Hirtodrosophila cinerea

Hirtodrosophila cinerea (Patterson and Wheeler)

Drosophila (Hirtodrosophila) cinerea Patterson and Wheeler, 1942: 71.

DIAGNOSIS: Extracted from description by Patterson and Wheeler (1942): Arista with seven dorsal branches; wing dusky gray, longer than body, with black spot at Sc break; head and thorax largely grayish, with frons and palps darker; scutum with lighter median stripe, bordered laterally by darker gray stripes; pleura with four bluish-gray stripes; legs grayish brown; abdomen yellowish gray, each tergite with complete bluishgray band that widens medially.

DESCRIPTION: See Patterson and Wheeler (1942).

TYPE: Probably nonexistent, but according to the original description: holotype female, Texas: [Sabine County] near Hemphill, “trapped in a fungus patch,” August 14, 1940 (Patterson and Wheeler, 1942).

OTHER SPECIMENS EXAMINED: None.

COMMENTS: This is the only North American species for which I did not see specimens. No specimens occur in the AMNH (including the former UT collection) or NMNH, nor does a type specimen exist (it would have been deposited in the AMNH along with the types of H. longala and H. orbospiracula). It is most likely that the type was never deposited and probably lost at the University of Texas. At least for H. grisea, though, there is a dissected, slide-mounted specimen with data that corresponds to the type (see below under grisea). In the former UT slide collection there are three slides labelled “ D. cinerea -? Nebraska male,” one of the head, another of the genitalia, and one of the wing. These appear to be from the same specimen, which is actually H. alabamensis (I have labelled it as such). This specimen is probably the basis for subsequent citations (e.g., Vilela and Bächli, 2004). Patterson and Wheeler (1942) mentioned two specimens of H. cinerea in their original description, both from Texas, one from Hemphill (Sabine County, near the Louisiana-Texas border), another from near Austin.

Unfortunately, the original description (Patterson and Wheeler, 1942) is vague and superficial, making interpretation of this species difficult. On the one hand, the description denotes some unique features: a largely gray body with bluish (pollinose) stripes; a long, dusky wing, with “apex of first costal section [apex of Sc cell] black.” On the other hand, Hirtodrosophila alabamensis also has these features, though it is not so much gray as it is gray and brown, with pollinose stripes having a slight bluish hue (and configurations not as described for cinerea), and the legs are light, infuscate yellowbrown. Also, the anterior reclinate seta in alabamensis is larger than described for cinerea (ca. 0.5× the size of the proclinate vs. 0.3×). Hopefully newly collected specimens will resolve the uncertainty about H. cinerea.