Rhamphomyia kaninensis Frey, 1913

Shamshev, Igor V., Sinclair, Bradley J. & Khruleva, Olga A., 2020, The empidoid flies (Diptera: Empidoidea, exclusive of Dolichopodidae) of the Russian Arctic islands and Svalbard Archipelago, Zootaxa 4848 (1), pp. 1-75 : 52-54

Rhamphomyia kaninensis Frey

( Figs 57–61 )

Rhamphomyia kaninensis Frey in Lundström & Frey, 1913: 7 . Type locality: Arkhangelskaya Province , “Kambalnitsa” [~ 67°52′N 44°09′E], Russia.

Other references: Frey, 1922: 42 (key), 1955b: 483 (revision); Gorodkov & Kovalev, 1969: 624 (key); Chvála & Wagner, 1989: 286 (catalogue); Shamshev, 2001b: 333 (key); Yang et al., 2007: 184 (catalogue); Shamshev, 2016: 77 (checklist).

Material examined. RUSSIA. Krasnoyarskiy Terr. (Dikson Island): small island “Konus”, 31.vii.1948, Korotkevich (1 ♂, ZIN) .

Additional material. RUSSIA. Krasnoyarskiy Terr. (Taymyr Peninsula): Engelgardt Lake , NE shore, valley of brook, 2.vii.1967, KBG (3 ♂, 5 ♀, ZIN; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, CNC) .

Diagnosis. Mid-sized (wing length about 4.5 mm), robust, black setose flies with brownish thorax and greyish abdomen. Male mid tibia and mid basitarsus with numerous very long setae dorsally; hind tibia slightly uniformly thickened, hind basitarsus slender; abdomen densely light grey pruinescent; wing whitish, CuA+CuP (anal vein) complete, halter brown; abdominal tergite 8 without projections; cercus with finger-like projection near base dorsally; phallus well exposed, slender, gently sinuate on about middle. Female wing uniformly faintly brownish infuscate, legs without pennate setae.

Redescription. Body length 4.5–4.9; wing length 4.3–4.5 mm. Male ( Fig. 57 ). Head with dense greyish brown pruinescence on face, frons, postgena, ocellar triangle and occiput; dark setose. Holoptic; upper ommatidia enlarged; eyes touching. Frons represented by very small subtriangular space below ocellar tubercle and larger subtriangular space above antennae, bare. Face broad, bare. Ocellar triangle with 2 long and several shorter fine setae. Occiput with numerous long fine setae, including postoculars; postgena with numerous hair-like setae. Antenna blackish brown; scape slightly longer than pedicel, both with somewhat longer fine setae on outer side and short setulae on inner side; postpedicel conical, nearly 3X longer than wide; stylus short, nearly as long as postpedicel basal width. Palpus dark, long; with numerous long, dark fine setae. Proboscis with labrum dark reddish-brown, nearly 1.3X as long as head height.

Thorax dark in ground-colour, mostly greyish brown pruinescent; with black setation; scutum almost uniformly brownish pruinescent (dorsal view), slightly lustrous, only some traces of two narrow dark vittae between rows of acr and dc. Proepisternum with tuft of several long fine setae on lower section; upper proepisternum in front of spiracle with 3–5 similar setae. Prosternum bare. Antepronotum with numerous short setae. Postpronotal lobe with 1 (sometimes 2) longer somewhat stronger and numerous shorter fine setae. Mesonotal setae generally quite well differentiated (number, position and robustness variable); 1–2 presut spal (with additional shorter setae), 3–4 npl (with additional shorter setae anteriorly), 1–2 psut spal (with additional setae anteriorly), 1 long and 1 short pal, 4–6 sctl; acr moderately long, fine, arranged in 2 irregular rows, lacking on prescutellar depression; presutural dc slightly longer than acr, 3–4-serial, hardly separated by from supra-alar setae, postsutural dc 1–2-serial, 3–4 prescutellars longest. Laterotergite with numerous long fine setae. Anterior and posterior spiracles brown.

