Queenslandomyia cannula, Wagner, 2018

Wagner, Rüdiger, 2018, Remarkable new Australian mothflies (Diptera, Psychodidae), Zootaxa 4457 (2), pp. 285-295 : 286-288

Queenslandomyia cannula sp. nov.

( Figs 1 a–g ; 2a–e )

Etymology. Cannula (lat.)—for a thin tube.

Species diagnosis. The very long bowl shaped basiphallus, the paired twisted and hook-shaped distiphallus sclerites, and the large central plate of the parameres with pairs of blade shaped apical spines are distinguishing specific features.

Material. Holotype 1♂ Australia: Queensland, Goldsborough State Forest Reserve, SW Gordonvale, Kearneys Falls , 17°14’S, 145°47’E, 20 February 2002, leg. Zwick.

Description. Head with eyebridge of 4 facet rows, medially with only 3 rows; eyes contiguous over 3 facets (fig. 1a). Behind eyes up to 5 postocular bristles. Frons and clypeus separated. Antenna with scape tubular, 3 times longer than wide; pedicel spherical; flagellomeres bottle-shaped, flagellomeres 1–4 with short neck, neck of the further distal flagellomeres about as long as bulb; flagellomeres 1–4 (fig. 1b) with short lateral digitate extensions increasing in length from 1 to 4 with small apertures on apical surface; extension of 4th more than twice as long as that of the basal flagellomere (figs 1b). All but terminal flagellomere with a rim of circular apertures below the neck, possibly bases of ascoids; few digitate ascoids left, tips reach base of subsequent segment; numbers of apertures per segment decreases apically. Terminal flagellomere longer than preceding (fig. 1c); tip micropilose and naked part above the basal setose corpus. Coming from the head capsule or probably even the prothorax a pair of sclerotized thin tubes runs through the head into the antenna and terminate in the extension of flagellomere 4 (fig. 1e); there are no side tubes into extensions of flagellomeres 1–3; in the basal part of the head tubes with a chiasma (fig. 1d). Relative length of antennal articles: 61-39-30-32-32-32-30-28-27-26-24-23-23-21-19-27; absolute length: 0.16-0.10-0.08-0.08-0.08-0.08-0.08-0.07-0.07-0.07-0.06-0.06-0.06-0.06-0.05-0.07 (mm). Palpus four segmented; terminal palpus segment flexible, not exceeding the length of the penultimate segment. Relative length of palpus segments: 23-59-56-54; absolute length: 0.06-0.16-0.15-0.14 (mm).

Thorax with a small pair of thin serrate sclerites between front coxae, probably part of coxae (fig. 1f); mid coxa with anterodistal field of small warts.

Wing (fig. 1g) translucent, length 1.95 mm, width 0.84 mm, the cubital region expanded; length by width index 2.3. Sc short, ends in R1, no crossvein to C; near the tip of Sc is the fork R2+3/R4 and the origin of R5; R5 terminates behind wing tip; fork R2/3 at about middle of wing; fork M1/2 basal of fork R2/3 and tip of CuA which are at the same level; fork M3/4 at level of fork R2+3/R4; crossveins r4-r5, m1+2-m3, m3-m4 present but faint. CuA sinuous long; CuP short, straight.

Abdomen with 8 segments and inverted genitalia; hypandrium a thin sinuous band of equal width; gonocoxites tubular, slightly longer than wide with triangular ventro-median extension, ‘parabasal process’ (pbp) according to Quate & Brown (2004), tip pointing medially towards the same structure on the opposite side; parameres consist of small U-shaped lateral folds (lfp), connecting to the dorso-lateral rim of gonocoxites, that in middle developed to a large waisted plate extending caudally (lwp), clearly outreaching the gonocoxites; at apical edges with dorsal blade-shaped spines (bss), on right side paired, on left side the shorter spine is missing. Gonostyles about 2 times longer than gonocoxites, basally thickened then straight over most of its distance, terminally bent with tip turned towards middle. Aedeagus with a long and thin cone-shaped basiphallus sclerite (bph), apically widened and domeshaped; an H-shaped sclerite (hss) connects the dome with the bases of the distiphallus sclerites. The paired distiphallus sclerites (dph) are twisted and strongly bent with sharp tips. Epandrium rhomboid with pair of small drop-shaped foramina in the basal fourth, apical margin M-shaped; subepandrial plate (sep) roughly triangular, basally thin, increasing in width distally; apical margin sinuous parallel to epandrium edge with two lateral arms connecting with surstyles, and a medium ‘swelling’ connecting with the hypoproct; proctiger with a large setose, tripartite hypoproct (hyp) with a broad median and smaller lateral projections, lateral basal part without setae; epiproct difficult to observe, short setose. Surstyli very long thin, slightly decreasing in width distally, strongly bent; direction of the bend is changed twice in the distal part; terminally with a group of 9–10 clustered, short and striated tenacula, length approximately the diameter of the nearby surstylus.

Comments. The new genus and species represent a remarkable element of the Australian psychodid fauna; the shape of the basal antennomeres, the broad wing, and the structure of the male genitalia distinguish the new genus from other Paramormiini. The shape of the basal flagellomeres may resemble the north-hemispheric genus Mormia Enderlein sensu lato, particularly subgenera Lepimormia Enderlein and Limomormia Vaillant ; however, the large cavities on male Mormia flagellomeres are usually interpreted as receptors of female chemical signals, but the closed digitate extensions with thin canals and small apical pores in Queenslandomyia likely appear to act as emitters of male semio-chemicals; canals probably arise from the thorax and run through the head into the basal flagellomeres. The H-shaped sclerite is reminiscent of the ‘furca’ in northern hemisphere Vaillantodes Wagner and Jungiella Vaillant but in these genera the bilobed basiphallus and the dorsal parameral bridge are linked, whereas in the new species the broad basiphallus is connected with the paired distiphallus. Furthermore, a tripartite hypoproct co-occurring with a surstylus with undifferentiated base may corroborate the hypothesis that cerci have fused with the hypoproct rather than with the surstyli as was mentioned for other genera ( Kvifte 2015, Wagner & Kvifte 2017).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Queenslandomyia cannula sp. nov. a. eyebridge; b. pedicel and flagellomeres 1–5; c. flagellomeres 12–14; d. flagellomeres 3 and 4 with inner tubes; e. course of inner tubes in head (outlines of head and scape dotted); f. front femur with inner serrate sclerite; g. wing. [Scale: a–f 0.1 mm, g 1.0 mm]

FIGURE 2 Queenslandomyia cannula sp. nov. a. hypandrium, styli, aedeagus and parameral bridge, ventral view; b. parameral bridge, ventral view; c. epandrium, subepandrial plate, hypoproct and bases of surstyli, ventral view; d. epandrium, left surstylus, and hypoproct, ventral view; e. tip of surstylus with retinacula. (short codes: bph—basiphallus sclerite, bssblade shaped spines, dph—distiphallus sclerite, hss—h-shaped sclerite, hyp - hypoproct, lfp—lateral fold of parameres, lwplarge waisted parameral plate, pbp—parabasal process, ses—subepandrial sclerite). [Scale: a–e 0.1 mm]