Amblypsilopus amnoni, Bickel, 2019

Bickel, Daniel J., 2019, The Amblypsilopus amnoni and megastoma groups in New Guinea (Diptera: Dolichopodidae: Sciapodinae), Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 49 (2), pp. 195-214 : 200-202

Amblypsilopus amnoni n. sp.

( Figs 1, 2)

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:136F3F3B-1BF2-43D0-8ED4-7BE598746D6E .

Etymology: The species is named in honor of Amnon Freidberg, for his contributions to the study of the Tephritoidea and to me personally as a most valued referee for Zootaxa manuscripts.

Description: Male. Length 4.3 mm, wing 4.5× 1.4 mm ( Fig. 1).

Head. Vertex, frons, face and clypeus mostly metallic blue-green, with a dusting of fine yellowish pruinosity; row of short white orbital setae and strong white postvertical seta; strong diverging ocellar setae and pair short posterior hairs on ocellar tubercle; short black vertical seta on lateral slope of vertex; upper face slightly bulging, distal face and clypeus laterally with yellowish cuticle; palp yellow with yellow setae; proboscis pale yellow; antenna mostly yellow with dark brown arista; scape short; pedicel with subapical coronal of short black setae and with strong dorsal seta, ventral seta absent; postpedicel subtriangular with apical arista, length almost twice head height, and simple; ventral postcranium with white setae.

Thorax. Entirely metallic blue-green with bronze reflections, with yellowish cuticle along sutures, and with dusting of grey pruinosity, denser over pleura; metepimeron infuscated; setae black; 2 pairs of long posterior ac, with shorter pair anteriormost; 2 strong posterior dc and 4 weak hair like dc anteriad (MSSC); 1 pa, only 1 sa, only 1 sr, 2 npl, 1 hm, and 1 pm; median scutellar setae strong, laterals absent.

Legs. CI, all trochanters, femora, tibiae, and basal tarsomeres yellow, with distal tarsomeres becoming infuscated, and as noted below; CII and CIII brownish basally, becoming yellow distally; CI with 3 pale yellow distolateral setae and white hairs: CII with white anterior hairs; CIII with pale yellow lateral seta at ⅓; legs with short black vestiture; I: 5.0, 6.3, 6.6/2.0/1.5/0.5/0.7; FI slightly swollen in basal third; TI slightly bowed, and with pale posterior seta at ⅚ (MSSC), It 1 elongate, subequal to TI; It 5 black, flattened and expanded into apical pinnate flag (MSSC); II: 5.0, 8.0, 7.0/1.6/1.5/0.7/0.4; FII with short sUbapical pv seta; TII with short ad setae at ⅒, ¼, ½ and ¾, and with shorter pd at ⅒, ⅓, ½ and ¾, with apical corona of ad, av, pv and dorsal setae at ⅘; III: 7.0, 12.3, 5.8/2.3/1.5/1.0/0.5; TIII with strong ad at ⅛, short av setae, 4 short spaced anterior setae along distal two-thirds, 5 spaced short dorsal seta along length, and with corona of short ad, av, and pv apical setae; IIIt 1 with pair short ventral setae near base.

Wing. Hyaline, elongate; vein M 1 in right-angled arch M 1 to approach R 4+5 and join costa anterior to wing apex; dm–cu straight; CuAx ratio 1.5; lower calypter pale yellow with fan of pale yellow setae; haltere yellow.

Abdomen. Tergite 1 metallic blue green; tergites 2–5 mostly yellow, but brown anteriorly near tergal overlap, and with metallic blue-green coloration along posterior third with dark brown border before tergal edge; tergite 6 basally metallic blue-green; tergite 7 brown but ventrally yellow, preabdomen with short black vestiture and longer setae near posterior tergal margins; sternite 8 pale yellow; hypopygium ( Fig. 2) basally pale yellow but distally brown, with yellow surstylus, phallus and cercus; epandrium subrectangular; surstylus curved and narrow, sickle-like, shorter than length of epandrium, and with some fine hairs subapically; cercus short, digitiform, only slightly swollen basally and unbranched with pale yellow hairs.

Female. Similar to male, except as noted: head setae black; vertical seta strong; face not bulging, metepimeron distinctly yellow; 2 strong dc posteriorly, with 2–3 weaker anterior hair-like dc; TI bare, straight lacking ventral pile; TI distinctly longer than It 1; tarsus I unmodified; IIIt 1 also with pair short ventral setae near base.

Holotype: ♂ Papua New Guinea: Western Province, SE slope of Mt Arik (= Ian), NW of TabUbil, 5.10°S 141.09°E, 1625 m, 6–12.iv.1994, R.B. Lachlan ( AMS).

Paratypes: 1♂ 1♀, same as holotype; 1♂, same bUt 1–4.iv.1994; 1♀, 16–20.iii.1993 ( AMS) .

Remarks: Amblypsilopus amnoni is known only from the rainforest type locality near 1600 m at Tabubil, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Males have a long basitarsus I and leg I tarsomere 5 is modified into a black pinnate flag, and the cercus is short, slightly curved and unbranched.