Eoneria blanchardi Aczél, 1951

Gomes, Lucas R. P., Sepúlveda, Tatiana A. & Pedraza-Lara, Carlos, 2023, Neriidae (Diptera: Schizophora) from Mexico: new species, new records and an identification key, Zootaxa 5264 (1), pp. 27-46 : 34

Eoneria blanchardi Aczél, 1951

( Figs 1B , 2C , 8B )

Diagnosis. Head elongate, twice as long as antenna and dorsally straight. Arista dorso-apical. Inner process of pedicel triangular and narrow. Antennal base clothed with a dense pruinescence and consequently opaque. Three fronto-orbital setae. Vibrissa present. Gena and postgena wide and ventrally rounded, with a set of yellow setulae posteriorly. Parafacial wide and anteriorly rounded. Two well-developed notopleural setae. Pleuron with grey pruinescence. Scutum with five to eight presutural and postsutural dorsocentral setae that vary in size.

Material examined. Mexico. Querétaro. Barranca de Cocheros, San Juan del Río [20.332986, -100.094675], 1-29.x.2019, S. Rodríguez, C. Pedraza, E. Nuple, L. García, 3 females (2 CNIN, 1 CARF) .

Distribution. Mexico * (Querétaro), Venezuela, Brazil (Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraíba, Pernambuco), Paraguay, Argentina (Jujuy, Chaco, Corrientes, La Rioja) ( Braga et al. 2017, Sepúlveda & Souza 2020).

Remarks. For a long time, Eoneria species were know exclusively from southern South America ( Paraguay, Argentina (Jujuy, Chaco, Catamarca, Corrientes, La Rioja )). More recently, new specimens have been recorded from Venezuela and Brazil (Paraíba, Pernambuco, Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul) (Sepúlveda et al. 2013; Braga et al. 2017; Sepúlveda & Souza 2019). Our record from Mexico is the northernmost record of the species, indicating that its distribution may not only be wide in South America, but also in Central America. In addition, the genus Eoneria is closely related to the unique Neriidae fossil genus described, found in the Mexican amber ( Palaeonerius Sepúlveda & Gomes ). This affinity is based mainly on the characters of the Eoneria -group, which include the presence of well-developed setae on head and thorax (e. g. occipital, discal scutellar, and anterior notopleural setae), a pruinose antennal base, and the lack of strong and short setae positioned at the marginal protuberance on syntergite 1 + 2 ( Sepúlveda & Gomes 2021).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Cerantichir enderleini Hennig, 1937, male, dorsal view (A); Eoneria blanchardi Aczél, 1951, female, dorsal view (B); Glyphidops durus (Cresson, 1926), female, dorsal view (C), and male, abdomen (D); Glyphidops filosus (Fabricius 1805), male, head (E); Glyphidops flavifrons (Bigot, 1886), female, abdomen (F), and male, dorsal (G); Nerius plurivittatus Bigot, 1886, male, dorsal (H); Odontoloxozus longicornis (Coquillett, 1904), male, lateral (I). Scale bars: 1 mm.

FIGURE 2. Habitus in lateral view. Cerantichir enderleini Hennig, 1937, male (A) and female (B); Eoneria blanchardi Aczél, 1951, female (C); Glyphidops durus (Cresson, 1926), male (D) and female (E); Glyphidops filosus (Fabricius 1805), male (F) and female (G). Scale bars = 1 mm.

FIGURE 8. Distribution records of Neriidae in Mexico: Cerantichir enderleini Hennig, 1937 and Cerantichir mexicana sp. nov. (A); Eoneria blanchardi Aczél, 1951 and Eoneria ramirezi sp. nov. (B); Odontoloxozus longicornis (Coquillett, 1904) and Odontoloxozus pachycericola Mangan & Baldwin, 1986 (C); Glyphidops durus (Cresson, 1926) and G. filosus (Fabricius, 1805) (D); G. flavifrons (Bigot, 1886) and G. xanthopus (Schiner, 1868) (E); Nerius pilifer Fabricius, 1805, N. plurivittatus Bigot, 1886, and N. purpusianus Enderlein, 1922 (F). Circle= literature records. Star= new records.