Molophilus (Molophilus) calabricus, Starý, Jaroslav, 2011

Starý, Jaroslav, 2011, Descriptions and records of the Palaearctic Molophilus Curtis (Diptera, Limoniidae), Zootaxa 2999, pp. 45-62 : 56

Molophilus (Molophilus) calabricus sp. n.

Figures 26–29

Diagnosis. Small species within Molophilus . Body brown, patterned with pale yellow and dark brown, locally suffused with sparse greyish pruinosity. Gonocoxite of male terminalia with thumb-like dorsal lobe and triangular lateral lobe. Outer (dorsal) gonostylus shorter than inner (ventral) gonostylus, with terminal hook curved laterally, pointed at tip. Inner gonostylus undulate, obtuse at apex. Wing length 3.6–3.8 mm.

Description. Male. Head. Antenna short, hardly extending to wing base. Scape brown, pedicel yellow. Flagellomeres (except for yellowed flagellomere 1) infuscated, brown, ovoid to short-ovoid, with longest verticils exceeding length of their respective segments.

Thorax brown, patterned with pale yellow and dark brown, locally suffused with sparse greyish pruinosity. Prescutum and scutum, greyish brown, bordered with pale yellow on paratergite and around prescutal pit; scutal lobe yellowed posterolaterally. Scutellum yellowed medially, greyish brown on margins. Postscutellum greyish brown, yellowed anterolaterally. Pleuron locally shiny, with distinct dark brown longitudinal stripe extending from pronotum over anepisternum and fading out on anepimeron; pale yellow areas on dorsopleural membrane and basalare and elongate yellow marking, or streak, on katepisternum contrasting with its dark brown lower part. Wing tinged with yellowish brown; venation generally as for genus. Stem of halter yellow, knob brown. Legs with coxae, trochanters and bases of femora obscure yellow (hind femur almost entirely so), rest of legs dark brown.

Abdomen darker than thorax, dark brown. Male terminalia ( Figs 26–29 ) pale brown. Dorsal portion of gonocoxite rather short, with moderately large, thumb-like dorsal lobe and long, triangular lateral lobe; tips of both level. Lateral excision slight, very shallow. Ventral lobe of gonocoxite slender and very long, longer than body of gonocoxite proximal to it, narrowing into thin filament, especially when seen ventrally, extending considerably beyond dorsal lobe. Both gonostyli darkly pigmented distally. Outer gonostylus shorter than inner one, variously twisted, terminating in sharp hook curved laterally, reaching to about half length of inner gonostylus. The latter slightly extending beyond tip of ventral lobe, undulate, its obtuse, down-curved apex serrate at dorsal margin. Aedeagus slender, of moderate length, bent ventrally at about one fourth its length, then gradually tapered and very slightly upturned. Aedeagal plate small, generally oval in ventral/ventrocaudal aspect, without any spines or teeth.

Female unknown.

Material examined. Holotype 3: Italy, Calabria, Marcellina (CS) env., Abatemarco shores, 3.vi.1996 (J. Martinovský leg.) ( SMOC). Paratype: 1 3, same data as for holotype ( JSO).

Etymology. The name of this new species, calabricus , is derived from the Italian province Calabria where the type specimens come from. It is to be deemed to be a latinized adjective in nominative singular.

Discussion. This new species is distantly related to M. (M.) ochraceus ( Meigen, 1818) , a common and widely distributed West Palaearctic species, from which it differs by nearly every detail of the male terminalia. The Transcaucasian M. (M.) subochraceus Savchenko, 1976 stands still more apart.

Distribution. Italy.

Figures

FIGURES 21 – 29. Male terminalia. 21 – 23 — M. (M.) brevifurcatus sp. n. (paratype; Slovakia: Silická planina), general view, lateral (21), aedeagal complex, lateral (22), and aedeagal plate, ventral (23). 24 – 25 — M. (M.) pleuralis (Slovakia: Stankovany), general view, lateral (24) and aedeagal complex, lateral (25). 26 – 29 –– M. (M.) calabricus sp. n. (holotype), general view, lateral (26), distal part of gonocoxite, ventral (27), aedeagal complex, lateral (28), and aedeagal plate, ventral (29). Scale bar 0.5 mm.