A new species and notes on unusual natural history of Cladochaeta Coquillett, 1900 (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
Author
Carvalho-Filho, Fernando Da Silva
Author
Pirani, Gabriela
Author
Kloss, Thiago Gechel
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-04-18
4410
3
483
496
journal article
30239
10.11646/zootaxa.4410.3.3
8797b5a9-cd30-441a-864f-295ad9869b90
1175-5326
1221792
3179E773-1785-4CAC-84A7-6FB4C482F433
Cladochaeta atlantica
Pirani & Amorim, 2016
(
Figs. 27–28
)
Cladochaeta atlantica
Pirani & Amorim, 2016
: 327
–328,
Figs. 24 A–F, 25 A–C
,
34 A
,
35 L
Material
examined
.
BRAZIL
:
Espírito Santo
:
Estação Biológica de Santa Lúcia
,
Santa Teresa
,
Atlantic Forest
,
550m
, dense ombrophilous montane forest,
T. G. Kloss
[collector], reared from spider egg sacs of the spider
Cryptachaea migrans
,
23.X.2014
(
1 ♂
),
31.X.2014
(
1 ♂
),
04.XII.2014
(
1 ♀
) (all deposited in
MPEG
)
.
Description of female.
Differs from the description of the male showed by
Pirani & Amorim (2016)
as follow:
Female terminalia
(
Fig. 28
): Hypoproct narrowed distally, with microtrichosity and setae concentrated on posterior margin. Apical sternite wider than high, entire, with posterior margin bilobed, with three setae and microtrichosity restricted to the lobes. Penultimate sternite broad, shield-like, with a deep median cleft with almost parallel inner edges in posterior margin, without setae.
Distribution.
NEOTROPICAL—Brazil (
Espírito Santo
,
São Paulo
).
Remarks.
The female terminalia of
C. atlantica
is similar to that of
C. labidia
Grimaldi & Nguyen
in having apical sternite with posterior margin entire and bilobed, but the number of setae in the lobes are different between these species (three in
C. atalntica
and about eight in
C. labidia
).
Biology.
The specimens of
C. atlantica
were obtained from the spider egg sacs of
Cryptachaea migrans
(Keyserling, 1884)
(
Araneae
:
Theridiidae
) (
Fig. 29
) collected in a montane ombrophilous Atlantic Forest at an altitude of
550 m
.
This spider utilizes dry leaf as retreat (
Figs. 29–30
). Of 124 collected egg sacs, only three were attacked by this fly. One egg mass was completely consumed by the fly larva, while the other two were partially consumed and from these emerged spiderlings.
This is the first record of a species of
Cladochaeta
attacking a spider egg sac. The breeding habits of drosphilids are diversified, but there are few records of these flies parasitizing the egg sacs of spiders, which are restricted to some species of
Scaptomyza
Hardy
(subgenus
Titanochaeta
Knab
) in the Hawaiian Islands and
Australia
, that attack
Thomisidae
eggs (Wirth 1952,
Hardy 1965
,
Austin 1985
).