A review of the Afrotropical genus Aristobatina Verbeke (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae), with descriptions of four new species from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania
Author
Marshall, Stephen A.
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N 1 G 2 W 1
samarsha@uoguelph.ca
text
African Invertebrates
2014
2014-05-28
55
1
143
143
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.5733/afin.055.0108
journal article
55280
10.5733/afin.055.0108
00de24a2-1da8-4926-9425-9eb5c7b8dc35
2305-2562
7661736
A5315BCC-A0B1-4128-B110-3E50065EBFBD
Aristobatina metamelasma
sp. n.
Figs 1–6
Etymology: From the Greek words
meta
(near) and
melasma
(black spot), referring to the distinctive discal macula on the wing of this and the closely related
A. melasma
.
Description:
Length
(head to wing tip):
13–15 mm
.
Colour
: Head orange anteriorly, reddish brown posteriorly, swollen part of frontal vitta dark reddish brown; thorax dark reddish brown; abdomen shiny blueblack; fore femur orange in basal ⅔, brown distally; mid and hind femur uniformly orange except for a small dark area at apex; mid tarsus dark brown or black; basal ½ of tarsomere 1 of hind leg pale, tarsus otherwise dark brown to black; abdominal pleurae grey on pinned
types
.
Head
: Scape bare except for marginal ring of short setae; pedicel short and setose, with some longer ventral apical setae; frontal vitta with strongly convex elongate oval area surrounding ocelli and extending half the distance from anterior ocellus to anterior margin of frons; 2 pairs of fronto-orbital setae, 1 large and above level of ocelli, 1 smaller below; postocellar, outer and inner vertical setae welldeveloped.
Thorax
: Cervical sclerite flat, dull, microtrichose; proepisternum with a few long marginal ventral setae on posterior ½; katepisternum with double row of thin black setae, anterior row with only 5 setae, barely overlapping with lower end of posterior row; scutellum with 1 pair of marginal setae only, 1 small to minute seta between postalar and dorsocentral setae.
Wing
:
CuA
2
virtually at right angle to and in line with
bmcu
, wing membrane with a distinctly infuscated tip and a small, circular discal macula extending from just anterior to
R
4+5
to
M
; tegula, basicosta and stem vein brown, similar to adjacent wing base, stem vein dorsally microsetulose at base; wing base with 3 long costagial setae, inner one very long and inclinate.
Female abdomen
: Paired spermathecae elongate eggshaped, 1.9× as long as wide, with a constriction in basal ⅓, surface otherwise smooth, spermathecal duct densely covered with knoblike processes beyond the division of the common duct into 2 straight branches (
Fig. 1
). Single spermatheca on a much shorter and smaller duct, body densely covered with processes much like the paired spermathecal ducts.
Male abdomen
: Pleuron with large domelike differentiated area on segment 4 (occupying approximately ventral ¾ of pleuron 4); hypandrium with a very short anterior plate and strong posterodorsal arms connecting to phallic plate, dorsolateral margin of posterodorsal arm with a prominent lobe (
Fig. 5
). Basiphallus elongate and tapered posteriorly, extending well beyond base of distiphallus; postgonites equal, small and finely spinulose ventrally; distiphallus with tubular basal part bifurcating before transition into strongly dextrally recurved membranous distal part, apex with a finely spinulose glans (
Fig. 6
); ejaculatory apodeme slightly larger than epandrium; genital fork (sternite 5) with gap Yshaped at base (
Fig. 4
), inner surfaces of arms densely spinose and with a right-angled bend in the middle.
Figs 1–6.
Aristobatina metamelasma
sp. n.
: (1) spermathecae and bursa copulatrix; (2) female, dorsal view; male: (3) lateral view; (4) sternite 5; (5) terminalia, dorsolateral view; (6) terminalia, ventral view. Not to scale.
Holotype
♂
and
3♀
paratypes
:
TANZANIA
:
Uluguru Mountains
: “Tanganyika, Ulguru Mts,
1500–1800m
” (
CNCI
).
Comments: This species is closely related to
A. melasma
, from which it differs in spermathecal shape and sculpturing and in the pigmentation of the hind tarsus.