Santarosamyia unipilum ( Aldrich & Webber, 1924 ), 2025

Fleming, A. J., Smith, M. Alex, Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel, 2025, A new genus and a new species in the tribe Eryciini (Diptera, Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in north-western Costa Rica, Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 161853-e 161853 : e161853-

Santarosamyia unipilum ( Aldrich & Webber, 1924) comb. nov.

unipilum Aldrich & Webber, 1924: 83 ( Phorocera ( Neopales)). Holotype male, ( USNM) (Examined by: AJF and DMW). Type locality: USA, Oregon, Hood River.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Borkent & Wood; individualID: Wood, D. M.; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned specimen; otherCatalogNumbers: 1751043; occurrenceID: 12E845CB-7831-5945-9833-7E41FE327CF4; Taxon: taxonID: Phorocera unipilum ; scientificName: Phorocera unipilum Aldrich & Webber, 1924 ; order: Diptera ; family: Tachinidae ; genus: Phorocera ; specificEpithet: unipilums; Location: country: Canada; countryCode: CA; stateProvince: Quebec; locality: Summit Rigaud Mountain ; verbatimLocality: Quebec, Summit Rigaud Mountain; Event: eventDate: 1979 - June- 1; year: 1979; month: 06; day: 01; Record Level: collectionID: CNC

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Borkent & Wood; individualID: Wood, D. M.; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned specimen, dissected terminalia; occurrenceID: 33E77A4E-B2D0-5241-A0BE-1D8DF1422D9E; Taxon: taxonID: Phorocera unipilum ; scientificName: Phorocera unipilum Aldrich & Webber, 1924 ; order: Diptera ; family: Tachinidae ; genus: Phorocera ; specificEpithet: unipilum; Location: country: Canada; countryCode: CA; stateProvince: Nova Scotia; county: Kings County; verbatimLocality: KingsCo. N. S.; Event: eventDate: 1927 - July- 25; year: 1927; month: 07; day: 25; Record Level: collectionID: CNC

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Borkent & Wood; individualID: Wood, D. M.; sex: Female; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned specimen; otherCatalogNumbers: 1751043; occurrenceID: D78AB918-E340-5947-AC89-FAFC1E221BA8; Taxon: taxonID: Phorocera unipilum ; scientificName: Phorocera unipilum Aldrich & Webber, 1924 ; order: Diptera ; family: Tachinidae ; genus: Phorocera ; specificEpithet: unipilum; Location: country: Canada; countryCode: CA; stateProvince: Quebec; locality: Summit Rigaud Mountain ; verbatimLocality: Quebec, Summit Rigaud Mountain; Identification: identifiedBy: D. M. Wood; Event: eventDate: 1979 - June- 1; year: 1979; month: 06; day: 01; Record Level: collectionID: CNC

Description

Male (Fig. 10), Head: head slightly wider than thorax when viewed dorsally; vertex 1 / 3 head width; gena 1 / 6 of head height, approximately 1 / 5 of eye height; with one row of frontal setae, these extending below base of pedicel and two pairs of reclinate orbital setae, nearly in line with frontal row; ocellar setae strong and proclinate, inserted directly adjacent to anterior ocellus; eye setulose; parafacial bare and narrow, slightly grey tomentose; gena grey, covered in short black setulae; fronto-orbital plate shining black, covered in black setulae surrounding frontal setae; lower margin of face level with vibrissa; facial ridge setose, along most of its length, almost reaching lowest frontal seta; pedicel black; postpedicel black, 4 x as long as pedicel; arista bare, distinctly-thickened on basal half. Palpus dark brown, almost black, densely setulose, digitiform, not distinctly clubbed.

Thorax: scutum black ground colour, apparently glabrous devoid of tomentum, with some sparse grey microtomentum visible under oblique angled light; four dorsal vittae, almost indistinct, becoming slightly more prominent under certain angles of light; postpronotum bearing four setae, middle basal seta in line with outer and inner basal setae; anterior margin of anipemeron with only 2–4 long setae. Chaetotaxy: acrostichal setae 3: 3; dorsocentral setae 3: 4; intra-alar setae 3: 3; supra-alar setae 2: 3; original description cites three katepisternal setae; however, examination of the holotype and specimens from Quebec and Nova Scotia suggest four katepisternal setae; scutellum black with dark maroon along basal edges, with one pair of discal setae and three pairs of long flat marginal setae.

Abdomen: ground colour black; abdominal tomentum apparently absent, grey microtomentum visible under certain angles of light becoming more dense laterally; median discal setae present T 3 and T 4.

Male terminalia (Fig. 11): sternite 5 with a deeply excavated median cleft along posterior edge, approximately 2 s as wide as long, V-shaped, inner margins covered in dense tomentum; posterior lobes pointed and vaguely triangular apically, two strong setae surrounded by many shorter, weaker setulae; unsclerotised " window " on anterior plate of sternite 5 almost entirely translucent, distinct from posterior lobes. Epandrium setulose, cercus triangular, slightly longer than surstyli; cercus apically pointed, completely separate along most of their length. Cercus in lateral view, with a slight downward curve at apex, densely setulose along basal 2 / 3. Surstylus in lateral view, wide and robust, round medially, rounded and blunt at apex, not tapering to a point, giving the structure a wide digitate appearance; surstylus not fused with epandrium; when viewed dorsally, surstyli wide, slightly divergent, bearing a slight outward bend at apices. Pregonite broad, well-developed, apically rounded, blunt, with 6–7 setae along margin. Postgonite, narrowed, up to 1 / 2 as wide as pregonite, curved at apex. Basiphallus with a well-developed narrow and curved epiphallus, distiphallus broad with a thick median longitudinal sclerotised reinforcement on its posterior surface pointed with a distinctive downward curve at apex and a broad, anterolateral, sclerotised acrophallus, on the anterior surface curving upwards at the apex.

Female, as in male differing in the following traits: Head: bearing two pairs of proclinate orbital setae and two pairs of reclinate orbital setae, palpus dark ochraceous appearing brown to black, pedicel dark brown. Thorax: in some cases, females appear to possess three katepisternal setae, but this trait is variable. Abdomen: slightly more globose than males and in its terminalia.

Diagnosis

Santarosamyia unipilum ( Aldrich and Webber 1924) comb. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners S. erecta comb. nov. and S. woodorum sp. nov. by the sparse vestiture of grey tomentum, giving the overall appearance of glabrous black on the thorax and abdomen and by its CO 1 sequence.

Distribution

North America, Canada ( Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes recorded by D. M. Wood), USA (Pacific Northwest) ( O'Hara et al. 2020).

Ecology

No host information is available for Santarosamyia unipilum .