Nephochaetopteryx aurescens Dodge

(Fig. 3)

Nephochaetopteryx aurescens Dodge, 1968b: 423 (key), 436 (descriptions of male and female). Type locality: Panama, Canal Zone, Barro Colorado Island. Other references: Pape (1996: 259; catalog).

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE ♁ (SEMC): Barro Colorado I / Canal Zone Panama / 13.II.1956 No. / C.W. & M.E. Rettenmeyer [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label] // HOLOTYPE / Nephochaetopteryx / aurescens / Dodge [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label bordered with red]. [Holotype in good condition, with terminalia removed and glued to the specimen label.].

PARATYPE. ♁ (MNRJ): PANAMA-Canal Zone / Barro Colorado Is. / 22.IV.63 No. / CW & ME Rettenmeyer [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label] // Taken in / Malaise trap [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label] // Paratype [printed on rectangular green label] // Nephochaeto. / aurescens / PARATYPE / Det. H. R. Dodge [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label bordered with black]. [Paratype in good condition, with terminalia (including sternite 5) cleared and preserved in glycerin in a microvial pinned beneath the specimen.]

Redescription. Male. Length = 6.0–7.0 mm (n = 2).

Head. Fronto-orbital and parafacial plates with golden microtomentum. Postocular strip with silvery microtomentum. Frontal vitta black, with basal half reddish. Four frontal setae. Gena and postgena with silvery microtomentum. Palpus yellow.

Thorax. Chaetotaxy: dorsocentrals 2+4 (first two weak); intra-alars 2+3; supra-alars 2+3, notopleurals 1, subprimary; anepisternals 6; merals 5. Mid femur with two median setae and with a differentiated posteroventral seta. Ctenidium consisting of three spines. Wing hyaline; vein R 4+5 setulose dorsally to crossvein r-m.

Abdomen. Tergites brown with a band of golden microtomentum on anterior 4/5 of dorsal and lateral surfaces. Sternites 1 to 3 yellow and sternite 4 brown, covered with yellowish setulae and with marginal setae.

Terminalia. Sternite 5 brown, longer than wide; cleft shallow; lobe rectangular and with a tuft of short setulae, with outer lateral margin fused with arm; arm short, with rounded apex projected posteriorly. Sternite 5 with small setulae restricted to posterior half (Fig. 3E). Syntergosternite 7+8, epandrium and cercus brown. Cercus short, tapering distally in lateral view, with a rectangular apex (Fig. 3A). Cercal prongs parallel and separated (Fig. 3B). Distal portion and outer lateral margin of cercus without setulae (Figs 3 A–B). Surstylus almost triangular, with rounded apex without setulae on margins and with few, scattered, small and slender setae (Fig. 3A). Pregonite elongate, with rounded apex and pointed setae on posterior margin (Fig. 3C). Postgonite conical, with pointed apex and a long seta and small pointed setae on anterior margin (Fig. 3D). Basiphallus quadrangular and short, about half as long as distiphallus. Distiphallus widened, with rounded apical surface, some small spines basally on apical margin, and some cuticular spines laterally (Fig. 3F). Ventral margin of distiphallus with two prominent, pointed projections curved in a basal direction (Fig. 3F). Vesica angled, with a quadrate apex. Inner process of vesica widened and curved (Fig. 3F). Lateral and median styli short, of about one-fourth of width of widest portion of lateral wall of distiphallus (Fig. 3F).

Female. Unknown. Dodge (1968d) described one female specimen from Panama as N. aurescens only because it had a yellow palpus. However, since this is a relatively common feature in Nephochaetopteryx, this specimen may not be the female of N. aurescens, and thus the female of this species is not redescribed here.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL—Panama (Panama).

Remarks. This species differs from others in the genus in having distiphallus with cuticular spines proximally on dorsal margin and male sternite 5 with the outer lateral margin of the lobe fused with the arm.