New Australasian Parathalassiinae (Diptera: Dolichopodidae sensu lato)
Author
Brooks, Scott E.
0000-0001-7915-1941
Diptera Unit, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K. W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K 1 A 0 C 6, CANADA & scott. brooks @ agr. gc. ca; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 7915 - 1941
scott.brooks@agr.gc.ca
Author
Cumming, Jeffrey M.
0000-0002-3619-3700
Diptera Unit, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K. W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K 1 A 0 C 6, CANADA & jeff. cumming @ agr. gc. ca; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 3619 - 3700
jeff.cumming@agr.gc.ca
text
Zootaxa
2022
2022-09-22
5188
6
521
543
journal article
148081
10.11646/zootaxa.5188.6.2
ecb5de27-f5fe-4b16-903b-633548186b0a
1175-5326
7103618
BF01B6B4-3415-41A1-86A0-F4B187541A55
Chimerothalassius ismayi
Shamshev & Grootaert
(
Figs 3, 4
,
12, 13
)
Chimerothalassius ismayi
Shamshev & Grootaert, 2002: 133
.
Type
locality:
South Birdlings Flat
,
New Zealand
.
Material Examined.
NEW ZEALAND
:
North Island
,
Waikato Region
,
Stony Bay
,
36°30ʹ42.3ʺS
175°25ʹ24.4ʺE
, steep short bay with river outlet, beach with mix of large pebbles & sand,
12.iv.2019
,
R
.
J. Le Grice
(
1♀
,
NZAC
, photo);
North Island
,
Wellington Region
,
Ôwhiro Bay
,
41°20ʹ40.8ʺS
174°45ʹ32.2ʺE
,
11.xii.2019
, small steep enclosed bay with freshwater stream outlet, beach with mix of medium and small stones,
R
.
J. Le Grice
(
1♀
,
NZAC
, photo);
South Island
,
Banks Pen.
,
Port Levy
[
ca
43°39ʹS 172°48ʹE],
22–26.ii.1999
, near sea streambed,
pan traps
,
S.A. Marshall
, debu00102042 (
1♂
,
DEBU
);
South Island
, NN
[
Nelson
area code],
Cable Bay
, 41°09.6ʹS 173°24.9ʹE,
13.ii.1998
,
W.N. Mathis
,
USNM
ENT 00085568
(
1♀
,
USNM
)
.
Diagnosis.
Males of
C. ismayi
are distinguished from the other known Australasian species of the genus by their elongate yellow palpus (
Fig. 12
), grey body, yellow legs and several hypopygial features (
Shamshev & Grootaert 2002
, figs 18–22) including: left ventral epandrial process with tip weakly bent; left ventral surstylus relatively short with short setae; right ventral epandrial process straight; phallus with funnel-like tip; hypoproct simple and narrow. Females of
C. ismayi
(see “Remarks” below) are distinguished by the following features: fore femur with row of 4–5 long spine-like ventral setae on basal half (
Fig. 13
); palpus elongate and brownish with 3 long spine-like ventral setae (about 2X palpus width); terminalia with syntergite 9+10 undivided and bearing acanthophorous setae, cercus narrowly rounded apically with prominent preapical seta (
Shamshev & Grootaert 2002
, figs 23–25).
Distribution.
Chimerothalassius ismayi
is known only from
New Zealand
and has been collected at Ôwhiro Bay and Stony Bay on North Island, and Cable Bay, Port Levy and South Birdlings Flat [
ca
43°49ʹS 172°42ʹE] on the northern part of South Island (
Figs 3–7
).
Remarks.
The type series from South Birdlings Flat and the female specimens from Ôwhiro Bay and Stony Bay were swept or hand collected from stony beaches (
e.g.
,
Fig. 4
) or beaches with mixed pebbles and sand, while the Port Levy male specimen was taken in a pan trap along a stream bed near the sea (
Fig. 6
).
Shamshev & Grootaert (2002)
noted great sexual dimorphism in the chaetotaxy of the palpus and foreleg of
C
.
ismayi
, which is not seen in
C
.
runyoni
Brooks & Cumming
from the Caribbean (
Brooks & Cumming 2018
), or
C. riparius
sp. nov.
from
New Caledonia
, described below. Although we have not seen the type series of
C
.
ismayi
(
8 males
and
14 females
from South Birdlings Flat, South Island deposited in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences,
Brussels
,
Belgium
), we have examined a male collected from the nearby locality of Port Levy (DEBU), and females collected from Cable Bay (USNM), Ôwhiro Bay and Stony Bay (NZAC) that are virtually identical to the male
holotype
, male
paratypes
and female
paratypes
illustrated and described by
Shamshev & Grootaert (2002
, figs 1–26). Given the major differences in the chaetotaxy of the palpus and foreleg between the males and females of the type series (as well as the male and females we examined), we suspect that the female
paratypes
of
C. ismayi
and the females from Cable Bay, Ôwhiro Bay and Stony Bay actually belong to an undescribed species for which the male remains undiscovered. Even though the type specimens of
C
.
ismayi
were all collected from a single stony beach on the same day, multiple species of certain parathalassiine shoreline genera, such as
Amphithalassius
Ulrich
,
Parathalassius
Mik
, and
Plesiothalassius
Ulrich
are known to co-inhabit single beaches (
Ulrich 1991
;
Brooks & Cumming 2017
). The same appears true for
Chimerothalassius
, at least at the Port Levy locality, where both
C. ismayi
and
C. marshalli
sp. nov.
were taken during the same collecting event. The female specimens currently assigned to
C. ismayi
also do not appear to be conspecific with
C
.
marshalli
sp. nov.
based on differences in chaetotaxy of the palpus, gena, thorax and foreleg.