bare; (2) anal lobe and alula lacking a bordering vein marginally; (3) pulvilli well developed; (4) postmetacoxal bridge absent; (5) costal vein merges with A1; (6) cup closed and stalked; (7) plumose setae absent on prothorax and occiput; (8) disc of scutellum without fine setae; (9) mystax only with fine hair.
Heteropogon nubilus (WIEDEMANN in MEIGEN, 1820) and Heteropogon aureus BECKER, 1907 have the 7 characteristics and therefore they must be combined new to Afroholopogon LONDT (Afroholopogon nubilus (WIEDEMANN in MEIGEN, 1820) comb. nov.; Afroholopogon aureus (BECKER, 1907) comb. nov.), so that Afroholopogon LONDT is also distributed in the Palaearctic region (Mediterraneum).