Parapterogramma continentalis ( Hayashi, 2013 ), 2025

Kuwahara, Gregory K., Marshall, Stephen A. & Luk, Stephen P. L., 2025, A revision of Parapterogramma Papp and Pseudopterogramma Papp, with a review of the Parapterogramma genus group of the Pacific and Indomalayan regions (Diptera, Sphaeroceridae, Limosininae), European Journal of Taxonomy 998, pp. 1-124 : 18-19

Parapterogramma continentalis ( Hayashi, 2013) comb. nov.

Minialula continentalis Hayashi, 2013: 351 , figs 1, 3–7.

Type material

Holotype

THAILAND • ♂; Chiang Mai, Doi Inthanon ; 1900 m a.s.l.; 21 Oct. 2001; T. Hayashi leg.; NIID.

Paratypes

NEPAL – Bagmati • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Gokarna, Kathmandu; 9 Oct. 1992; T. Hayashi leg.; NIID .

THAILAND – Chiang Mai • 12 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀; same collection data as for holotype; 1700–1900 m a.s.l.; 21–23 Oct 2001; NIID .

VIETNAM – Vinh Phu • 5 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀; Tam Dao ; 930–1230 m a.s.l.; 21–27 Sep. 1995; H. Kurahashi leg.; NIID • 7 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for preceding; 8–10 Oct. 1998; T. Hayashi leg.; NIID .

Material examined

No specimens of M. continentalis were examined.

Redescription

BODY. Length 1.1–1.5 mm.Head dark brown with lower portion of frons lighter and silvery microtomentum on interfrontal plates, ocellar triangle, orbital plates, and occiput; gena brown; antenna dark brown. Thorax dark brown, sides with three indistinct horizontal stripes. Scutum with pale grey and brown microtomentum forming four pale longitudinal stripes. Anterior dorsocentral bristles separated by 7–8 rows of acrostichal setulae. Legs dark brown, femora proximally paler, fore and hind basitarsomeres whitish. Mid tibia with two anterodorsal and two posterodorsal bristles on proximal half; male mid tibia with long apicoventral bristle only. Wing pattern strong. CS2 0.5× CS3. R 2+3 distinctly sinuate, angled at ~60° to costa; costa extending just beyond apex of R 4+5 (~1 × costal width). M 1 extending beyond dm-m as a dark pseudovein, M 4 indistinct beyond dm-m; CuA+CuP long and tubular. Halter pale brown with dark stem.

MALE ABDOMEN. S5 broad, uniformly long-setose, slightly projecting posteromedially with a small medial emargination. S6 with a posteriorly-projecting setulose lobe located behind posteromedial emargination of S5. Surstylus long but low, bilobed: anterior lobe elongate, bare, and curved posteroventrally into a V-shape, posterior lobe rounded and setose. Postgonite short but broad, bent at about midlength, apical half with an anterodorsal triangular lobe and two posteroventral triangular lobes flanking a rounded ventral emargination (exaggerating depth of emargination), apex pointed. Phallapodeme elongate, apex truncate; basiphallus large, triangular in lateral view and V-shaped in dorsal view, with an elongate, apically rounded and downturned epiphallus. Distiphallus stout, largely membranous, supported by curled, weakly sclerotized lateral sclerites.

FEMALE ABDOMEN. Presumably as described for Pa. poeciloptera below (abdominal characters other than spermatheca not described in Hayashi 2013). Spermathecae stout, subspherical, and smooth with a large, broad but not deep, apical invagination, stem short and membranous.

Distribution

Indomalayan: Nepal ( Hayashi 2013), Thailand ( Hayashi 2013), Vietnam ( Hayashi 2013).

Remarks

The above redescription of Pa. continentalis ( Hayashi, 2013) is based on Hayashi’s (2013) description of the species.

This species, along with Pa. poeciloptera and Pa. tropicalis ( Hayashi, 2013) , forms a distinct clade of very similar species formerly treated as Minialula (see above). Parapterogramma continentalis is externally almost identical to Pa. tropicalis , from which it differs by the posteromedially emarginate male S5 and the pointed apex of the postgonite. Both of these species can be separated from Pa. poeciloptera by the stout (rather than hair-like) apicoventral bristle on the male mid tibia.