Sabroskya schlingeri, Winterton, Shaun L. & Gillung, Jessica P., 2012

Winterton, Shaun L. & Gillung, Jessica P., 2012, A new species of spider fly in the genus Sabroskya Schlinger from Malawi, with a key to Acrocerinae world genera (Diptera, Acroceridae), ZooKeys 171, pp. 1-15 : 7-9

Sabroskya schlingeri sp. n. Figures 3B, 3C4-6

Type material.

Holotype male, MALAWI: Northern Province: North Viphya Mts, 1500 m, Rt. M1, 21-22.ix.1998, 10 km S Chikangawa [-11.929, 33.747], F. Kaplan, A. Freidberg (TAU).

Diagnosis.

Wing venation black; vein R2+3 absent; wing hyaline, smoky infuscate anteriorly; flagellum with subterminal seta present; lower calypter pile short, dark; thoracic and abdominal pile black; palpi absent; hind coxae with setae on posterior surface; paler areas of abdominal tergites connected medially.

Description.

Body length 5.0 mm (male). Head. Eye brown, densely pilose with setae approximately length of tarsal claw; posterior margin of eye not emarginate; ocellar tubercle glossy black and raised around ocelli; occiput glossy black, coriacious, pile black; postocular ridge, gena to parafacial with narrow grey pubescent ridge; palpus absent; margin of oral cavity apilose; proboscis shorter than head length (Fig. 3C); antenna brown; flagellum apex with relatively elongate terminal seta, subterminal seta(e) present laterally. Thorax. Scutum glossy black with bronze suffusion anteriorly, postalar callus yellowish; vestiture as dense brown-black pile, paler on postalar callus; scutellum glossy black with dense black pile; pleuron glossy black with brown to yellowish pile; coxae black with yellow pile; femora dark yellow with black suffusion basally, pile yellow; tibiae yellow with short yellow pile; tarsi yellow; lower calypter hyaline with darkish margin; pile on membrane and along rim yellow to brown; wing hyaline, slightly smoky infuscate anteriorly, venation dark; vein R2+3 absent (Fig. 3B); M2 very short. Abdomen. Elongate globose, slightly wider than thorax, tergites dark brown anteriorly, yellow laterally and meeting posteromedially; covered with brown-black setae, erect and tufted medially on each tergite. Male genitalia: not dissected, externally similar to Sabroskya ogcodoides .

Etymology.

The specific epithet is named in honor of Evert I. Schlinger, a foremost expert on world Acroceridae taxonomy and patron of dipterology. Evert Schlinger had previously identified that this specimen represented a new species of Sabroskya .

Comments.

Sabroskya schlingeri sp. n. is known only from a single male specimen from Malawi. A label on the pin of the holotype indicates that E. I. Schlinger had recognized that this species was a new taxon separate from the two previously described species. This is the most northern record for the genus, with both previously described species recorded from Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces of South Africa. The lack of vein R2+3, dark vestiture and wing venation, and smoky infuscate wing readily differentiate this species from Sabroskya palpalis and Sabroskya ogcodoides.