Belobackenbardia mostovskii Shatalkin, 2021

Shatalkin, A. I., 2021, Belobackenbardia mostovskii sp. n. (Diptera, Psilidae) is the fourth species of an endemic genus found in South Africa, Russian Entomological Journal 30 (3), pp. 342-344 : 343-344

Belobackenbardia mostovskii Shatalkin , sp.n.

TYPE MATERIAL. Holotype: ♀, S.Africa, Kwazulu-Natal, PMB Kardoof , 29.318° S 30.258° E, 1325 m. 22.XI.2007, M. Mostovski ( ZMUM).

DESCRIPTION. Female. Length body 5.8 mm; length wing 5.3 mm.

Head yellow. Frons yellow; narrowly black on each side along eyes; these stripes begin at the level of the posterior edge of the lunula and end at the level of the posterior ocelli. Frontal triangle brownish; ocellar triangle black. Occiput behind ocellar triangle yellow without black spot. Antenna yellow, short; first flagellomere with dark spot around arista; first flagellomere triangular with a straight on upper edge and a slightly convex on lower edge, about 2 times as long as its width. Arista dark brown, almost black, thickened in base, with long rather thick hairs; width of its feathering slightly less than width of first flagellomere. Palpus yellow. Thorax yellow; mesonotum without lateral or median stripes, metanotum without brownish spot; black hairs under hind spiracle absent. Katepisternum ventrally with one large black seta in front of mesocoxa and in upper portion with patch of white, ventrally directed hair-like setulae. Legs yellow; fore tibia grayish, fore tarsus darker; middle tibia darkened in first half, middle tarsus grayish; hind tibia and tarsus distinctly darkened. Middle tibia with 1 spur. Wing yellowish, veins yellow with wide yellow edging; correspondingly, wing apex in the front half yellow. The wavy flexion line extending from subcostal break to posterior end of basal medial cell (bm) and crossing vein M 4 near apex of basal medial cell (bm); this flexion line is very poorly developed, visible in the form of thinning of veins and traces on the interveinal space in the posterior part of the wing. Halteres yellow. Abdomen yellow; tergites 1-6 dorsally broadly dark brown, narrowly yellow along posterior margin; tergite 7 with two dark brown spots on sides; lateral margins of abdominal tergites straight.

Chaetotaxy. 2 vt, pvt absent, 1 very large frorb directed dorsally; 1 npl, 1 spal, 1 pal, 1 dc, scutellum with 2 large marginal setae and with a pair of hair-like ones above. All setae black.

1 2 3 4

Figs 1–4. Male terminalia of Belobackenbardia : 1–2 — B. cornicula ; 3–4 — B. munroi ; 1, 3 — dorsal view; 2, 4 — lateral view. Abbreviations: cerc — cercus; con pr — conical process of surstyle; dr gon — derivative of gonopod; epand — epandrium; ep l — lobes of epandrium; hypd — hypandrium; pgt — postgonite; ph — phallus; sur — surstyle.

Рис. 1–4. Гениталии самцов Belobackenbardia : 1–2 — B. cornicula ; 3–4 — B. munroi ; 1, 3 — сверху; 2, 4 — сбоку. ОбоЗначениЯ: cerc — церк; con pr — конический вырост сурстилЯ; dr gon — проиЗводное гонопод; epand — Эпандрий; ep l — доли ЭпандриЯ; hypd — гипандрий; pgt — постогонит; ph — фаллус; sur — сурстиль.

MALE unknown.

DIAGNOSIS. As it is clear from the identification key, among the four known species, the new species is closely related to B. stuckenbergiorum . Both species differ from the other two, B. cornicula and B. munroi , in the absence of a black spot on the occiput behind ocellar triangle and of the black median stripe on the mesonotum, scutellum and metanotum. B. stuckenbergiorum differs well from the new species by a completely yellow abdomen, in the presence of a pair of brown stripes on the mesonotum and in having fore and middle legs yellow, non-darkening.

ETYMOLOGY. The new species is named to honor the dipterist Dr. M.B. Mostovski.

Acknowledgements. I am grateful to Dr. Mikhail Borissovich Mostovski (The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and Israel National Center for Biodiversity Studies , Israel) for assistance with the material. I am grateful to T. V. Galinskaya (Entomology Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University) for the English manuscript proofreading. The work is supported by the Scientific Project of the State order of the Government of Russian Federation to Lomonosov Moscow State University No. 121032300105-0 .