Legs robust, uniformly dark brown; mostly subshiny, coxae and trochanters with denser greyish pruinescence; black setose.Fore coxa covered with long fine setae anteriorly.Hind tibia slightly uniformly thickened.Femora whitish pilose ventrally. Fore femur covered with very short setae including rows of fine anteroventrals and posteroventrals. Mid femur with similar setation to fore femur but anteroventral and posteroventral setae somewhat longer. Hind femur mostly with very short setae anteroventrally, only 6–7 anteroventral setae on about apical third moderately long; covered with moderately long setae anteriorly and on basal part posteriorly. Fore tibia with numerous fine, moderately long setae over entire length posterodorsally, 2–3 similar anterodorsal setae on about basal third. Mid tibia ( Fig. 58 ) with numerous dense very long (2–2.5X longer than tibia width) setae dorsally and posterodorsally; numerous anteroventral and posteroventral setae becoming spine-like closer to apex. Hind tibia ( Fig. 59 ) with numerous long setae dorsally and shorter setae anteroventrally; 1 seta in posteroapical comb. Fore basitarsus with some fine setae posterodorsally (as on fore tibia); mid basitarsus with several very long setae dorsally (as on mid tibia); hind basitarsus with several long setae dorsally.

Wing membrane whitish, with brownish veins; all veins complete (except Sc), CuA+CuP (anal vein) weaker sclerotised on about basal half. Pterostigma brownish yellow. Basal costal seta present, long. Anal lobe welldeveloped; axillary incision right-angle. Squama brownish, dark fringed. Halter with brown knob and reddish brown stem.

Abdomen dark, densely light grey pruinescent; covered with short to moderately long black fine setae (except noted). Tergite 7 with unmodified structure but bearing 4 erect medial posteromarginal setae longer and stronger than posteromarginal setae on tergite 6. Sternite 7 with similar structure and setation to sternite 6. Segment 8 with tergite and sternite separated but pleural space indistinct. Tergite 8 about 2X shorter than tergite 7, somewhat upturned posteriorly, with truncate posterior margin, without projections; bearing 2 long, strong erect posteromarginal setae medially. Sternite 8 large, somewhat longer than sternite 7 (lateral view); with numerous dense very long setae near posterior margin.

Terminalia ( Figs 60, 61 ) brownish, black setose. Cerci separated from each other and from epandrium, not extended anteriorly beyond tergite 8; covered with mostly fine setulae, some marginal setulae on inner face stronger; cercus slightly shorter than epandrium, subrectangular, rounded apically (lateral view), with dorsal notch forming long pointed finger-like projection on about basal third; short broad inner projection subapically (dorsal view); without pair of subepandrial lobes beneath. Epandrium subtriangular, rounded apically, with several long setae on about middle and along lower margin, bearing cluster of somewhat finer numerous dense setae near apex. Hypandrium invisible in situ, rim-like, entirely sclerotized, bare. Phallus ( Fig. 59 ) exposed on about middle third; expanded on basal part, gently sinuate near middle, not extended beyond cerci. Ejaculatory apodeme slightly extended beyond basal curvature of phallus, with broad lateral wings and somewhat narrower vertical wing.

Female (described for first time). Similar to male, except frons very broad, parallel-sided, with marginal setulae; eye ommatidia equally small; ocellar tubercle and occiput with shorter and stronger setae; thorax with somewhat shorter setation; legs covered with short simple setae; wing membrane uniformly faintly brownish infuscate, anal vein uniformly sclerotised; abdomen slightly darker pruinescent; cercus long slender, with dark setulae.

Distribution. Holarctic; in Eurasia the species is known only from the arctic region of Russia. This species is also known from North America (T. Saigusa, unpubl. data), but further details were not available.

Remarks. Rhamphomyia kaninensis belongs to the R. hirtula group. Frey described this species after three males collected from the Kanin Peninsula (Arkhangelskaya Province, Russia), one male in MZH was examined by IVS. Frey (1913: 8) noted that this species was collected on bushes of Salix in the tundra.

Figures

FIGURES 56–61. Rhamphomyia, male. 56. R. hirtula Zetterstedt, habitus, lateral view; 57–61. R. kaninensis Frey. 57. habitus, lateral view; 58. mid leg, anterior view; 59. hind leg, anterior view; 60. terminalia, lateral view; 61. phallus, lateral view. Abbreviations: cerc—cercus; ej apod—ejaculatory apodeme; epand—epandrium; hypd—hypandrium; ph—phallus.