Madagopsina makayensis Feijen, Feijen & Feijen sp. nov.

Figs 3-4, 5-8, 10, 15-17, 18-22, 24, 29, 30, 31

Type material.

Holotype, ♂ (RMNH), Madagascar, Makay, canyon, sous-bois, rive d’une rivière [undergrowth, riverbank], 21°10'11"S, 45°22'15"E, 528 m, 30.vii-3.viii.2017, leg. Benoît Gilles.

Diagnosis.

Madagopsina makayensis Feijen, Feijen & Feijen, sp. nov. can be recognised by its medium size (body length ♂ 7.3 mm), brown colour (however, due to conservation in alcohol it is likely that all the brown colours would be more yellowish in a live specimen, like in the other Madagopsina species), body mainly thinly pruinose (pollinose) with few small setulae, only katepisternum and katepimeron glossy, absence of facial teeth, medium-sized inner vertical seta (1.7 × stalk diameter), scutellar spines 2.0 × as long as scutellum, quite large apical seta (45% of scutellar spine length), incrassate fore femora with around 48 tubercles, irrorated wings with three vague crossbands including an H-shaped configuration with central and preapical crossbands, wing apex infuscated, central band slightly broader than preapical band, pale wing spots in cell r2+3 and cell m1, a vague pale spot in cell m4, abdomen club-shaped, no pruinose spots on tergites, ♂ spiracles 7 in slit of synsternite 7+8, surstyli rounded and bulbous with an apically rounded apophysis, microtrichia on posterior apical third, phallapodeme with ratio posterior arm/anterior arm 1.05, straight ejaculatory apodeme with only a slight sickle-shape apically, phallus remarkably broad and sclerotised, assumed moderate sexual dimorphism with regards to eye span (D ≈ 1.0), ratio eye span/body length ~ 1.20 in ♂. Madagopsina makayensis Feijen, Feijen & Feijen, sp. nov. belongs to the M. apollo species group, which furthermore includes M. apollo and M. parvapollina .

Description.

Measurements. Body length ♂ 7.3 mm; eye span 8.8 mm; wing length 5.9 mm; length of scutellar spine 1.01 mm.

Head. Central part brown, ocellar tubercle and arcuate groove dark brown; central head thinly pruinose (Figs 3 - 6); an elongate bulbous medial ridge in front of ocellar tubercle, parallel grooves on both sides of this ridge, lateral areas of frons flat; medial occiput flat; face convex in profile, facial corners square, no facial teeth (Figs 5, 6); clypeus small, not protruding; arista finely microtrichose on less than basal half; the rate of dimorphism cannot be calculated, but in the graph (Fig. 31) with the allometric lines for the three species of the M. apollo species group it can be seen that the single data point is located in line with the allometric line for M. parvapollina males, while given that the slopes for the females for the species must be almost identical, it follows that D for the new species must be almost identical to the D = 0.98 for M. parvapollina or slightly higher (see also the section "Allometric aspects with regard to eye span" below); eye span large in male (119.6% of body length), also a comparison of this ratio eye span/body length of the single male with the mean ratio eye span/body length of the other Madagopsina species (Feijen et al. 2018) supports the view that this is a dimorphic species with a moderate rate of dimorphism D ≈ 1.0; stalks thinly pruinose, brown, broad apical parts dark, funiculus brown, pruinose; inner vertical seta medium-sized, 1.7 × diameter of eye stalk (Figs 3, 5), base of inner vertical seta a minor elevation, one-eighth diameter of the stalk; outer vertical seta broken off; central head and stalks with a few tiny white setulae.

Thorax. Collar, scutum, scutellum and postscutellum pruinose, brown (Figs 3, 4), spines glossy; pleura dorsally brownish pruinose, katepisternum and katepimeron largely glossy; ratio scutal length/scutal width ~ 0.80; scutellar spines almost straight, diverging under an angle of ~ 65°, ratio scutellar spine/scutellum in ♂, 2.00, ratio scutellar spine/body length in ♂, 0.14; metapleural spines well developed, pointing almost laterally (Fig. 3); apical seta quite large, 45% of length of scutellar spine, posteriorly directed (Figs 4, 7, in Fig. 7 the seta is not in its natural, posteriorly directed, position); scutum almost devoid of setulae, scutellar spines with each ~ 10 small setulae, not on warts.

Wing. Irrorated with a rather vague, brownish, H-shaped configuration; apex (8% of wing length) with brownish infuscation (convex on proximal side); 3 crossbands, the basal and central band hardly separated, a pale preapical band and three pale spots (Figs 3, 10); preapical crossband (distal leg of H) broad, marginally darker than other bands and with slightly irregular edges; preapical band connected to central band in cell r1, in cell r4+5 and around veins R2+3 and R4+5; central band slightly broader than preapical band and with ill-defined proximal edge, only in cell m4 vaguely separated from basal band; basal band running from cell c to posterior wing margin, widening posteriorly; this infuscation pattern creates a pale (but not hyaline) preapical band between dark preapical band and infuscated wing apex, two pale spots between central and dark preapical bands (one in cell r2+3 and one in cell m1), and one vague pale spot centrally in cell m4 between basal and central band (Figs 3, 10); glabrous basal areas include basal apices of cell c and cell r1, basal half of cell br, basal quarter of cell bm+dm except for posterior margin and basal third of cell cua; vein M4 reaching to just beyond halfway the wing margin.

