Lepidodexia deborarangoa, Buenaventura & Valverde-Castro & Wolff, 2021

Buenaventura, Eliana, Valverde-Castro, César & Wolff, Marta, 2021, New carrion-visiting flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) from tropical dry forests of Colombia and their phylogenetic affinities, Acta Tropica 213, pp. 1-14 : 5-6

Lepidodexia deborarangoa sp. nov.

( Fig. 3 )

Type material. Holotype ♂ (deposited at CEUA): Co [ Colombia] bl [Bolívar department] Villa Nueva Finca El Peligro / Bosque seco [ dry forest ] 10̊25′57.59′'N / 75̊14′52.01′'W 302 m VSR [Van Someren-Rydon trap] fruta [fermented fruit] noche [night] / 18 Ago 2010 C. Valverde CEUA / 85,082 [hand written] // [red label] HOLOTYPE ♂ / Lepidodexia / deborarangoa Buenaventura , / Valverde-Castro & Wolff, 2020. [Holotype missing anterior legs and mid left leg, left wing broken on costal vein; male terminalia dry-mounted and glued on a squared piece of card and pinned under the source specimen.]

Diagnosis. Amedium-sized species with the following unique combination of character states in the male: wing veins R1 and R4+5 with dorsal setae; wing vein CuA1 bare dorsally; surstylus finger-shaped and slightly longer than half the length of the cercal prong; vesica bipartite with a C-shaped medial section with lateral ends curving inwards with hook-like tips.

Description. Male. Total length 6.9 mm (n = 1).

Head. Fronto-orbital and parafacial plates with golden microtrichosity and postocular strip with golden microtrichosity; parafacial plate bare. Frontal vitta reddish. Frons with a row of six frontal setae. Outer vertical seta differentiated from postocular setae and shorter than inner vertical seta. Gena and postgena blackish with silver microtrichosity; gena with blackish setulosity; postgena with blackish setulosity anteriorly and yellowish setulosity posteriorly. Antenna brown; pedicel length more than twice its width; arista long and plumose on three basal fourths. Proboscis dark brown. Palpus blackish.

Thorax. Black in ground color, entirely covered in silver microtrichosity, interrupted by three longitudinal equibroad black vittae. Chaetotaxy: Acrostichals 0 + 1 (hair-like), dorsocentrals 2 + 3, intra-alars 1 + 2, supra-alars 1 + 2, postpronotals 2, postalars 2, notopleurals 4 (2 long primaries and 2 shorter subprimaries), scutellum marginal 4 (1 long proximal, 1 short subproximal, 1 long preapical, 1 apical), discals 1, katepisternals 3, postalar wall setulose. Wing hyaline; vein R1 setulose on dorsal basal half; vein R4+5 setulose dorsally not reaching crossvein r-m; third costal sector setulose ventrally. Legs blackish with silver microtrichosity; mid femur with four median anterior setae, two preapical and without ctenidium; hind femur with two rows of anterodorsal and one row of anteroventral setae; mid tibia with three anterodorsal (1 proximal and 2 at mid tibial length), 1 anteroventral, 1 posterodorsal and 1 anteroventral; hind tibia with 3 anterodorsal, 2 anteroventral, 3 posterodorsal setae and without apical posteroventral seta.

Abdomen. Tergites and sternites dark brown with silver microtrichosity; tergite 5 yellowish.

