Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964

Parada-Marin, Henry Mauricio, Mengual, Ximo & Ramos-Pastrana, Yardany, 2024, A new species of Alipumilio Shannon, 1927 (Diptera: Syrphidae), with the description of the male of A. avispas Vockeroth, 1964 and A. femoratus Shannon, 1927, Zootaxa 5506 (3), pp. 350-368 : 355-358

Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964

( Figs 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 )

Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964: 924 (description), 922 (key reference), fig. 3 (wing tip); Thompson et al. 1976: 92 (catalog citation); Ståhls et al., 2003: 437 (sequenced specimen from Bolivia); Wong et al., 2023: 4, Table S1 (sequenced specimen from French Guiana).

Examined material. PERU: Huánuco Dept., Cochicote , 09-ix-1965, J. C. Hitchcock, Jr. Leg. (1♂, NMNH) .

Diagnosis. Alipumilio avispas is easily recognized by its pale (white to yellow) plumula. The male sex of this species was previously not described and we provide a description for it.

Description. MALE. Head. Steel blue. Face concave, without medial tubercle, sparsely grayish-white pruinose, smooth and bare on dorsomedial 2/3, punctate and white haired on ventrolateral 1/3; parafacia bluish black and shiny, with white hairs. Gena bluish black, with hairs white posteriorly. Head holoptic, eye with yellow hairs entirely. Antenna brownish orange, except postpedicel brown on apical 3/4, black haired; arista longer than the antenna, micropubescent, brownish orange. Frontal triangle shiny, punctate except for narrow medial smooth vitta, with white hairs. Vertical triangle dull pruinose and white haired. Occiput with black hairs and pruinosity ( Fig. 4A–B ). Thorax. 2 times wider than long, steel blue, punctate. Scutum black haired, except with white hair patches anterior to scutellum. Scutellum with black hairs on basal 1/3 and with white hairs apically. Pleuron white haired; anepisternum and anepimeron steel blue, punctate, with white hairs; katepisternum punctate, haired. Calypter white with ventral fringe light brownish yellow. Halter yellow. Plumula white ( Figs 4A, C ). Legs. Dark brown to black. Fore and mid coxae dark brown to black, with short white hairs anterodorsally; hind coxa thickened, with long white hairs anterodorsally. Throchanters brown to black, with brown light hairs. All femora dark brown to black, except for the orange femora-tibial joints, with black hairs. Fore and mid tibiae brown to black, except at base and apex orange, hind tibia 1/4 apically black, all brownish yellow hairs. All tarsi brown to black, with brownish yellow hairs ( Fig. 4A, C ). Wing. Entirely microtrichose, hyaline, with pterostigma brown ( Fig. 4A, C ). Abdomen. Steel blue, mainly black pilose. Tergites 2 and 3 with white hairs basolaterally. Tergite 4 entirely white haired ( Figs 4A, C ). Genitalia. Cercus broad at base and apex, narrow medially, in lateral view. Surstylus divided into two lobes: dorsal lobe wider medially than basally, gradually narrowing as it approaches apex, apex subcircular, in lateral view; the ventral lobe basally broad, with a dorsal prominence, ventrally curved and pilose, medially narrow and widening towards apex, in lateral view. Epandrium subrectangular, in lateral view. Hypandrium elongate and slender; apex slightly curved, medial expansions, 1/3 of hypandrium length, in lateral view ( Fig. 5 ).

Geographical distribution. Bolivia, French Guiana, and Peru ( Fig. 1 ).

Taxonomic notes. Alipumilio avispas is the single known species of the genus with a pale (white to yellow) plumule, as the plumula of all other studied species is darker (brown to dark brown).

Alipumilio avispas was described based on a single female from Avispas, Madre de Dios, Peru. Two other records have been published for specimens used in phylogenetic studies: Ståhls et al. (2003) sequenced an unsexed specimen from La Paz, Bolivia; and Wong et al. (2023) sequenced a female specimen from Mitaraka, French Guiana.

During his stay at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Smithsonian Institution, as a Rubenstein Fellow of the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org) the second author (XM) studied a male specimen of A. avispas from Peru (https://syrphidae.myspecies.info/taxonomy/term/670), which is here fully described.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographical distribution of Alipumilio species. The red border on the record of A. femoratus refers to an approximation of the type locality, since the labels mention “Amazon”.

FIGURE 4. Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964, male. A. Habitus, lateral view; B. Head, frontolateral view; C. Habitus, dorsal view; D. Labels.

FIGURE 5. Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964, male genitalia. A. Epandrium, lateral view B. Hypandrium, lateral view. Scale = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 6. Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964, holotype female. A. Habitus, lateral view; B. Head, frontolateral view; C. Habitus, dorsal view; D. Abdomen, posterior view; E. Labels.