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Hemipenthes morioides, H. webberi, H. catulina

This is a copy of discussion about identification of photo #429595 with Joel Kits June 29, 2020:

Hemipenthes morioides
H. webberi has anal area clear on both male and female per Johnson (Psyche 1919) and Hernandez (2009).
The only Hemipenthes in Ontario with white bands on each side of thorax is seminigra.
I believe this is Hemipenthes morioides.
… Lee Penner, 29 June, 2020 - 1:25pm reply to this comment


Hemipenthes
There are a number of taxonomic problems in Hemipenthes. The sexual dimorphism in H. webberi hasn't been recognized in the literature before, but Guy Shewell recognized it based on morphology years ago and it seems to be correct based on DNA barcodes. This is a typical female H. webberi, sometimes they have less brown in the wing but most look like this.

The identity of H. morioides is unclear as Say's description is not very detailed and there is no extant type, but I'm pretty sure Avalos-Hernandez's synonymy with H. catulina is incorrect as the halter colour in morioides is supposed to be pale (according to Say) but it is brown in catulina. I've been following Shewell in treating it as a senior synonym of seminigra although I don't know if that is correct.
… Joel Kits, 30 June, 2020 - 10:14am reply to this comment


Yes, there are definitely a number of problems
DNA on H. webberi is non-existent and has been removed from BOLD v. 4, and also is not present at GenBank.
Shewell is dead. His only paper on Bombyliidae dealt with cell structure and chromosomes in 1973.
Your two papers on Bombyliidae consist of a guide for the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification #6, in 2008 which makes no mention of dimorphism in H. webberi. Your second paper concerned new records from Mexico in 2014 also does not mention H. webberi, H. catulina or H. seminigra.
Therefore, none of your statements can be verified. I’m going to re-post this discussion in the forum under “Taxonomy Proposals”. I want a consensus on this.
… Lee Penner, 30 June, 2020 - 1:33pm

So, here is my question - can Kits make changes to established identification criteria based on unpublished, unverified musings?
Contributed by Lee Penner on 30 June, 2020 - 12:41pm

Since there is no editorial board on BugGuide
to make such decisions, the default position has become that the people who do the work get to make the decisions. Joel does the work. He has made more than 5000 identifications and created more than 400 guide pages. We are fine with the decisions he makes.

That being said, you are also fine to post a challenge to one or more of his IDs or decisions. Hopefully you will get some people who know something about Hemipenthes (not us, we're afraid) to confirm one position or another. As you suggest, BugGuide would normally follow the consensus on any position.

Until there is a consensus to change something he has done, we would say that Joel's work and the decisions he makes would stand. Everything is editable on BugGuide, so things can always be changed at a later date.

Those are only our feelings. Others may certainly feel differently.
… john and jane balaban, 30 June, 2020 - 3:30pm

 
OK accepted
This is going to be a big can of worms.
… Lee Penner, 30 June, 2020 - 3:57pm

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