Aciuroides insecta Hendel 1914

Kameneva, Elena P., 2012, Revision of Aciuroides Hendel and Neoacanthoneura Hendel (Diptera: Ulidiidae: Pterocallini), Zootaxa 3227, pp. 1-33 : 8-11

Aciuroides insecta Hendel 1914

( Figs. 2 , 10–11, 14–15, 19–26)

Aciuroides insecta Hendel 1914 a: 172 (male);

Aciuroides insecta: Hering 1941 b: 199 (female);

Aciuroides plaumanni: Hering 1941 b: 199 (male), new synonym.

Type material. Holotype ♂ Aciuroides insecta : PARAGUAY, " Paraguay / 21.X.07 / Hohenau 250 m ", "65.", " Aciuroides / insecta H. / det. Hendel ", "Typus" [red carton handwritten label] ( MTD) . Holotype ♂ Aciuroides plaumanni : BRAZIL, "Brasilien // Nova Teutonia // 27º11'B 52º23'L // Fritz Plaumann // XII.1937 ", " ♂ ", "Type" [red paper label], " Aciuroides // insecta m. // ♂ Type // det. M. Hering 1940" ( DEI) . Paratypes A. plaumanni : 2♂, BRAZIL, "Brasilien // Nova Teutonia // 27º11'B 52º23'L // Fritz Plaumann // XII.1937 ", " ♂ ", " Paratype " [red paper], " Aciuroides // plaumanni m. // P. T. // det. M. Hering 1940" and " ♂ ", " Aciuroides / plaumanni m. / P. T. / det. M. Hering 1940" ( ZMHB) ; ♂? (wing and abdomen missing), same place and date, " No 31 // beim Klop // im Urvalde ", " ♂ ", " Aciuroides / plaumanni m. / P. T. / det. M. Hering 1940" ( ZMHB) .

Non-type material. BRAZIL: ♀, Nova Teutonia , 9.VIII.1937, " ♀ ", " Aciuroides insecta Hend. det. M. Hering 1940" ( ZMHB) ; 3♂, 3♀, same place, 1.XI.1937, 28.III.1938, 12.X.1938 (male genitalia dissected and kept in genitalia vial), 14.X.1938, 21.10.1938 (1 female genitalia dissected and kept in genitalia vial) ( BMNH) .

Diagnosis. Aciuroides insecta can be distinguished from A. gephyra by the combination of the wing pattern, which consists of a dark brown field with hyaline cuneiform incisions and rounded spots (rather similar in both sexes) (Figs. 10–11), and the aculeus of the female flattened and widened, with a pointed and barbed cercal unit ( Fig. 25 ).

Description. Head ( Fig. 2 ), its setae and appendages as described for A. gephyra ; length: height: width ratio 1: 1.5: 1.6; compound eye 1.6 times as high as long and frons 1.4 times as long as wide; face ca. 1.4 times as long as antenna, gena half as high as flagellomere 1 and 0.17 times as high as male eye. Thorax brown (prothoracic sclerites including postpronotal lobe sometimes partly yellow), with whitish microtrichia not covering color of underlying cuticle. Legs with coxae, femora and tibiae mostly brown; fore femur with 2 posterodorsal and 1 posteroventral row of setae; midtibial spur twice as long as width of tibia; hind femur with 2 dorsal preapical setae as long as width of femur; all tarsal setulae black. Wing (Figs. 10, 14, 15) somewhat narrower than in A. gephyra , 2.75–2.85 times as long as wide, with pterostigma narrow, 0.95–1.0 times as long as costal cell. Wing mostly dark brown, basicostal cell and base of costal cell pale brown (posteriorly to M vein), second quarter of costal cell with hyaline spot (posteriorly forming hyaline incision or crossband reaching posterobasal corner of wing); apical half with 2 brown bars and yellow or pale brown area between them, posteriorly reaching to vein M; basal half of pterostigma with hyaline spot extending as hyaline incision to R4+5 or M; apical half of pterostigma brown and yellow, widened posterior to R4+5 as brown-bordered yellow band; cell r1 distal of R1 apex with 2 triangular or trapezoid hyaline spots, usually extending into cell r2+3; basal half of cell r4+5 with 2 hyaline spots sometimes touching hyaline incision in cell m; cell dm grayish brown, with narrowly hyaline base and spot proximal of crossvein r-m level; cell cua1 brown, paler at posterior margin, with hyaline spots in cell dm extending beyond vein CuA1 to posterior wing margin; cells br, bcu and anal lobe entirely hyaline. Costal vein evenly arcuate, with thin, non-modified setulae, vein R1 setulose over its entire length, subparallel to costa; vein R2+3 slightly undulate. Vein M ratio m3: m2: m4 = 1: 2.3–2.75: 2.5–2.7. Wing length 4.2 mm. Male abdomen brownish black, except tergite 1 and sternites brownish yellow; male terminalia as described for genus, epandrium brown, surstyli 1.3 times as long as epandrium, with mesally directed anterior lobe and two blunt subapical prensisetae ( Fig. 22 ).

Female similar to male; wing (Figs. 11, 15) 2.9 times as long as wide; pterostigma 0.9 times as long as costal cell; vein M ratio m3: m2: m4 = 1: 4.0: 3.8. Wing length 4.5 mm. Abdomen subshining black, with black setulae and setae; oviscape black, as long as 4 posteriormost tergites combined; eversible membrane not examined (shriveled in dissected specimen); aculeus ( Fig. 25 ) flattened, wide, 4.8 times as long as wide, triangular apically pointed cercal unit 0.8 times as wide as basal part of aculeus and 1.5 times as long as wide, with 4 pairs of short mediolateral and 1 pair of ventrobasal setulae on lateral processes. 3 spherical (collapsed in dissection!) spermathecae ( Fig. 26 ).

Remarks. The female that Hering (1941 b) assigned to A. insecta originated from the same locality as the type series of A. plaumanni . Differences of A. plaumanni and A. insecta according to Hering (1941 b) are the smaller size of the latter, and fusion of the hyaline spot in the apical half of the cell br to the hyaline incision in the costal cell (rather than to the one in dm cell). In fact, its position depends on the relative length of the second section of the M vein, between bm-cu and r-m crossvein (m2), which is variable even among ♂ originally identified by Hering as A. plaumanni . I believe this character to be of no taxonomic value and synonymize both names.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. Heads, left (1 – 6) and head and mesonotum, dorsally (7 )): 1, Aciuroides gephyra; 2, A. insecta; 3, Neoacanthoneura trypetina; 4, N. magnipennis; 5, N. euphrantina; 6, N. geomyzina; 7, N. euphrantina. Abbreviations: dc—dorsocentral seta, fr—frontal seta, oc—ocellar seta, or—orbital seta.

FIGURES 19 – 26. Aciuroides insecta (Brazil: Nova Teutonia (BMNH), 3 (19 – 24) and Ƥ (25 – 26): 19, sternites 3 – 5 and terminalia, ventrally; 20, terminalia, detached, ventrally; 21, sternite 8 and epandrium, posteriorly; 22, epandrium, laterally; 23, apex of phallus; 24, ejaculator; 25, aculeus; 26, spermathecae. Abbreviations: ceu—cercal unit, eja—ejaculatory apodeme, epepandrium, ls—lateral surstylus, pr—prensisetae, spp—sperm pump, st 5 — sternite 5, st 8 — sternite 8.