Blepharoneura species

Norrbom, Allen L. & Condon, Marty, 2010, Revision of the femoralis group of Blepharoneura Loew (Diptera: Tephritidae) 2374, Zootaxa 2374 (1), pp. 1-139 : 55-56

Blepharoneura species near brevivittata

Figs. 21–22

Diagnosis. This species is among the Blepharoneura species with the apical part of the wing obliquely banded, without marginal hyaline marks in cell r2+3, although the subapical band is very narrowly separated from the costa anteriorly in that cell, and it might therefore be confused with B. unifasciata , in which the band reaches the margin. It differs from the other obliquely banded species by the following combination of characters: vertex with brown spot or band surrounding medial vertical seta; anepisternum and scutellum without brown markings; scutum with pair of presutural submedial brown vittae, without lateral vittae, and without brown markings posteriorly; cell c with 2 distinct subrectangular hyaline spots, both reaching costa and subcosta; pterostigma with subapical hyaline spot; hyaline marks in cell m not extending into cell r4+5, and r4+5 without aligned spots.

Description. Head: Dark brown area on ocellar tubercle extended more than half distance to postocellar seta. Medial vertical seta in ovoid dark brown area mostly posteromesal to seta. Occipital suture narrowly orange brown.

Thorax: Scutum with pair of dark red brown submedial, presutural vittae, extended to slightly beyond transverse suture. Posterior margin without brown marks. Scutellum nonmicrotrichose except posterior to dorsocentral seta and laterally, entirely yellow. Subscutellum, mediotergite and pleuron entirely yellow. Basalare entirely yellow. Dorsocentral seta aligned slightly posterior to postalar seta.

Legs: Entirely yellow.

Wing ( Figs. 21–22 ): Length 5.45–5.84 mm, width 2.77–2.97 mm, ratio 1.96–1.97. Crossvein r-m at 0.52– 0.56 distance from bm-cu to dm-cu. Cell c with 2 subrectangular hyaline spots, both reaching costa and subcosta; medial brown area slightly to distinctly paler than area of cell r1 posterior to pterostigma, as broad as to distinctly narrower than hyaline spots. Pterostigma with large subapical hyaline spot [#3] reaching R1. Cells r1 and r2+3 basally (proximal to apex of R1) without hyaline spots. Radial cells medially with tapering basal marginal hyaline mark [#5] in cell r1 and aligned spot [#8] in r2+3, forming acute triangular to nipple-shaped mark, extended to R4+5; cell r4+5 with small spot [#14], extended less than halfway across cell, slightly isolated and aligned with r1 mark or partially touching it and slightly more distal; cell r2+3 sometimes with second, slightly more distal, small hyaline spot [#9], touching R4+5 but not reaching R2+3; cell r4+5 with medial hyaline spot [#15] near anterior end of dm-cu small to moderate sized. Distally cell r1 without hyaline spots [#6] (Peruvian ♂) or with only posterior hyaline spot (Brazilian ♂). Cell r2+3 without marginal hyaline marks. Cell r4+5 with hyaline band from posteroapical margin, extending almost to vein R2+3 and in anterior half of r2+3 almost reaching costa so that brown margin distinctly narrower than along vein R4+5. Cell m with 2 marginal hyaline marks, proximal mark [#27] extending halfway to vein M or fused to anterior spots [#26, #26A] to form band extending to vein M, distal mark [at least #29] extending to vein M. Cell br with subbasal hyaline spot [#12]. Cell bm with or without circular subbasal hyaline spot [#19], with subapical spot [#20]. Posteromedial part of wing with 3 elongate hyaline marks or series of aligned marks; cell br with subapical hyaline spot [#13] and sometimes (Brazilian ♂) with more proximal small posterior hyaline spot [#44]; cell dm with elongate subbasal hyaline mark [fused #51, #52], in Brazilian male aligned with more proximal spot [#44] in cell br and proximal spot in cell cu1 [#31]; cell dm also with small anterior hyaline spot [#21] and broader posterior spot [#22, #23, #24] (1 wing of Peruvian ♂) or larger hyaline mark [fused #21, #22, #23, #24] broader posteriorly, aligned anteriorly with subapical spot in cell br [#13], in Brazilian male connected posteriorly to subbasal mark; cell cu1 with (Brazilian ♂) or without small anterior proximal hyaline spot [#31], medially with 2 elongate hyaline bands, more proximal one [fused #32, #34, #39] crossing vein A1+Cu2 and aligned with (Brazilian ♂) or almost with (Peruvian ♂) proximal part of more distal mark in cell dm, distal band [including #33, #36] sometimes not reaching vein Cu1 anteriorly (1 wing of Peruvian ♂), aligned with distal part of distal mark in dm, bands together with distal mark in dm forming or almost forming inverted-V or Y shaped mark; subapical marginal hyaline mark [#37] small or absent or narrow and elongate. Cell dm with subapical hyaline spot [#25] small to moderate sized, sometimes (Brazilian ♂) extended to vein M.

Abdomen: Mostly yellow. Tergites 4 and 5 (Peruvian ♂) or 3–5 (Brazilian ♂) with pair of broad red brown to dark brown submedial vittae or rows of spots, not extended to lateral margin except at posterolateral corner of tergite 5; markings solid brown, without yellow spots within them, broadly separated medially, with tapering, straight margins; lateral margins of tergites without brown markings.

Male terminalia: Medial surstylus with prensisetae separated by several times width of medial prensiseta, medial prensiseta on long lobe, lateral prensiseta subequal to medial prensiseta.

Distribution. Lowland areas of Brazil (Pará) and Peru (Madre de Dios).

Specimens examined. BRAZIL: Pará: Santarém, 1♂ ( CMP USNMENT00213932 ) . PERU: Madre de Dios: Manu, Río Manu, Pakitza , 12°07'S 70°58'W, 250 m, 9–23 Sep 1988, A. Freidberg, 1♂ ( USNM USNMENT00213931 ) .

Remarks. It is possible that the two examined males are variant specimens of B. brevivittata . They are similar to that species in wing pattern, especially to the Peruvian female, in the markings of cells dm and cu1 and m and r4+5. They differ from B. brevivittata in having distinct hyaline marks in cell c separated by a medial brown area and in lacking brown markings posteriorly on the scutum, although it should be noted that the posterior scutal mark is narrow and interrupted in the Peruvian female of B. brevivittata , which also is the only specimen of that species lacking brown markings on the subscutellum and mediotergite. They also have a subapical hyaline spot in cell dm [#25] which is usually absent in B. brevivittata . We are uncertain whether they represent an undescribed species without having clearly associated female specimens. The male from Brazil is in poor condition.

Figures

FIGURES 16–25. Wing: 16, B. bivittata (Costa Rica: S Upala, USNMENT00213822); 17–20, B. brevivittata (Costa Rica: Golfo Dulce, USNMENT00048492, USNMENT0000048516; Panama: Cano Saddle, USNMENT00213935; Peru: Tingo Maria, USNMENT00213533); 21–22, B. sp. nr. brevivittata (Peru: Pakitza, USNMENT00213931; Brazil: Santarém, USNMENT00213932); 23–24, B. chaconi (Costa Rica: San Gerardo, USNMENT00048385–86); 25, B. cornelli (holotype).