Aptilotella corona Luk & Marshall, 2014

Luk, Stephen P. L. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A revision of the New World genus Aptilotella Duda (Sphaeroceridae: Limosininae), Zootaxa 3761 (1), pp. 1-156 : 31

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.3761.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:82E0F1DC-BC98-4E8A-A3D5-21ECB392CC0B

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4909113

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038487F1-FFBB-FFAD-FDC7-FEBCFC080AC3

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Aptilotella corona Luk & Marshall
status

sp. nov.

Aptilotella corona Luk & Marshall , sp. n.

Figures 31–33 View FIGURES 31–32 View FIGURE 33 , and 187–198

Description. Habitus as in Figures 31 and 32 View FIGURES 31–32 . Body length 1.5–1.7 mm. Head ( Fig. 198 View FIGURES 194–198 ) ground color yelloworange. Frons finely rugose; pale areas silvery; dark brown medial stripes each about one-fourth the width of frons, outer border orange; dark brown orbital stripes each half the width of medial stripe, continuing into ocular emargination. Ocellar tubercle slightly raised; ocelli present; ocellar bristle two-fifths the length of frons. Orbital bristle present; orbital setulae minute, in three pairs. Interfrontal setae yellow, in two pairs. Face shining; facial excavation with a pair of elliptical silver spots, smaller in females; clypeus brown; gena weakly shining, dark brown except along ocular margin, which is silvery in its posterior half. Antenna orange. Scutum and scutellum reddish-brown, shining. Scutum uniformly setose. Scutellum darker, bare; flat, twice wider than long, 0.6 times the width of scutum. Scutellar bristles subequal in length. Pleuron reddish-brown. Legs dark reddish-brown; front tibia orange; tarsi paler; mid tibia with two anterodorsal and one distal posterodorsal bristle. Male mid leg modified: mid femur ventrobasally with a row of stout setae; tibia apicoventrally with a stout, peg-like seta. Wing rudiment brown. Abdomen black, shining; tergites each with two rows of yellow setae; sternites and epandrium finely microtrichose. Epandrium and synsternite 6+7 dark reddish-brown; cercus and surstylus yellow.

Male terminalia. Sternite 5 ( Figs. 33 View FIGURE 33 , 190 View FIGURES 187–190 ) irregularly emarginate in posteromedial third; margins bulging and bearing five claw-like setae in two rows, flanked by long and short setae. Synsternite 6+7 as in Figure 189 View FIGURES 187–190 . Tab-like piece ( Figs. 33 View FIGURE 33 , 189 View FIGURES 187–190 ) very dark and two-pronged, consisting of two diverging flukes rising medially from a subpentagonal, scalloped plate. Cercus ( Figs. 33 View FIGURE 33 , 187, 188 View FIGURES 187–190 ) 2.5 times as long as basal width; interior and exterior margin of base excavated; outer margin medially with a seta about half as long as the cercus; apical third bearing four sensory setae. Surstylus ( Figs. 33 View FIGURE 33 , 187, 188 View FIGURES 187–190 ) lunate; outer face anteriorly expanded into a convex, rounded rectangular plate; lower half setose. Postgonite ( Figs. 33 View FIGURE 33 , 192 View FIGURES 191–193 ) curved; descending arm straight, gradually tapering, basally with three sensory setae; articulatory process for pregonite undeveloped, obtuse; articulatory process for basiphallus short-stalked, knobbed with anterior bump. Hypandrium ( Fig. 192 View FIGURES 191–193 ) with medial rod straight and apically rounded; posteromedial fork narrow and divergent; hypandrial arms oblong, the left arm broader; pregonite clavate, two-thirds length of hypandrial arm. Aedeagus as in Figure 191 View FIGURES 191–193 . Basiphallus compressed, strongly arched, flared at articulation with distiphallus; articulatory process for postgonite spatulate and erect. Ventrobasal sclerite divided. Lateral flanking sclerites broadly fused ventrobasally; dorsal margins widely spaced, meeting only in basal fifth. Ventral flanking sclerites with a hatchet-shaped and heavily sclerotized club-shaped sclerite, wearing a suspended crown of strong denticles; the triangular medial article bearing a prominent dorsal arm which narrows in the apical third; the membranous distal article broad, distally curling in on itself, interior margin projected into a triangular ascending lobe. Medial paired sclerites originating distally to the bend of the club-shaped sclerite, slender portion convergent and ascending, with a ventral preapical dilation.

Female terminalia. Epiproct apparently absent. Each half of tergite 8 ( Figs. 194, 195 View FIGURES 194–198 ) rectangular, weakly convex; margin creased to align tightly dorsally; setose. Tergite 7 ( Fig. 194 View FIGURES 194–198 ) less sclerotized in posteromedial third, resulting in a paler, medially pointed, lunate area. Cercus 2.5 times as long as wide; with one long apical seta and several scattered setae. Hypoproct ( Figs. 195, 196 View FIGURES 194–198 ) indistinct with faint parenthesis-shaped margin; medially with two discs, each densely microtrichose and with two setae. Spermathecae ( Fig. 197 View FIGURES 194–198 ) simple; length of sclerotized ducts less than twice the diameter of a spermatheca.

Variation. One aberrant specimen has two orbital bristles on one side of the frons. The mid femur is orange in some specimens. Teneral specimens have a uniformly brown body.

Etymology. The species epithet describes the “crown-of-thorns” on the club-shaped sclerite of the distiphallus.

Type material. Holotype ♂, DEBU. GUATEMALA: 7 km N San Lorenzo , 2000 m, 10–17.vi.1993, dung, B.D. Gill.

Paratypes. GUATEMALA: Zacapa, 5 mi N San Lorenzo , 13.vii.1986, flight intercept trap, J.M. Campbell (♀, DEBU) ; 5 mi W, 18.vii.1986, sifted piles of pine, J.M. Campbell (♀, DEBU) ; same label as holotype (14♂, 22♀, DEBU; 4♂, 4♀, UVGC) ; Cerro de los Monos , 15°6’48”N, 89°40’41”W, 2284 m, 6.vii.2007, mixed oak-cloud forest, ex. sifted leaf litter, R.S. Anderson (♀, DEBU) GoogleMaps .

Comments. Aptilotella corona is a readily recognizable member of the A. corona species group, with a reddish-brown thorax and a pair of elliptical silver spots on the facial excavation. The distiphallus is equally distinctive due to the crown of large denticles on the club-shaped sclerite.

DEBU

Ontario Insect Collection, University of Guelph

UVGC

Collecion de Artropodos

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Sphaeroceridae

Genus

Aptilotella

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