Tomosvaryella mathiesoni Földvari, Skevington & Motamedinia, 2023

Motamedinia, Behnam, Földvari, Mihaly, Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Kelso, Scott, 2023, Revision of Australian Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera: Pipunculidae) with description of 100 new species, Zootaxa 5599 (1), pp. 1-271 : 137-139

Tomosvaryella mathiesoni Földvari, Skevington & Motamedinia sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:DE65A684-80F0-40CE-8DAF-F334A69E7BBC

Figs 61A–E , 130

Diagnosis: This species can be recognized by the hind trochanter having a few short dark spines ventrobasally; elongated surstyli in dorsal view ( Fig. 61A ); extended gonopods towards surstyli in ventral view ( Fig. 61B ); phallic guide with some different-sized spines, longer one as wide as left surstylus in ventral view ( Fig. 61B ); membranous sheath covered by small hairs.

Description: MALE: Body length: 2.4–2.5 mm. Head. Flagellum acuminate; yellow. Face silvery pollinose. Frons, upper part shining black, lower part distinctly silver pollinose; eyes touching for distance equal to 2 times the length of ocellar triangle. Occiput silvery pollinose, less so on upper 1/3. Thorax. Postpronotum pale, with 4–5 distinct pale bristles. Mesonotum (viewed obliquely from front) brownish pollinose, anterior part silver pollinose; slightly grayish also from the side. Scutellum silver pollinose and with 4–7 weak bristles along the distal edge. Dorsocentral bristles developed, dark, longer on frontal part and numerous short dark bristles around postpronotum. Halter, knob pale, stem dark brown. Legs. Mid coxa with 2 bristles (one thicker). Trochanters and base of femora black, femora black, shining ventrally, silvery pollinose posteriorly except shiny hind femur; knees, basal 1/5 of tibiae yellow (otherwise dark brown), tarsal segments yellow ventrally, yellow-brown dorsally, last segment dorsally darker. Hind trochanter with a few short dark spines (5–7) ventrobasally; ventrobasal spines absent on fore and mid femora. Ventroapical row of spines on fore femur missing, 4–6 very short, black spines on mid femur; no spines on hind femur, only 14–16 pale bristles posteriorly, more frequent on distal half (as long as 1/2 the width of hind tibia at the distal end); hind tibia slightly bent at middle in posterior view. Subapical (distal) spines on first four tibiae absent. Hind metatarsus flattened (1 and 2 especially), first tarsomere slightly longer than 2, both metatarsus with dorsal row of bristles along the edges but missing in the middle. Pulvilli as long as 2/3 of last tarsal segment. Wing. Length: 2.5 mm. Upper side of basal costal cell with 1–3 long distinct bristles. Fourth costal section 2–2.5 times as long as third costal section. Cross-vein r-m at middle of discal cell. 3–4 dark setulae on tegula. Abdomen. Viewed obliquely from front tergites subshining black, tergite 1 silvery grey, sides silvery pollinose on tergites 4 and 5 (the latter with larger spots). Dispersed short dark bristles on tergites present, the longest on tergite 5 and ST8 and up to 0.5–07. times as long as width of hind tibia at base. Lateral bristles on first tergite present, 5–6 brown bristles up to as long as width of hind femur at distal tip. Postabdomen in dorsal view: T6, S7 invisible; T5 1–1.2 times as long as ST8. Genitalia without dissection:ST8 medium sized, brownish, hairy; membranous area slit-like, long; epandrium brown; surstyli paler, appear slim. Genitalia. Genital capsule in dorsal view: epandrium wider than long (MLE: MWE = 0.7). Surstyli rather asymmetrical, elongated, left slightly longer than right one ( Fig. 61A ), right surstylus with a depression ventromedially before apex. Genital capsule in ventral view: subepandrial sclerite covered with some transverse streaks in upper margin near surstyli; gonopods extended towards surstyli, left longer than right one, hypandrium with distinct hypandrial apodeme ( Fig. 61B ), phallic guide with 5–6 different-sized spines dorsolaterally (longer ones extended towards left surstylus), longer one is as wide as left surstylus, membranous sheath covered by small bristles. Genital capsule in lateral view: both surstyli curved towards sternite, moderately narrowed towards apical, right surstylus shorter and wider than left one ( Fig. 61D–E ); ejaculatory apodeme flat, sperm pump elongate, linear ( Fig. 61C ).

FEMALE: Unknown.

Etymology: This species is named in honour of Michael Mathieson. Michael introduced JHS to the type locality (Round Mountain) which proved to be an excellent location for sampling pipunculid diversity. Michael was also part of the team that collected both known specimens of this species. He has collected 9% of the known species of Tomosvaryella (Supplementary file 2).

Examined material: HOLOTYPE: AUSTRALIA. Queensland: Barakula State Forest No. 302, Summit Round Mountain , 26°22’S, 150°58’E, 8.i.2000, J.&A. Skevington & M. Mathieson, JSS7552 (1♂, QM) ; PARATYPE: AUSTRALIA: Queensland: same data as holotype, JSS7553 (1♂, QM) .

Distribution: Australia (Queensland) ( Fig. 130 ).

Notes: The only two known specimens of this species were caught hilltopping on Round Mountain. Intraspecific genetic distance is 0.0%. This species is genetically most similar to T. powerae sp. nov. (2.3% pairwise divergence) (Supplementary file 3).

Figures

FIGURE 61. Male genitalia of Tomosvaryella mathiesoni sp. nov. (JSS7552, QM) A) dorsal view, B) ventral view, C) ejaculatory apodeme, D, E) lateral view.

FIGURE 130. Distribution of Tomosvaryella luma sp. nov., T. mathiesoni sp. nov., T. melaleuca sp. nov. in Australia.