Copestylum tapia, Rotheray & Hancock & Marcos-García, 2007

Rotheray, G. E., Hancock, E. G. & Marcos-García, M. A., 2007, Neotropical Copestylum (Diptera, Syrphidae) breeding in bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) including 22 new species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 150 (2), pp. 267-317 : 306-307

021. COPESTYLUM TAPIA SP. NOV. ROTHERAY &

HANCOCK

Diagnosis – male holotype: Face shiny, dust confined to band under the antennae; face yellow with sharply defined cental and lateral black vittae ( Fig. 21 ); frons black and black haired with white dust on lateral margins; hairs absent from lower margin of the eyes; eye hairs yellow, except for band of black hairs on top of the the flattened, inclined head; mesonotum and scutellum shiny metallic black; mesonotum with long, black, and short, white hairs; no prescutellar bristles; scutellum with apical depression and mixed length black hairs; upper half of the sides of the thorax yellow, and black below; wings black microtrichose, except near the base so that the wings appear infused black with a hyaline blotch near the base; R1 closed; legs entirely black with black hairs,except some yellow hairs on the posterior margin of the hind femorae; abdomen – tergite 1 whitish and with white and black hairs, tergite 2 with a pair of large white spots with a narrow black band at the apex, white haired over the spots, otherwise black haired; basal half of tergites 3 and 4 with whitish spots coated in white hairs, otherwise tergites black and black haired; sternites black and black haired, except for central yellow and yellow haired spots on sternites 2 and 3; genitalia – surstylus with basal projection coated in long setae; epandrium with projection at point of articulation with hypandrium; hypandrium with a pair of windows; superior lobes simple with one hook ( Figs 72, 73, 74 ); female – frons bright black with short white hairs; width of vertex about 14.25% width of head; sixth abdominal segment with six long, white, apical hairs. Length: body, 9.50–10.00 mm; wing 9– 11 mm (N = 22).

Diagnosis – larva and puparium ( Fig. 87 ): Projection bearing antennomaxillary organs nodulate, dorsal lip with a tuft of short setae; lateral lips with stout setae basally, and fine setae apically, not meeting apically, feeding channel not deep; thorax not wider than abdomen; anterior fold with a band of between seven and nine rows of brown spicules, becoming shorter anteriorly and not reaching sensilla 3 of prothorax; prothorax without spicules; anterior spiracles about as long as broad with three openings across the apex; vestiture of long, fine setae matted together; this type of vestiture also coating the lateral margins, and also on the ventral surface where it is not as long; lateral margins of mesothorax with up to six spicules and a paired group of spicules present on antero-ventral margin of metathorax; mesothoracic prolegs commashaped, coated in matted pubescense with short, medially arranged crochets; prolegs on abdominal segments 1–6, transverse with three rows of browntipped spicules, segmental sensilla mounted on fleshy projections with long apical setae, these projections longer on lateral margins of the abdomen, but not longer than half the length of lappets; lappet 1 about half as long as lappet 2; lappets 2 and 3 on lateral margin; posterior breathing tube orange, less than two times the width of a pupal spiracle, matt and coriaceous basally, shining and lightly punctured above transverse ridge; not tapered at apex; three pairs of sinusoidal openings; pupal spiracles orange, long, longer than distance apart, slightly curved, punctate basally, smooth, and shining with openings spread apart, mostly further apart than their width across, not on raised bands and reaching below halfway point, coated in long, conspicuous setae, several times longer than width of an opening; head skeleton – ventral cornu under five times as short as dorsal cornu; dorsal cornu about half as wide as ventral cornu; dorsal bridge present; sclerotized tentorial bars width unchanged beyond ventral bridge; mandibles and mandibular apodeme as wide as tentorial bars.

Material examined – holotype: Male with puparium, Ecuador, Pinchincha, Otonga Reserva, 2–14 July 2002, ex fallen decaying bromeliad ( Bromeliaceae ), EGH & GER ( NMS) .

Material examined – paratypes: Two males caught by handnet flying in subcanopy, same site as holotype, 21–26 August 2000, EGH & GER ( HM); nine males and ten females with puparia, same data as holotype (one male and one female each to CIBIO, HM, PUCE, with the rest to NMS) .

Material examined – additional material: Two larvae, same data as holotype ( NMS) .

Etymology: The name ‘ tapia’ is in reference to Don Cesar Tapia, in recognition for his help and assistance during fieldwork at Otonga, Ecuador.

Taxonomic notes: The adult of C. tapia is most similar to C. albertoi among bromeliad Copestylum . Both are relatively dark species with a depression at the apex of the scutellum, black legs, upper half of the sides of the thorax bright yellow, and tergite 2 with large white spots. This colour pattern is also found in C. barbara , C. elizabethae and Copestylum xalapaensis , but these three species do not have a scutellar depression. The same colour pattern is also found in C. conabioi , but the apex of the scutellum of that species has a ridge not a depression. C. tapia is most easily separated from C. albertoi by the mesonotum, which lacks lateral yellow vittae. Among other Copestylum , C. tapia most closely resembles Copestylum cupricolor (Hull, 1948) , Copestylum lucilia (Hull, 1950) , and Copestylum pertinax (Hull, 1950) in having sharply defined black vittae on the face, mesonotum without bristles, a scutellar depression, and tergites 3 and 4 with patches of white hairs. C. tapia differs from these species in lacking a yellow band at the apex to the mesonotum, and the peculiar long, white hairs at the apex of the sixth abdominal segment. Early stages of C. tapia are distinguished from other bromeliad Copestylum early stages by their subcyclindrical shape in cross-section, long, matted vestiture not in obvious, transverse rows, pupal spiracles with a coating of setae much longer than the width of a respiratory opening, and the posterior breathing tube not two times as wide as the pupal spiracles.

Biology: Reared from larvae found in fallen, decaying bromeliads in cloud forest in Ecuador.

Figures

Figures 19–22. Adult Copestylum, lateral view of the head; scale line = 3.5 mm. 19. Copestylum albertoi sp. nov., male holotype; 20. Copestylum conabioi sp. nov., male holotype; 21. Copestylum tapia sp. nov., male holotype; 22. Copestylum yowoi sp. nov., female holotype.

Figures 65–74. Adult Copestylum, male genitalia; right- and left-hand figures scale line = 0.50 mm, for middle column figures, left-hand scale line = 0.85 mm. 65–68. Copestylum albertoi sp. nov., male holotype: 65. genitalia and associated structures, lateral view; 66. hypandrium, ventral view; 67. surstylus, ventral view, 68. postanal plate, ventral view. 69–71. Copestylum conabioi sp. nov., male holotype: 69. genitalia and associated structures, lateral view; 70. hypandrium, ventral view; 71. surstylus, ventral view. 72–74. Copestylum tapia sp. nov., male holotype: 72. genitalia and associated structures, lateral view; 73. hypandrium, ventral view; 74. surstylus, ventral view.

Figures 86–92. Third stage larvae of Copestylum. 86. Copestylum lousiae, whole larva, head to the right, ventral view, length = 14 mm. 87. Copestylum tapia, whole larva, head to the right, dorsal view, length = 11 mm. 88. Copestylum barbara, crenate papillae from the dorsal surface of the anal segment. 89. Copestylum xalapensis, dentate spicules from the anterior fold of the prothorax. 90. Copestylum mamorum, vestiture of stout setae from the dorsal surface of the second abdominal segment. 91. Copestylum louisae, vestiture of long, fine setae from the dorsal surface of the second abdominal segment. 92. Copestylum puyarum, tapering spicules from the anterior fold of the prothorax.