Mesoconius ujhelyianus Enderlein, 1922

Marshall, Stephen A., 2019, A revision of the genus Mesoconius Enderlein (Diptera, Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 548, pp. 1-126 : 73-75

Mesoconius ujhelyianus Enderlein, 1922

Fig. 29

Mesoconius ujhelyianus Enderlein, 1922: 177 .

Material examined

Holotype

COLOMBIA • ♂; Sierra San Lorenzo; Ujhelyi leg.; MNBG.

Other material

COLOMBIA • 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀; Magdalena Department, El Libano; 6000 ft [1830 m] a.s.l.; “April. ”, “ H. H. Smith accession number 1740”; CMNH .

ECUADOR • 1 ♂; Santa Inez; “ Mesoconius Garleppi Enderl. ”, “purchased from H. Rolle 1904–117”; no legs and right wing torn; BMNH. See also notes about Santa Inez under M. fulvus .

Description

Based on CMNH specimens from Colombia.

LENGTH. 16 mm.

COLOUR. Orange, except for brown to black upper part of frontal vitta and apex of fore femur, fore tibia except apex, broad middle band on fore and hind femora, mid tarsus, apical four tarsomeres of hind leg and posterolateral corners of T2 and T3. Epicephalon and paracephalon shiny and indistinctly striate, lower half of frons dull; frontal vitta velvety dark brown to black posteriorly, fading to a convex orange anterior portion that does not reach anterior margin of frons. Antenna orange, but base of first flagellomere and base of arista distinctly paler than rest of antenna. Gena, parafacial, and lower outer corner of face silvery microtrichose; subantennal areas shiny brown. Clypeus shiny yellow medially, laterally microtrichose. Palpus pale orange-yellow. Wing yellowish infuscated, with indistinct clear area anterior to crossvein dm-cu.

HEAD. Postocellar bristles strong, closely spaced and far behind level of inner vertical bristles. Frontal vitta convex, posteriorly forming a narrow microtrichose strip that expands to a microtrichose area extending to inner vertical bristle. Antennae separated by width of antennal socket; upper face weakly carinate; lower face flat and microtrichose. Postocciput with sparse small setulae.

THORAX. Cervical sclerite mostly microtrichose, but with a small, distinctly separate, anterior bare part. Postpronotal lobe microtrichose, with some scattered small setulae, anterior margin forming a vertical, shiny face.

ABDOMEN. Abdominal segments 1–3 petiolate; length of T1+2 2.5× length of tergite 3.

FEMALE ABDOMEN. Bursa broad and rugose; ventral receptacle small; single and common spermathecal ducts arising separately. Paired spermathecae large and elongate, each on a separate narrow duct with a large ovate swelling just beyond basal quarter; common duct of paired spermathecae long and distinctly striate over basal ⅔, then abruptly tapered to a smooth distal part. Single spermatheca small and elongate, single duct much shorter and narrower than paired duct, with a short constricted area at base of spermatheca.

MALE ABDOMEN. S5 and S6 lightly sclerotized, unmodified. S7 dark, with a broad anterior apodeme and an expanded bare spatulate right apex; S8 very large, twice as large as epandrium, shiny in contrast to dull T6 and epandrium, sparsely setulose. Epandrium small, with a very prominent broad, setose posteroventral lobe. Cercus large, paralleling posteroventral epandrial lobe. Basal part of distiphallus broadly tubular, gradually expanding to a cup-like apex, with a long dorsal part subtended by a separate perforated saddle-like sclerite over part of strongly swollen bulb portion of ejaculatory duct. Ejaculatory apodeme larger than epandrium.

Remarks

This is one of the few species of Mesoconius for which it was possible to confidently match Enderlein’s types with non-type specimens. The four specimens from CMNH used in the above description seem to match the type in almost every detail and were collected from the same part of Colombia. The species was named after its collector, Joseph Ujhelyi (1879–1933), an entomologist of the Hungarian National Museum who made a collecting trip to Columbia in 1912.

Mesoconius ujhelyianus (from Colombia) and M. garleppi (from Peru) are the only orange species of Mesoconius with medially banded mid and hind femora, an anteriorly pale frontal vitta and a strongly projecting katatergite. The original descriptions of both species appeared on the same page, distinguished primarily by the differently coloured fore tibia (entirely pale in M. garleppi ). These superficially similar species also differ markedly in the shape of the frontal vitta (sharply triangular in M. garleppi ).

Figures

Fig. 29. Mesoconius ujhelyianus Enderlein, 1922. A. Holotype, ♂, MNBG. B. ♂ (CMNH). C. ♀ (CMNH). D. Head, ♀. E. Katatergite, ♀.