Melaloncha (Udamochiras) nielsi, Brown, Brian V., 2016

Brown, Brian V., 2016, Two new bee-killing flies from Brazil (Insecta: Diptera: Phoridae: Melaloncha), Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 7715-7715 : 7715

Melaloncha (Udamochiras) nielsi sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LACM ENT 335989 ; recordedBy: A. Henriques; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Location: country: Brazil; stateProvince: AM; verbatimLocality: Manaus, Reserva Ducke, Igarapé Barro Branco; locationRemarks: 20m above forest floor; Event: samplingProtocol: Arm. Suspensa; eventDate: 2004-11-8/18; verbatimEventDate: 08-18.xi.2004; Record Level: institutionID: INPA; ownerInstitutionCode: INPA; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Female (Figs 5, 6, 7). Body length approximately 3.8 mm. Frons orange, except ocellar triangle black; sculpturing finely reticulate with numerous lateral punctures, most bearing setae. Frons 0.22 head width. Dorsal interfrontal setae absent. Flagellomere 1 yellow. Palpus yellow, with black setae. Dorsal postocular setae black; genal and other postocular setae black. Thorax mostly black. Anterior scutellar seta long, thin, posterior scutellar seta extremely long. Legs brown, mid- and hind legs dark brown. Foretibia with irregular dorsal bare area. Foretarsomeres missing from both legs. Claws visible only on one hind leg, apically bifurcate. Costa 0.61 wing length. Wing vein R2+3 absent. Halter brown. Abdominal tergites brown with silvery iridescence. Venter of abdomen gray. Oviscape black, with dense, strong black setae basally, dorsally, and ventrally; apically laterally flattened, dorsal surface curved ventrally, ventral surface straight.

Diagnosis

Large dark species with oviscape densely setose at base, laterally flattened, dorsal surface curved ventrally. In the key to species ( Brown 2004a), M. nielsi comes closest to M. valeria Brown, from which it differs by the dense black setae (absent from M. valeria ) and greatly compressed structure of the oviscape. It does not resemble any of the more recently described species of Melaloncha (Udamochiras) ( Gonzalez and Brown 2004, Brown 2009, Braet 2013).

Etymology

Named for Niels Jensen at the request of Sara Jensen, a supporter of the Entomology Department of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Distribution

Brazil

Ecology

Unknown, but presumably parasitoids of stingless bees like most other Melaloncha species.