Agrophaspidium hastatum (Duda) Duda, 2008

Wheeler, Terry A. & Mlynarek, Julia J., 2008, Systematics of Agrophaspidium, a new genus of Neotropical Chloropidae (Diptera), Zootaxa 1926, pp. 41-52 : 44

Agrophaspidium hastatum (Duda) , comb. n.

Dactylothyrea hastata Duda, 1930: 74 .

Acanthopeltastes hastatus: Sabrosky and Paganelli, 1984: 5 .

Type material: Holotype Ψ: COSTA RICA: La Suiza de Turrialba ( HNHM, not examined, see Remarks).

Remarks: We did not examine the female holotype of D. hastata . Our interpretation of the species is based on extensive notes and illustrations of the holotype made at HNHM by C.W. Sabrosky in 1938, 1960 and 1975.

Duda (1930) assigned most Neotropical species with scutellar projections to Dactylothyrea de Meijere, an Old World oscinelline genus that is not closely related to Agrophaspidium . Sabrosky and Paganelli (1984) transferred D. hastata , along with other Neotropical species then assigned to Dactylothyrea , to the Neotropical genus Acanthopeltastes Enderlein. Although species of that genus also have scutellar projections, Acanthopeltastes species have several synapomorphic character states not found in D. hastata . This species belongs to Agrophaspidium based on the structure of the scutellum, the wing venation and the absence of most defining apomorphies of Acanthopeltastes . However, the holotype is female and, as such, it is impossible to associate the name with one of the other known species. The leg colour and thoracic structure correspond most closely to those of A. psilotum , but the frontal triangle is entirely polished (anterior apex pollinose in male A. psilotum ) and the palpus is dark (yellow in male A. psilotum ). In the absence of additional evidence, we cannot be certain whether this represents sexual dimorphism or species-level differences.