Heteromeringia zophina, Lonsdale & Marshall, 2007

Lonsdale, Owen & Marshall, Stephen A., 2007, Revision of the New World Heteromeringia (Diptera: Clusiidae: Clusiodinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 57 (1), pp. 37-80 : 53

Heteromeringia zophina sp. n.

( Figs 25-27 , Map 3 )

Description

Male

Body length 2.9 mm. Bristles black. Three dorsocentral bristles; anterior bristle 3/5 length of median bristle, which is 3/5 length of posterior bristle. Ocellar bristle well-developed. Genal bristles small and hair-like. Right side of frons with additional reclinate fronto-orbital. Small white disc anterior and ventral to anepisternal bristle. Body brown except as follows: parafacial, gena and anterior half of buccal cavity dirty white; anterior margin of frons, scape, pedicel and first flagellomere orange; first flagellomere lightly infuscated along inner-distal margin; gena (excluding ventral margin) yellowish brown; distal 1/3 of palpus light yellow. Dorsal half of gena silvery tomentose (tomentose band tapering posteriorly). Height of gena slightly less than 1/3 that of eye. Frons pilose with wide shiny space around ocellar tubercle. Wing clouded along anterior margin from R 1 to apex. M 1+2 ratio 8.5.

Male terminalia ( Figs 25-27 )

Epandrium 1/5 wider than high and length approximately 2/3 height. Cerci slightly tapering distally and shallowly emarginate. Surstylus thin, tapering, and weakly fused to epandrium; innerapical surface with several small rounded bristles, and outer surface with several minute setulae. Internal genitalia as described for H. nitidanitida except as follows: hypandrium + pregonite with five stout bristles along anterior margin, only several setulae along ventral margin, suture absent and dorsal margin prominent; separation between basal and distal sclerites of distiphallus distinct; distal sclerite of phallus bifid with one thin tapered process, and one wide, flat truncated process.

Female

Unknown.

Etymology

The specific name is derived from the Greek for “darkness” (zophos )).

Holotype: MEXICO. Durango. 9000 ', 10mi W El Salto , J.F. McAlpine, 30.vi.1964 (1 , CNCI).

Comments

Heteromeringia zophina superficially resembles H. apholis , which is also small and dark, but H. zophinazophina belongs to the H. nitida species group and has a male anepisternal disc. Heteromeringia zophina also has a strong additional pair of dorsocentral bristles, a light infuscation along the inner-distal margin of the first flagellomere, a brown face, a yellow tip on the palpus, a brown ventral stripe on the gena (narrowing anteriorly), and a gena that is no more than 1/3 the height of the eye. Furthermore, the surstylus is thin and mostly bare, the cerci are not as deeply incised, and the phallapodeme and distal sclerites of the distiphallus are much longer.

Figures

Map 3: Distributions of Heteromeringia apholisapholis sp. n., H. zophinazophina sp. n., H. decora sp. n., H. nervosanervosa sp. n., H. volcanavolcana sp. n., H. nanellananella sp. n., H. nigrifrons KERTESZ, and H. fucata HENDEL.

Figs 25-27: Heteromeringia zophinazophina sp. n., genita- Figs 22-24: Heteromeringia nitida JOHNSON, geni- lia. 25 external, posterior; 26 external, left lateral; talia. 22 external, left lateral; 23 external, posterior; 27 internal, left lateral. Ejaculatory apodeme and 24 internal, left lateral. annulus omitted.