Scrapter ugandica Cockerell 1944
Year: 2026
Type: other
Abstract: Scrapter ugandica Cockerell, 1944 (Fig. 33) Ctenoplectra nigrotestacea Magretti, 1895: 162. Scrapter lactipennis Friese, 1909: 189. Ctenoplectra paolii Guiglia, 1928: 491. Ctenoplectra politula Cockerell, 1930: 360. Scrapter ugandica Cockerell, 1944: 805, n. syn. MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Uganda • 1♀ (holotype of Scrapter ugandica); Madi; 1-31.V.1927; G. D. H. Carpenter leg.; NHMUK. For additional examined material of Ctenoplectrina nigrotestacea as well as type specimen illustrations, see Wood & Bossert (2025). CURRENT STATUS. — Ctenoplectrina nigrotestacea (Magretti, 1895) n. syn. DISTRIBUTION. — Nigeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa (Cockerell 1944, as Scrapter ugandica; Eardley 2003; Ascher & Pickering 2025; Wood & Bossert 2025). REMARKS Davies & Brothers (2006) noticed that Scrapter ugandica actually belonged to the genus Ctenoplectrina due to the tongue morphology, lack of arolia, absence of facial foveae, wing morphology, lack of metabasitibial plate, and oil-collecting hairs on the sterna, though these are reduced and in combination with the lack of pollen collecting hairs on the hind tibiae (Fig. 33D) demonstrate placement in the parasitic Ctenoplectrina. Transferring it to this genus, they declined to further pursue its relationship with Ctenoplectrina politula “the only other formally described species”. This comment is intriguing, because at the time of publication both Ctenoplectrina politula and Ctenoplectrina alluaudi were considered part of this genus (Eardley 2003). Following the synonymy above of Ctenoplectrina alluaudi with Ctenoplectra antinorii and the cataloguing work of Wood & Bossert (2025) who identified Ctenoplectra nigrotestacea as the oldest available name for this parasitic taxon, it is possible to also place S. ugandica as a junior synonym of this species. Due to this recent change, the full synonymy is given above. Scrapter ugandica displays the typical traits of Ctenoplectrina as described by Davies & Brothers (2006), and due to the red legs is suitably placed under Ctenoplectra nigrotestacea. It is possible that this is a complex of species due to the wide geographic range, but at the present time this is unproven, and Scrapter ugandica is such a junior synonym that other earlier names will have priority over it in any subsequent revision, particularly because it is almost identical to the holotype of Ctenoplectra paolii (see photographs in Wood & Bossert 2025). See Wood & Bossert (2025) for additional comments. As a final comment, these actions render Ctenoplectrina monotypic at the present time, although Schaefer & Renner (2008) indicate that there is an undescribed Ctenoplectrina species in Nigeria and Togo. To my knowledge, no taxon description has been published since 2008, and given the four available junior names (including one described from Nigeria), care must be taken to robustly differentiate any purportedly new species.
Author: Wood, Thomas James
Institution: Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213518145
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