Biology

This species is divisible into three morphotypes that overlap in distribution and distinctly differ in proboscis length.  The Albany form is larger and consistently has a spot of white hairs in the center of the hind margin of the fourth segment of the abdomen.  The Natal form is slightly smaller and may have a white fringe along the entire hind margin of the fourth segment of the abdomen, or a spot (like the Albany form) or no white hairs at all.  The Zimbabwe form is similar in size to P. rondani, and consistently has a white fringe along the entire hind margin of the fourth abdominal segment.

Distribution

Southern Africa; South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia. The Albany form occurs in South Africa from the Eastern Cape, with older records from the Cape Fold Mountains of the Western Cape.  The Natal form occurs from southern Mozambique and Zimbabwe down to the eastern edge of the Albany Centre in the Eastern Cape.  The Zimbabwe form occurs from Gauteng Province, South Africa, up through the mountains into Zimbabwe.  A record of this species from Tanzania by Johnson (1898) is extremely unlikely based on the distribution of other collections and the ambiguity of the identification as stated by the author (Johnson 1898, p 157).

Works Cited

Johnson, C. W. (1898). Diptera collected by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith in Somaliland, eastern Africa. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1898, 157-164.

Thunberg, C. (1789). D. D. Museum Naturalium Academiae Upsaliensis. In Cujus Partem Septiman [= Part 7]' (Eds.) pp. [ii] + pp. 85-94: Upsaliae [=Uppsala].)