Phrudoneura popondetta Bickel

Bickel, Daniel J., 2013, Phrudoneura (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) from Australia and Melanesia, Zootaxa 3680 (1) : -

Phrudoneura popondetta Bickel , sp. nov.

( Figs 4 c–f)

Type material. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Popondetta Subdistrict: holotype, 3, Siuipi, nr Sasembata, 1.XI.1963; paratype Ƥ, Buri, nr Sasembata, 30.X.1963, both D.K. McAlpine ( AMS).

Description. Male: length: 2.2; wing: 2.5 x 1.1; ( Fig. 4 c); similar to P. collessi except as noted:

Head: vertex and frons dark brown, with little pruinosity; entire row of postorbitals black; face-clypeus entirely dark brown and covered with grey pruinosity; palp dark brown; proboscis brown; antenna entirely brown; scape with distinct setae on distal dorsal surface ( Fig. 4 d); first flagellomere subtriangular to subrectangular.

Thorax: dorsum and entire pleura, including metepimeron, dark chocolate brown with only light dusting of little pruinosity; lateral scutellar seta present as weak black seta, about one-fifth size of median seta.

Leg: all coxae brown, but trochanters distinctly yellow; FI mostly brown but yellow along ventral margin, with TI and basitarsus I yellow; FII and FIII dark brown with basal sixth of TII and TIII also brown; distal TII and TIII and basitarsi II and III yellow; distalmost tarsomeres of all legs infuscated; I: 3.0/ 2.2/ 1.2; 0.4; 0.3; 0.2; 0.4; setation similar; II: 3.7/ 3.9/ 2.2; 1.4; 0.8; 0.8; 0.4; FII similar, but with 2 av seta along distal sixth (MSSC); TII with similar setation but with additional av seta at 2/3 and 7/8; III: 3.6; 5.4; 1.1/ 1.7/ 1.1/ 0.8/ 0.4; FIII similar but with row three av setae along distal quarter (MSSC); TII with similar setation.

Wing: CuAx ratio 0.6; lower calypter brown with fan of black setae; halter dark brown.

Abdomen: entirely dark brown with black setation; hypopygium (not cleared) mostly hidden, but dark brown with short yellow digitiform cercus.

Female. ( Fig. 4 e); similar to male except lacking MSSC and as noted: face and clypeus wider; scape also with distinct setae on dorsal surface distally ( Fig. 4 f); FII with similar setation but with only one av seta along distal sixth; FIII similar but with row only two av setae along distal fifth; abdominal terga mostly dark brown, but tergum 1 and lateral margins of terga 2 and 3 yellow.

Remarks. Phrudoneura popondetta is known only from lowland rainforest in the Popondetta region of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. It is distinguished by its overall chocolate brown thoracic and abdominal coloration, although females have yellow on the basal abdominal tergites. In sharing an overall dark brown colouration, short cercus, and subrectangular first flagellomere, P. popondetta is similar to P. o b s c u r a from New Caledonia.

Of particular note in P. popondetta are the dorsal setae on the distalmost surface of the antennal scape in both sexes ( Figs 4 d, 4f), a character not known in other species Phrudoneura . Although a species-level character in this genus, the presence of dorsal setae on the scape is considered to be of higher taxonomic significance elsewhere in the Dolichopodidae .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Phrudoneura abbreviata Meuffels & Grootaert; a. male habitus, left lateral. P. collessi sp. nov.; b. male habitus, left lateral. P. popondetta sp. nov.; c. male habitus, right lateral; d. male antenna, right lateral; e. female habitus, right lateral; f. female antenna, right lateral.