Mesembrinella cordillera ( Wolff & Ramos-Pastrana, 2017 )

Whitworth, Terry L. & Yusseff-Vanegas, Sohath, 2019, A revision of the genera and species of the Neotropical family Mesembrinellidae (Diptera: Oestroidea), Zootaxa 4659 (1), pp. 1-146 : 74

Mesembrinella cordillera ( Wolff & Ramos-Pastrana, 2017)

Huascaromusca cordillera Wolff & Ramos-Pastrana in Wolff et al., 2017: 256 . Holotype male (CEUA), not examined. Type locality: Caquetá, Florencia , Colombia.

Mesembrinella cordillera: Cerretti et al. (2017 : tab. 2).

Diagnosis. A medium-sized reddish-brown and black fly; ppn 2x 2; subcostal sclerite setose; ac 0:1, dc 2:2; with coxae, trochanters and femora orange, apices of femora reddish-brown; wing mostly hyaline with brown area on distal end of vein R 1 and cells c, sc and r.

Redescription. [Summarized from Wolff et al. (2017).] Male. A medium-sized, reddish-brown and black fly; frons 0.0145 (0.011 –0.023 /4) of head width at narrowest. Dorsum of thorax black, pleura reddish-brown; scutellum with 1 ap, 1 bas, 1 pb and 1 disc; coxae, trochanters and femora orange, apices of femora reddish-brown. Wing mostly hyaline except infuscated from distal end of vein R 1 to cells c, sc and r, and with darkening around veins; abdomen black with light purple reflections. [For terminalia and other characters, see Wolff et al. (2017: figs 12–18).]

Female. Frons 0.215 (0.204 –0.237 /8) of head width at narrowest. Terminalia not illustrated or described in detail by Wolff et al. (2017).

Material examined. None (no specimens could be obtained for examination).

Distribution. Colombia.

Remarks. Wolff et al. (2017) listed M. cordillera and M. obscura as medium-sized, but they give the average length for males as 7 mm (n = 2) and 6.6 mm (n = 8), respectively. Compared to other species in the M. aeneiventris group, or other mesembrinellids in general, these would be very small flies. It is always possible to get an undersized individual, but since this is an average length based on several specimens measured from the head to the tip of the abdomen, the question arises as to whether these are unusually small species or whether there was an error in measuring. We recommend that the specimens be re-measured. No specimens were barcoded.