''Marleyimyia xylocopae'' is a species of bee fly from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

that has a similarity to the patterning of a

carpenter bee Carpenter bees are species in the genus ''Xylocopa'' of the subfamily Xylocopinae. The genus includes some 500 bees in 31 subgenera. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant m ...

'' Xylocopa flavicollis'' found in the region. The species is considered to be distinctive and only one of three within the genus ''Marleyimyia''. The other members of the genus are ''Marleyimyia goliath'' described from Peninsular Malaysia and ''M. natalensis'' from southern Africa. Members in the genus have been presumed to be

crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal, vespertine, or both. This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylig ...

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

but this species was found to be diurnal.

Controversy about photography-based taxonomy

The species was unusual in being described on the basis of two photographs, without the collection, designation of a

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen and deposition in a suitable repository. This method provoked in 2016 a controversy among taxonomists, with a paper arguing ''for'' photography-based taxonomy by Pape (with 34 signatories), quickly followed by papers arguing ''against'' it by Krell (with 5 signatories) and Ceríaco et al. (with 496 authors).

References

Bombyliidae Insects of South Africa Insects described in 2015 {{Bombyliidae-stub

Controversy about photography-based taxonomy

See also

References