Eudorylas avis Motamedinia & Skevington, 2020

Motamedinia, Behnam, Skevington, Jeffrey Hunter & Kelso, Scott, 2020, Revision of Eudorylas Aczel, 1940 (Diptera, Pipunculidae) in the Middle East, with the description of four new species, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 53609-53609 : 53609

Eudorylas avis Motamedinia & Skevington, 2020 sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: CNCD6829 ; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; associatedSequences: GB: MN549658; Taxon: scientificName: Eudorylasavis; Location: country: Yemen; locality: 12 km NW of Manakhah ; decimalLatitude: 15.071944; decimalLongitude: 43.740833; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2003-06-24 /08-04; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC

Description

Male (Fig. 2 A, B). Body length (excluding antennae): 3.4 mm. Head. Face grey pruinose. Scape dark with one short upper bristle, pedicel dark with three short upper bristles and three short lower bristles, flagellum and base of arista light brown; flagellum tapering and grey-white pruinose (LF:WF = 2.5). Labellum yellow. Eyes meeting for a distance of 12 facets. Frons silver-grey pruinose. Vertex black, lacking pruinosity. Occiput dark and grey pruinose. Thorax. Postpronotal lobe light yellow, grey pruinose with 6-7 short bristles along upper margin (up to 0.05 mm). Prescutum black, grey pruinose. Scutum black, brown pruinose with scattered long setae at anterior supra-alar area. Scutellum black, brown pruinose with eight dark setae along posterior margin (up to 0.4 mm). Subscutellum dark, grey pruinose. Pleura dark brown, grey pruinose. Wing. Length: 4.5 mm. LW:MWW = 3.0. Wing almost entirely covered with microtrichia. Pterostigma dark-brown and complete. LS:LTC = 1.0. LTC:LFC = 1.3. Cross-vein r-m reaches dm shortly after one-third of the cell's length. Halter length: 0.5 mm. Light brown. Legs. Coxae dark, grey pruinose. Mid coxa with four black anterior bristles. Trochanters light brown, partly grey pruinose. Femora dark with light brown apices and light brown posteriorly. Mid and hind femora bearing two rows of dark, peg-like anteroventral spines in apical one third. Tibiae light brown, grey pruinose, with two rows of short setae on anterior and three rows on posterior side. Hind tibiae bearing one or two wrinkled indentations in middle. Tarsi yellowish but distitarsi dark, with scattered dark setae at anterior margin. Claws yellow with black tips. Abdomen. Ground colour dark brown, tergites 1 black, grey pruinose, with one long and 5-6 short lateral bristles. Tergites 2-4 laterally grey pollinose extending a little on to dorsal surface along posterior margin, otherwise brown pollinose. Sternites dark brown, brown pruinose. Syntergosternite 8 dark, dark pruinose. Membranous area large, almost reaching epandrium, vertically directed. Genitalia. Genital capsule in dorsal view: epandrium and surstyli brown, brown pruinose. Epandrium longer than wide (MLE:MWE = 1.3) (Fig. 3 A). Surstyli asymmetrical, right larger than left one. Left surstylus rather rectangular-shaped. Base of left surstylus wider than the right one. Right surstylus with an inner finger-like projection curved towards left surstylus, left surstylus with a projection at apex (Fig. 3 A). Genital capsule in ventral view: gonopods unequal, right is longer than the left one (Fig. 3 B). Genital capsule in lateral view: both surstyli with a finger-like projection at apices, right surstylus with shorter finger-like projection than left one, base of right surstylus broader than left one (Fig. 3 D, E). Phallus trifid; phallic guide strongly broadened, bent shortly before apex with two ventrally feather-like projections and apically with a small projecting hook (Fig. 3 D, E); hypandrial apodeme extended (Fig. 3 D, E). Ejaculatory apodeme spade-shaped (Fig. 3 C).

Diagnosis

This species can be distinguished by the shape of the surstyli in dorsal view; base of left surstylus broader than the right one, right surstylus apically with inner long finger-like projection curved towards left one and small outer finger-like projection (Fig. 3 A); large membranous area (Fig. 3 A); phallic guide bent before apex with two feather-like projections in lateral view (Fig. 3 D, E); distinct hypandrial apodeme in lateral view (Fig. 3 D, E).

Etymology

The specific epithet is derived from the Latin avis which means bird and refers to the similarity between the shape of the phallic guide apically in lateral view to that of a bird.

Distribution

Yemen (Fig. 1 ).

Notes

Based on DNA barcodes, this species is closest to one or more species from South Africa (2.09-2.45% pairwise divergence). Unidentified female specimens from Yemen (CNCD6818) and Angola (CNC395962) are sufficiently different that they are not likely the same species (4.21% and 3.14%, respectively).

Figures

Figure 1. Eudorylas species distribution in the Middle East.

Figure 2. Male of Eudorylas avis Motamedinia & Skevington sp. n. (CNCD 6829) (A) habitus in dorsal view (terminalia removed); (B) habitus in lateral view. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.

Figure 3. Male genitalia of Eudorylas avis Motamedinia & Skevington sp. n. (CNCD 6829) (A) in dorsal view; (B) in ventral view; (C) ejaculatory apodeme; (D, E) in lateral view.