Nigripeza octa, Marshall, 2022

Marshall, Stephen A., 2022, Amapeza and Nigripeza, new genera of Neotropical micropezid flies (Diptera, Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), Zootaxa 5092 (3), pp. 251-272 : 269-270

Nigripeza octa new species

Figures 9A–9F

Description: Colour: Body mostly black, frontal vitta and orbital strips orange at anterior margin, slightly darker behind; mid femur with a subbasal band about twice as long as wide; hind femur yellow with a short distinct dark subbasal band separated by its own length from base of femur, a longer distomedian band and a very short and weak preapical band. Tergites black with dense fine silvery microsetulosity. Abdominal pleuron with a large dark pleural sack on P2, otherwise mostly white.

Head: Frontal vitta almost parallel sided behind ocelli, expanded and strongly elevated in front of ocelli, hardly tapered anteriorly and thus broad at anterior margin. Orbital plate finely striate, dull; epicephalon smooth, shiny. Clypeus sparsely microsetulose on anterior margin and posterolateral corners.

Thorax: Usually two (pairs of) dorsocentral bristles (left postsutural dorsocentral bristle missing on holotype male). Mesopleuron with a relatively narrow vertical band of dense silvery microsetulosity extending from anteroventral margin of katepisternum to margin of notum; pleuron otherwise sparsely microsetulose except for the shiny bare anterior third of anepisternum. Notum uniformly, sparsely and indistinctly microsetulose, with a barely distinguishable underlying pattern of dark vittae flanked by silvery margins.

Abdomen: Upper halves of P1 and P3 white, circular patch on P2 very dark, remainder of pleuron slightly darkened.

Female abdomen: Oviscape lost on female paratype

Male abdomen. Genital fork shallowly cleft at base, each arm elongate, subequal in length to base; slightly incurved at apex, with 1–2 short stout mesal bristles on basal half and about 6 on distal half, mostly clustered at apex. Distiphallus short and very broad, ending in a relatively broad phallic bulb about half as long as basal distiphallus. Ejaculatory apodeme larger than epandrium.

Type material: Holotype (♂, MNCR) COSTA RICA. San José, San Carlos, Riosparaiso Reserve, Pecari Station , 16km NNE Quepos, 9°33’53”N 84°7’32”W, 400m, 15.ii.2003, S.A. Marshall . Paratypes: COSTA RICA. Puntarenas, Estacion Sirena, 5m, 13–28.Mar.1995, M. Chinchilla (1♀, MNCR); Estacion Rio Bonito , 2.5 km Cero la Gamba, 110m, 9–26.Mar.1996, E. Fletes (1♂, MNCR) .

Etymology: The name Nigripeza octa was applied to this species because it has long carried the manuscript name "species 8".

Comments: Nigripeza octa is the only Central American species in this otherwise South American genus. The holotype shows unusual apparent asymmetry in the number of dorsocentral bristles, a character that is usually stable and symmetrical. A specimen of this species (labelled TAE089) was treated under the manuscript name Grallipeza " octa " in Jackson et al 2015. It was the only species of Nigripeza or Amapeza included in that paper, in which the Majority Rule Consensus cladogram recovered it as sister to a clade including Hoplocheiloma Cresson and the one species of Grallipeza ss included in the paper.

Figures

FIGURES 9A–9F. Nigripeza octa new species, Costa Rica.A, head anterior; B, holotype male habitus; C, head lateral; D, male abdomen ventral; E, male terminalia, left lateral with aedeagal apodeme and sperm pump detached; F, living male.