Legs. Coxa 1 pale yellowish, glossy but with dense white pruinescence on anterior side, trochanter 1 pale, pruinose; fore femur yellowish brown but dorsally darker, glossy but dorsally and apically pruinose; fore tibia and metatarsus darker brown, other fore tarsi pale and covered with whitish pruinescence; mid- and hind legs more uniformly yellowish, femora pruinose dorsally and with dark brown spot on apical fifth; femur 1 (Figs 3, 4) incrassate in ♂ (ratio of length/width 3.2), two rows of tubercles on distal two-thirds, inner row in ♂ with 25 and 28 tubercles (mean 26.5, n = 2), outer row in ♂ with 21 and 22 tubercles (mean 21.5, n = 2); femur 1 with whitish setulae ventrally.

Preabdomen. Abdomen club-shaped (ratio length/broadest width 2.8); syntergite gradually widening posteriorly, seam between tergites 1 and 2 not visible, suture between tergites 2 and 3 distinct (Fig. 8); tergites uniformly yellowish brown (Figs 3, 8), thinly pruinose; syntergite basally with white setulae laterally, otherwise tergites with a few whitish setulae; anterior line-like section (intersternite 1-2) of sternite 2 not linked to main sternite 2 (Fig. 15); ratio length sternites 1+2+3/width posterior sternite 2 2.8 in ♂, ratio length/width of sternite 2 1.2 in ♂; sternites very pale, pruinose (except for basal two-thirds of sternite 1); spiracle 1 in tergite (Fig. 15).

Postabdomen male. Sternite 4 a rectangular plate; sternite 5 (Fig. 16) a rectangular plate, slightly more sclerotised laterally; sternite 6 vague with a pair of small sclerotised sections (Fig. 16); synsternite 7+8 quite large, symmetrical, narrowing laterally, lateral slits enclosing hardly sclerotised areas (Fig. 17); both spiracles located in the lateral slits of the synsternite (Fig. 17); epandrium (Fig. 18) rounded, with ~ 11 pairs of setulae, ventrally bare, otherwise clothed in microtrichia; surstyli (Figs 19, 24) articulated, apically broadening, apex rounded and bulbous, with a long, apically broadening and rounded, apophysis; in posterior view (Fig. 24) a few small setulae on apical halves of surstylus and apophysis with the apical third of the surstylus and only the apex of the apophysis clothed in microtrichia, on inner side only microtrichia on the apices of surstylus and its apophysis with a few small setulae on apophysis and apical third of surstylus (Fig. 19); surstyli interconnected via thin, rod-like processus longi (Fig. 18); cerci rather broad, ratio of length/width 1.9, basally and apically tapering, apex rounded, clothed in microtrichia and a set of setulae, some of the apical setulae almost as long as the cerci (Fig. 18); hypandrial clasper (Fig. 20) straight and rod-like with relatively long setulae on distal half; phallapodeme solidly built and rather straight (Fig. 21), anterior arm rounded apically, posterior arm slightly longer than anterior arm (ratio posterior arm/anterior arm 1.05) and strongly bifurcated to accommodate the very broad phallus; phallus (Fig. 21) a rather short complex of lobes and sclerites, remarkably broad and heavily sclerotised, intromittent organ very short; ejaculatory apodeme straight, hardly broadening apically except for a small sickle-shape of apex (Fig. 22), ejaculatory sac rounded.

Distribution and habitat.

The new species is only known from the Makay massif in Toliara province. The Makay is a mountain range of almost 4000 km2 in southwestern Madagascar. The altitude varies from 200 m at the bottom of canyons to 1000 m for the plateaus. The Makay with its exceptional biodiversity (see Wendenbaum 2011) is considered to be one of the least studied areas in Madagascar. Its forests belong to the deciduous, seasonally dry, western forests of low altitude (Du Puy and Moat 1999). In the dry season, wet areas remain near the rivers. Many Diopsidae, including aggregations, were observed on vegetation in wet, shady places. The single specimen of this new species was collected in undergrowth along a riverbank at an altitude of 527 m. On the same location the following Diopsidae were collected: 5 ♀ and 5 ♂ Sphyracephala beccarii (Rondani), 5 ♀ and 2 ♂ Diopsis nigrosicus Séguy, and 1 ♂ M. parvapollina .

Etymology.

This species is named M. makayensis Feijen, Feijen & Feijen, sp. nov., referring to the place of origin of the holotype.

Key to the species of Madagopsina

This key is a revised version of the Madagopsina section of the key in Feijen et al. (2018). It now also includes M. makayensis Feijen, Feijen & Feijen, sp. nov. for which only the male is known. The couplet separating the two species groups has been changed to accommodate the new species. In the 2018 key also an error occurred: in the couplet separating M. apollo and M. parvapollina, the character states for the apical seta should have been reversed.