On the genus Eucampsipoda Kol. and Dipseliopoda n.g. (Nycteribiidae, Diptera)

Abstract

The genus Eucampsipoda was created by Kolenati in 1857 for Eucampsipoda hyrtlii, the common parasite of Rousettus aegyptiacus, and Nycteribia fitzingeri Kol., 1856, which he later considered as synonym with N. aegyptia Macquart, 1851. In his paper of 1863 Kolenati gives illustrations of E. hyrtlii, but not of E. aegyptia as he had in the meantime lost his specimens. Macquart's description does not permit the recognition of the species, and it is even doubtful whether he was dealing with an Eucampsipoda at all. Speiser (1901) adds only a few details to Kolenati's description of E. hyrtlii, but introduces an unfortunate complication by incorrectly identifying specimens from Burma and Sumatra as E. hyrtlii. Later (1908) Speiser identified specimens from the Comoro Islands as E. hyrtlii, but this record has also become doubtful, as will be shown later. Scott (1914) accepts Speiser's identification of the Indonesian material as E. hyrtlii, and describes and figures a female specimen from Ceylon as E. hyrtlii, which is in fact E. latisternum Schuurm. Stekh. Scott (1925) identified specimens from South Africa as E. hyrtlii which on re-exaniination proved to belong to a new species. He also mentions Madagascar as a locality for E. hyrtlii without giving details. The distribution of E. hyrtlii was thus apparently extremely wide, throughout Africa, from the Cape Province to Egypt and beyond into Palestine, Comoro Islands, Madagascar, Ceylon, Burma and Sumatra.