Amapeza camelina, Marshall, 2022

Marshall, Stephen A., 2022, Amapeza and Nigripeza, new genera of Neotropical micropezid flies (Diptera, Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), Zootaxa 5092 (3), pp. 251-272 : 257

Amapeza camelina new species

Figures 3A–3G

Description: Size 8–9 mm. Colour: Head mostly orange except for black ocellar plate, shining dark brown clypeus, and dark reddish brown epicephalon. Thorax dark brown with anterior and lateral margins somewhat paler; proepisternum with a longitudinal black band just above ventral margin. Fore femur and fore tibia dark brown with pale setulae distally, fore tarsomeres 1–3 white, 4–5 sometimes slightly browned. Mid and hind femora uniformly pale brown. Wing generally infuscate, discal band barely distinguishable from surrounding membrane. Male abdomen with T1–6 dark brown, terminalia yellow-brown; pleuron black microsetulose on P1–2 and on ventral third of P3–5, otherwise uniformly white. Abdomen of female with T1–6 dark brown, oviscape orangebrown, darker along dorsal midline; pleuron entirely dirty white with black microsetulosity.

Head: Frontal vitta slightly broadened before ocelli, tapered anteriorly, anterior margin 0.3X width of frons. Orbital plate barely differentiated from frontal vitta; epicephalon bare and shiny. Clypeus entirely bare except for microsetulose posterolateral margins.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite shiny and posteroventrally projecting in both sexes. Proepisternum with marginal row of about 12 black setae. Postpronotal lobe microsetulose and with long hairs on posterior half, slightly depressed anterior to middle so anterior margin seems slightly elevated. Two dorsocentral bristles. Suprahumeral bristles small and exclinate, barely distinguishable from row of dorsocentral setulae.

Female abdomen: Oviscape distinctively shaped with a large dorsobasal hump. Major (paired) spermathecal duct distally gradually expanded to form an elongate funnel with short convoluted stems running from its mouth to 2 shorter funnel-shaped spermathecae, each with a deep distal invagination. Minor duct much thinner, about 2/3 as long and running to a minute spermatheca.

Male abdomen: S5 broad, genital fork with a deep but narrow basal cleft, arms of genital fork setose and strongly incurved with long bristles and a few short, stout bristles on mesal surface. Ejaculatory apodeme larger than epandrium. Distiphallus with a elongate basal portion about 1.5X length of epandrium, basal distiphallus separated from distal distiphallus by a distinct but compact phallic bulb, distal distiphallus recurved dorsally and ending in a distinct cylindrical swelling (glans).

Type material: Holotype (♀, USNM). ECUADOR. Napo, Res. Ethnica Waorani, 1 km S Onkone Gare Camp, TransEnt 7.Oct. 1994, 220m, 00°39'10"S 076°26'W, T. L. Erwin et al., insecticidal fogging of mostly bare green leaves, some with covering of lichens or bryophytic plants in terre firme forest at station 9, Project Maxus lot 898.

Paratypes: ECUADOR. Same locality as holotype, but lots 897 and 949 (1♀, 1♂, USNM) ; Jatun Sacha Reserve , 6 km E Misahualli, 450m, Apr. 6–8.May.2002, S.A. Marshall (1♂, 1♀, DEBU) ; Orellano , Yasuni Research Station, 0 °40'50'S 76°24'2'W, 28.Apr–02.May.2009, S.A. Marshall (1♂, 1♀ photographed and collected, QCAZ) .

Etymology: The specific name, from the Latin for "camel", reflects the unique and distinctive strongly humped oviscape of this species.

Comments: Although its dark body colour gives Amapeza camelina a superficial similarity to Nigripeza , it can be recognized as an Amapeza by its distinctively shaped white-fringed palpus and pubescent antenna. Both male and female genitalia are distinctive and suggest a close relationship to A. amazonica , A. hyaloptera and A. plicata . The dorsally recurved and distally swollen distiphallus apex is an unusual synapomorphy linking these four species, although a similar structure appears as an apparent homoplasy in the Afrotropical genus Aristobatina Verbeke , in which it was referred to as a "glans" ( Marshall, 2014).

Figures

FIGURES 3A–3G. Amapeza camelina new species. A, female, Ecuador; B, female abdomen to show humped oviscape; C, male sternite 5 (genital fork); D, male terminalia, left lateral; E, male abdominal segments 4, 5 and terminalia, ventral; F, spermathecae; G, spermathecae and associated ducts.