Terminalia. Sternite 5 yellowish and V-shaped with a cleft of subparallel sides. Syntergosternite 7 + 8 and epandrium yellowish with golden microtrichosity. Cercus blackish with golden microtrichosity and black setulosity, straight in profile, tapering towards apex in posterior view, with cercal tip slightly curved ventrally, bare (without setulae or microtrichosity) and blunt in dorsal view. Surstylus brown with scattered apical setulae, finger-shaped and slightly longer than half the length of the cercal prong. Pregonite blackish, curved along length with blunt tip, two thirds of phallic length. Postgonite blackish with slightly curved apex and one long seta anteriorly. Right postgonite with broken apex. Phallus with a distinct hinge between basi- and distiphallus. Paraphallus partially surrounding the acrophallus. Paraphallic apical expansions distally rounded and darker. Harpes weakly sclerotized proximally and strongly sclerotized and rounded distally, spreading ventro-medially over the base of the lateral styli. Vesica bipartite with a C-shaped medial section with lateral ends curving inwards with hook-like tips and distal spine-like processes. Acrophallic structures emerging at the distal level of the paraphallus and visible in lateral view; all styli tube-shaped with distinct openings; lateral styli proximally curved with basal part visible in posterior view as a blackish plate and distally straight; capitis flat and simple; median stylus straight. Juxta entirely separated from acrophallic structures, slightly displaced anteriorly relative to longitudinal axis of phallus, slightly arching and deeply divided medially giving two rounded tips.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL – Colombia (Bolívar).

Biology. Lepidodexia deborarangoa sp. nov. was collected only in tropical dry forest, which indicates anthropophoby or asynanthropy. The adult male is attracted to and possibly feeds on fermented fruit.

Etymology. The specific epithet, which should be treated as a noun in apposition, is given in honor of the Colombian artist Débora Arango Pérez, who used her artwork to explore many controversial issues related to corruption in politics, the role of the Roman Catholic Church to dictatorships, the Banana massacre and the role of women in her time, and who has served as inspiration for enlightening the public on important issues such as female empowerment in all spheres of society.

Remarks. Lepidodexia deborarangoa sp. nov. has closer morphological affinities to the subgenera Johnsonia and Notochaetisca (sensu Pape, 1996) than to any other subgenus of Lepidodexia studied here. However, L. deborarangoa sp. nov. can be separated from species of Johnsonia and Notochaetisca using the setosity of the wing veins. Neotropical species of Johnsonia have dorsal setae on wing veins R1, R4+5 and CuA1, species of Notochaetisca have dorsal setae only on R4+5, while L. deborarangoa sp. nov. has dorsal setae on R1 and R4+5, but not on CuA1. A few species currently assigned to Johnsonia do not share the configuration of the setosity of the wing veins mentioned above. These are Nearctic species Lepidodexia (Johnsonia) miamensis Townsend, 1918 and Lepidodexia (Johnsonia) strigosa Reinhard, 1945 (formerly separated in the genus-group taxon Camptopsis Townsend ) and Nearctic-Neotropical species Lepidodexia (Johnsonia) rufitibia Wulp, 1895 (formerly separated in the genus-group taxon Sthenopyga Aldrich ), which do not have dorsal setae on wing vein CuA1 as Neotropical species of subgenus Johnsonia . However, L. deborarangoa sp. nov. can be separated from L. (J.) miamensis and L. (J.) strigosa using the proclinate fronto-orbital setae, which are absent in L. deborarangoa sp. nov. and present in L. (J.) miamensis and L. (J.) strigosa . Similarly, L. deborarangoa sp. nov. can be separated from L. (J.) rufitibia using the body coloration. The reddish legs and grayish body of L. (J.) rufitibia are distinct from the black legs and blackish body of L. deborarangoa sp. nov.

Figures

Fig. 3. Lepidodexia deborarangoa sp. nov., holotype ♂. A. Habitus, left lateral view. B. Head and anterior part of thorax, left lateral view. C. Epandrium, cerci and surstyli, left lateral view. D. Cerci and surstyli, dorsal view. E. Phallus, pregonite and postgonite, left lateral view. F. Phallus, pregonite and postgonite, left posterolateral view. G. Phallus, pregonite and postgonite, dorsal view. H. Phallus, pregonite and postgonite, ventral view. Abbreviations: ce, cerci; j, juxta; ls, lateral stylus; ms, median stylus; po, postgonite; pr, pregonite; su, surstylus; v, vesica.