Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
1848: Walker described T. imitans from GA
1850: Macquart described T. fuscopunctatus from GA
1876: Osten Sacken included T. fuscopunctatus in his Monograph. Also included T. imitans as an "unknown, unrecognized or doubtful" species that he thought may actually be T. abdominalis.
1913: Johnson included T.fuscopunctatus in a list of FL tabanids (but did not include T. imitans).
1938: Stone listed T. fuscopunctatus as a Junior synonym of T. imitans.
1960: Philip followed Stone and kept T.fuscopunctatus as a junior synonym of T. imitans and described a variety of T. imitans as var. pechumani.
1964: Jones and Anthony made no mention of T. fuscopunctatus in their Tabanidae of FL. They included T.imitans and included 2 ssp.: including pechumani.
1995: Burger listed T.fuscopunctatus as occurring from SC to FL. He also placed T. imitans var. pechumani Philip as a ssp. of T. fuscopunctatus and gives its range NC to FL.
Explanation of Names
Tabanus fuscopunctatus Macquart 1850
Identification
Head: Frons (1) parallel sided, about 3x as high as width at base; large triangular shiny patch (2) at vertex; median callus (3) shiny, relatively long; basal callus (4) shiny brown, higher than wide and not touching eyes.
Antennae: uniformly orange brown (5),basal portion of 3rd segment with prominent forward-projecting dorsal process.
Palps: orange brown (6), of moderate length and evenly tapered.
Thorax: dark reddish brown (7).
Wings: basal part of wing (8) and costal cell (9) heavily tinted, cross veins (10) and furcation (11) infuscated.
Legs: orange brown to dark reddish brown.
Abdomen: dark reddish brown with a median row of small white triangles, largest on 2nd segment
Range
North Carolina to Florida
Season
seems to be an early-season species, March-June; but confusion with other species may affect its apparent flight period.
Remarks
Part of a complex consisting of Tabanus imitans, Tabanus fuscopunctatus fuscopunctatus, and Tabanus fuscopunctatus pechumani. T. imitans ranges from Texas to New Jersey and Florida; T. f. fuscopunctatus ranges from South Carolina to Florida, and T. f. pechumani ranges from North Carolina to Florida.
Unclear to me how 2 ssp. can co-exist (in SC GA and FL) and yet remain distinct.
Print References
Philip, C.B. New North American Tabanidae. XII. A new variety of Tabanus imitans Walker. Fla. Entomol. 43: 171-174.
Contributed by
A.W. Thomas on 8 October, 2006 - 8:30am
Additional contributions by
v belovLast updated 10 August, 2021 - 8:56pm
