Blepharella sichuana Shima and Zhang, 2025

Shima, Hiroshi, Tachi, Takuji & Zhang, Wenxia, 2025, The genus Blepharella Macquart (Diptera: Tachinidae) from the Oriental Region, Journal of Natural History 59 (21 - 24), pp. 1647-1687 : 1675-1678

Blepharella sichuana Shima and Zhang sp. n.

( Figure 9 )

Diagnosis

A medium-sized dark goniine; head with greyish white pruinosity; vertex wide, 0.27–0.28 of head width; parafacial wide, 1.3–1.5 times as wide as postpedicel; antenna brown-black; palpus dark reddish brown; apical scutellar seta longer than scutellum, crossed suberectly; thoracic dorsum with thin greyish pruinosity; calypteres pale yellowish white; hind tibia with sparsely set dorsocentral setae, a strong subapical and submedian setae distinct among them; abdomen black, with thin whitish pruinosity on dorsa of 3rd and 4th tergites; male 4th abdominal tergite with rather weak sexual hair patches on ventrolateral portions.

Description

Holotype male. CHINA / Sichuan, Kangding / Xiang, Yulin , 3000/m, 20.viii.1993 / H. Shima ( IZCAS) . Paratype 1 male, China , Sichuan, Songpan Xiang, Huan-shang (2800 m), 8 . viii .1993, H. Shima ( KUM) .

Male. Fronto-orbital plate and parafacial with pale yellowish grey pruinosity; face with greyish white pruinosity; gena and occiput with greyish pruinosity; antenna brown-black; palpus dark reddish brown. Vertex 0.27–0.28 of head width; parafacial 1.3–1.5 times as wide as postpedicel at mid-height; face warped forward, distance between base of vibrissa and apex of lower margin of face in profile slightly less 1/2 length of pedicel; gena 0.35–0.38 of eye height; occiput weakly bulged. Inner vertical seta more than 2/3 of eye height; outer vertical seta indistinct; 2 reclinate orbital setae, anterior seta slightly stronger than posterior seta and about 2/3 as long as inner vertical seta; 10–12 frontal setae; fronto-orbital plate with fine long and rather dense hairs, not descending below lowest frontal seta; facial ridge with short setae on lower 1/4; gena with rather dense and long hairs, 2–3 longer setae mixed on antero-lower portion; occiput with a row of short black setulae behind a row of postocular setae on upper 1/2. Antenna falling short of lower margin of face by about 2/3 length of pedicel; postpedicel 3.0–3.5 times as long as pedicel; arista thickened on basal 1/4, 2nd aristomere slightly shorter than wide. Palpus weakly widened beyond middle, narrowed apically, subequal in length to postpedicel.

Thorax black in ground colour, scutellum reddish yellow on apical 1/3–1/2; thoracic dorsum with whitish-grey pruinosity, pruinosity dense on postpronotal lobe and anterior margin, then faded posteriorly and almost indistinct beyond posterior 1/3 of postsutural scutum, pleura with thin greyish pruinosity; 4 rather wide longitudinal vittae distinct on presutural area of scutum and anterior 1/2 of postsutural scutum, width of pruinose portion between inner and outer vittae on postsutural scutum subequal in width to outer vitta. A pair of suberect discal scutellar setae, slightly longer than scutellum, 3–5 slightly shorter erect setae present between discal scutellar setae; basal scutellar setae subequal in length to subapical setae, only slightly shorter than twice length of scutellum; lateral scutellar setae double, posterior seta distinctly longer than anterior seta and about 1.2 times as long as scutellum; apical scutellar setae strong, 1.5 times as long as scutellum, crossed suberectly; distance between bases of subapical scutellar setae subequal to that between basal and subapical setae of corresponding side; prosternum with some fine hairs on both sides. Wing hyaline, evenly tinged with pale brown; lower calypter whitish, margined with pale yellow; relative lengths of costal sectors 2nd, 3rd and 4th approximately 2:3:1.5; crossvein dm-cu weakly sinuate, only slightly longer than last section vein CuA1. Legs black, pulvilli pale brownish; mid-tibia with 3–5 anterodorsal setae; hind tibia with sparsely set row of anterodorsal setae, subapical, submedian and sub-basal setae stronger than others; claws and pulvilli longer than 5th tarsomeres.

Abdomen shining black, with rather thin whitish pruinosity on anterior 1/2–2/3 dorsal portion of 3rd and 4th tergites and sometimes antero-lateral portion of 5th tergite, pruinosity fading posteriorly on each tergite; venter with very thin whitish pruinosity on syntergite 1 + 2, 3rd and 5th tergites; ventrolateral 2/3 of 4th tergite with fine, short and rather sparse sexual hair patches; hairs on 3rd and 4th tergites dense short suberect to erect, those on 5th tergite longer, stronger and more erect; syntergite 1 + 2 with a pair of median marginal setae of almost 2/3 length of 3rd tergite; 3rd tergite with 1–2 pairs of median marginal setae, if 2 pairs present, then outer pair stronger and slightly longer than 4th tergite; 5th tergite with rather regularly set rows of discal and marginal setae and with some strong and erect hairs; 5th sternite with a distinct median excavation of anterior margin; median membranous area rather strongly curved posteriorly, median cleft narrow inverted V-shaped, lateral process with 1–2 strong hairs on posterior margin and some short hairs on inner margin and posterior portion.

Male terminalia. Sixth tergite reduced to very small hemitergites and very weakly sclerotised, sometimes indistinguishable; cerci in lateral view very weakly curved ventrally near apex, in dorsal view weakly narrowed to apex, narrowly separated from each other on apical 2/5; surstylus in lateral view broad at basal 3/4, then weakly narrowed to apex, with many fine short hairs on ventral 1/2; dorsal arms of hypandrium fused with each other, posterior 1/2 narrowly separated; pregonite short, with several hairs on posterior margin; epiphallus weakly sclerotised on ventrodistal portion; distiphallus separated from narrow dorsal sclerite and broad basal plates.

Female. Unknown. Body length: 8.8–9.8 mm.

Host. Unknown.

Etymology

The name is taken from the collecting area of the type species, Sichuan Province, China .

Distribution

Oriental China (Sichuan).

Remarks

Except for the colour of the body pruinosity, this species resembles B. flavipicta Shima and Zhang sp. n. in the body structure. The male terminalia of this species resemble those of B. flavipicta Shima and Zhang sp. n., but differ from the latter in the nearly parallel-sided cerci in dorsal view and broad ventral margin of the surstylus in lateral view. These,including the difference of the body pruinosity, are enough to consider these two different species.

Figures

Figure 9. Blepharella sichuana Shima and Zhang sp. n. (A) Adult male of B. sichuana in lateral view. (B) Same in dorsal view. (C) Epandrium, cerci and surstylus in latero-dorsal view. (D) Same in dorsal view. (E) Same in lateral view. (F) Same in lateral view. (G) Hyandrium, pre- and postgonites, epiphallus and aedeagus in lateral view. (H) Same in lateral view. Scale bars: 0.2 mm.