Tomosvaryella creagra Motamedinia, Skevington & Földvari, 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 : 65-67

Tomosvaryella creagra Motamedinia, Skevington & Földvari sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:182BD887-AAAC-4F6C-924B-F5CD4DBA14DA

Figs 26A–D , 119

Diagnosis: This species can be recognized by the shape of its surstyli in dorsal view, straight in the basal half, falciform in the apical half ( Fig. 26A ); gonopods extended towards surstyli; phallic guide with three equal-sized dorsolateral downward-directed spines; subepandrial sclerite and hypandrial apodeme distinct in ventral view ( Fig. 26B ); phallic guide widened at the middle and sinuous in lateral view ( Fig. 26C–D ).

Description: MALE: Body length: 2.5 mm (from head to first segment of abdomen). Head. Scape and pedicel dark brown. Face silvery pollinose. Frons, upper part shining black; lower part distinctly silver pollinose; eyes touching for distance equal to 1–1.2 times the length of ocellar triangle. Occiput grey pollinose, covered by short dark bristles. Thorax. Postpronotum light yellow, with 2–6 distinct light brown bristles. Mesonotum (viewed obliquely from front) silvery pollinose, anterior part greyer; scutum with scattered bristles at anterior supra-alar area. Postalar callus light brown with 3–4 brown bristles in upper margin. Scutellum black, silvery pollinose with 8–10 bristles along distal edge. Halter, knob pale, stem brown. Legs. Mid coxa with two dark bristles. Trochanters brown, femora dark brown, shining ventrally, knees and basal 1/4 of tibiae yellow (tibiae otherwise brown), tarsal segments yellow ventrally and brown dorsally, last segment darker. Hind trochanter silvery pollinose, without specific feature; ventrobasal spines absent on fore and mid femur, two rows ventroapical present. Hind femur without ventroapical spines. Tibiae with two rows of short black bristle on anterior and three rows on posterior side. Hind tarsomeres distinctly flattened (especially tarsomeres 1–3), hind metatarsus as long as 2–4 combined; posterior corners with distinct bristles on all tarsomeres. Pulvilli shorter than last tarsal segment. Wing. Length: 3.5 mm. Upper side of basal costal cell with one long dark brown bristle. Fourth costal section 1.5–2 times as long as third costal section. Cross-vein r-m at middle of discal cell. 1–2 short dark setulae on tegula. Abdomen. Dissected except tergite 1. Tergites 1 dark, silvery pollinose. Lateral bristles on first tergite present, 6–10 dark bristles up to as long as 3/4 hind femur’s width at base, distributed from lateral to its middle. Genitalia. Genital capsule in dorsal view: epandrium longer than wide (MLE:MWE = 1.2). Surstyli symmetrical, basal half straight, small depression ventromedially, apical half falciform ( Fig. 26A ). Genital capsule in ventral view: gonopods equal in height, both gonopods extended towards surstyli; phallic guide with three same sized dorsolateral downward spines; subepandrial sclerite wide and distinct with a crescent-shaped wrinkle in its center; hypandrial apodeme long and distinct ( Fig. 26B ); Genital capsule in lateral view: both surstyli widened and rather rounded at basal two thirds, narrowed and curved towards sternite at apical third; phallic guide widened at the middle and sinuous ( Fig. 26C–D ). FEMALE: unknown.

Etymology: From the Greek kreagra, meathook, in reference to the hooked surstyli.

Examined material: HOLOTYPE: AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Pine Hill, Cape Arid N [ational] P[ark], Balladonia Road , 33°18’S, 123°22’E, 130m, mallee woodland, 31.X–18.XI.2003, C. Lambkin & J. Recsei, Malaise trap, JSS15595 (1♂, WAM).

Distribution: Australia (Western Australia) ( Fig. 119 ).

Notes: The only known specimen was collected in mallee woodland in Cape Arid National Park. This species is genetically most similar to T. irwini sp. nov. (8.2% pairwise divergence) (Supplementary file 3).

Figures

FIGURE 26. Male genitalia of Tomosvaryella creagra sp. nov. (JSS15595, WAM) A) dorsal view, B) ventral view, C, D) lateral view.

FIGURE 119. Distribution of Tomosvaryella creagra sp. nov., T. danielsi sp. nov., T. exigua sp. nov. in Australia.