Bezzia (Homobezzia) snowi Lane, 1958

Huerta, Herón, Spinelli, Gustavo R. & Grogan Jr, William L., 2023, New records of predaceous midges in Bezzia Kieffer and Phaenobezzia Haeselbarth from Mexico with description of two new species of Bezzia (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), Zootaxa 5323 (4), pp. 535-552 : 546

Bezzia (Homobezzia) snowi Lane

( Fig. 1E )

Bezzia snowi Lane, 1958: 34 (female, male; Guatemala; figures). Wirth 1974: 53 (world catalog); Spinelli & Wirth 1991: 10 (redescription, female, male, pupa; key, figures); Borkent & Wirth 1997: 129 (world catalog); Borkent & Spinelli 2000: 62 (catalog of new world south of the United States); Borkent & Spinelli 2007: 94 (Neotropical catalog); Spinelli & Wolff 2016: 126 ( Ceratopogonidae of Colombia; distribution); Ronderos et al. 2018: 645 (list immature stages); Anjos et al. 2018: 152 (diagnostic characters of pupae); Borkent & Dominiak 2020: 204 (world catalog); Santarém & Felippe˗Bauer 2021: 34 (Brazilian distribution); Spinelli et al. 2023: 64 (catalog of biting midges from Argentina).

Diagnosis. Only Neotropical species in the venustula group with the following combination of characters: female with legs yellowish, distal 1/3 of hind femur and distal 1/5 of hind tibia brown; femora armed ventrally with 5–8 spines on fore leg, 3–6 on mid leg, and 1–4 on hind leg; tarsi yellowish brown except 5th tarsomeres dark; halter dark brown; three pairs of long slender gland rods; male sternite 9 with shallow caudomedian excavation, tergite 9 with elongated apicolateral lobes; gonocoxite with blunt anteromesal protuberance; aedeagus triangular; parameres long with bilobed well-developed anterolateral plates, distal process with rounded tip.

New country record. MEXICO, Guerrero, Ayutla de los Libres, La Unión, “Rancho Camalote”, jun-2009, Malaise trap, Bibiano-Marín, W., 1 female CAIM . Oaxaca, San Juan Guichicovi, El Zacatal, potrero, 28-jul-2009, CDC trap, Salceda-Sanchez, B., Rodríguez, A. A., 1 female CAIM .

Distribution. Mexico (Guerrero, Oaxaca), Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Trinidad, Brazil.

Remarks. This species differs from other related species of this group mainly by their femora with ventral spines (5–8 fore, 3–6 middle and 1–4 hind), legs yellowish with distal 1/3 of hind femur and distal 1/5 of hind tibia brown, two subspherical spermathecae with long necks, slightly unequal and parameres twice as long as length of aedeagus.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Wing, lateral view.A. Bezzia (Bezzia) gibbera (female); B. Bezzia (Bezzia) hondurensis (male); C. Bezzia (Bezzia) mesotibialis (female); D. Bezzia (Bezzia) punctipennis (female); E. Bezzia (Homobezzia) snowi (female). Scale bars: 0.5 mm.