Haematopota ocellata Wiedemann, 1819 - Identification

An ashy-grey black species (from the Cape). Wings brownish-grey with distinct eye-spots (ocelli).
Antennae reddish brown, black at the tip; first joint distinctly inerassate.
Thorax ashy-grey black with three white stripes, the lateral ones may be reduced to two white spots.
Abdomen ashy-grey black; segments with white hind borders and white spots on each segment; median white longitudinal line (apically dilated on the segments).
Legs brown with two white rings on the tibiae.

Description by Wiedemann:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50649#page/259/mode/1up

Taxonomic note:
H. occellata may be conspecific with H. obscura and H. spectabilis; comment from Usher 1972:
"H. ocellata Wiedemann 1819; H. obscura Loew 1857; H. spectabilis Oldroyd 1952
I have tentatively grouped these species together, being quite unable to decide where the specific
boundaries lie. Increasingly more material has become available for study and reveals that this apparently
is either a very variable single species or a complex of very closely associated species which only biometrical analysis may be able to elucidate. Two specimens of H. obscura from the Berlin Museum, both labelled 'type', are indistinguishable from undoubted H. ocellata from the S.W. Cape. The holotype of H. spectabilis is from Richmond in the Karoo, a dry area. From Niewoudtville where a para type is recorded the NM has a series of well over 100 specimens showing predominantly spectabilis characters but with sufficient variation and the inclusion of ocellata characters to be perplexing. When linked with specimens from localities ranging from Nieuwoudtville and the dry Karoo areas to the damper areas of the S.W. Cape (still winter rainfall), then around the coast to all-year-round and finally summer-rainfall areas, the variation appears to be continuous. There is a predominance of characteristic features in different type of habitat, the most perfect 'ocellata' specimens being from M (S.W. Cape) and the most extreme 'spectabilis' from dry, high areas in Lesotho (H)."

iNat observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59427769

Posted on 20 de agosto de 2023, 06:46 AM by traianbertau