Explanation of Names
Xenox is apparently from the Greek for "stranger" or "alien". Perhaps this refers to the bizarre eyes. The author of the genus is Dr. Neal Evenhuis, an entomologist at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii.
Numbers
Four North American species.
(1)Range
X. tigrinus occurs in southeastern Canada and the eastern US, west to Texas. The other three North American species occur in the southwest from Texas to California (
X. delila: CA;
X. habrosus: AZ, CA;
X. xylocopae: AZ, NM, TX).
(1) Remarks
Four North American species are listed at
nearctica.com. The genus combines species formerly placed in three genera:
Xenox Evenhuis 1985:
- Xenox delila Loew 1869 (Argyromoeba)
- Xenox simson Fabricius 1805 (Anthrax)
- Xenox tigrinus De Geer 1776 (Nemotelus)
- Xenox xylocopae Marston 1970 (Anthrax)
Note: Acc. to Neal Evenhuis (pers. communication - HW) the nearctic species of
Xenox are those listed in the World Catalog
(1):
delila , habrosus , nigritus (nearctic part of Mexico), tigrinus , and xylocopae. Neither Nearctica nor ITIS are up to date in this respect. (HW)
Print References
Marston, Norman. 1970. Revision of New World Species of Anthrax (Diptera: Bombyliidae) other than the Anthrax albofasciatus Group. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, Number 43, 148 pp.
Evenhuis, N.L. 1985. The Status of the Genera of the Tribe Anthracini (Diptera: Bombyliidae). International Journal of Entomology, Vol.27, no.1-2:162-169.
Internet References
Download the World Catalog of Bee Flies as
PDF .
