Styringomyia collessi THEISCHINGER & BILLINGHAM, 2018

Theischinger, Günther, D, Zacariah & Martin, John, 2018, The genus Styringomyia LOEW in Australia (Diptera: Tipuloidea: Limoniidae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (2), pp. 1587-1633 : 1591-1592

Styringomyia collessi THEISCHINGER & BILLINGHAM nov.sp. ( Figs 17-19 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l. Holotype ♂: Australia, Queensland, Earl Hill N of Cairns, 8-v-1967, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) . Paratypes: all Australia, Queensland, D.H. Colless ( ANIC): 1♂, 1♀, 3 sn, same data as holotype ; 1♂, same locality as holotype, 11-v-1967 ; 1♂, 15.29°S / 145.16°E, Mt Cook Nat Park , 12-v-1981, malaise trap ; 1♂, 15.28°S / 145.15°E, 1 km W of Cooktown , 12-v-1981 ; 1♂, 15.28S °/ 145.15°E, 1 km W of Cooktown , 12-v-1981, at light ; 1♂, 1 km W of Cooktown , 13-v-1981, malaise trap .

D e s c r i p t i o n

Male ( Figs 17, 18 )

Head. Including rostrum, palps scape and antennae largely dull yellow and brown to brownish grey; scape and pedicel somewhat darker than antennal flagellum.

Thorax. Nota largely dull yellow to brownish grey; scutum laterally dull yellow, scutellum pale yellow. Pleura and sterna greyish yellow to pale greyish brown. Legs: coxae and trochanters brownish yellow; femora yellow with two rather incomplete broad, ill-defined brownish grey rings, one slightly beyond midlength (pro- and mesofemur) or slightly before midlength (metafemur) and one well subapical; tibiae dull yellow with pale greyish brown apex and with rather narrow ill-defined greyish brown ring just before midlength (this ring may be absent in metatibia); tarsal segments dull yellow with apex somewhat darkened, only last segment and claws greyish brown.

Wings. Very slightly infumed with yellowish grey; spotted grey at the cross-veins. Halters dull to greyish yellow.

Abdomen. Largely yellow; tergite 1 greyish brown; tergites 2-7 broadly greyish brown along apical margin; tergite 8 mid-dorsally widely greyish brown.

Hypopygium. Tergite 9/10 with base massive, truncate and apical section subtriangular. Sternite 9 with apical half approximately parallel sided, ending in two digitate lobes separated by deep U-shaped notch and each with long apical seta. Gonocoxites subconical with low, obtuse, mesal lobe in about third quarter and a stout apical seta almost half as long as gonocoxite and basally almost as thick as end of the gonocoxite. Gonostyli made up of at least three elements, one about trapezoidal, kind of connected to what appears a distinct fork, one, or possibly more than one, complex of several comblike/denticulate structures of various length, width and shape and one element, the most mesobasal, straight and narrowly conical. What can be detected in ventral view of the aedeagus, appears moderately wide with narrow rounded apex.

Dimensions. Wing length 3.7-4.3 mm.

Female ( Fig. 19 )

Head, Thorax and Abdomen. Coloration much as in in male. Dark leg rings slightly broader.

Terminalia. The cerci including apical spine reach backward far short of the tips of the hypogynial valves.

Dimensions. Wing length 3.7 mm.

D i s t r i b u t i o n. North-eastern; known only from Queensland ( Map 1 ).

E t y m o l o g y. This species is gratefully dedicated to the great Australian dipterist Donald Henry Colless (1922-2012).

D i s c u s s i o n.Themalesof Styringomyia collessi nov.sp., S. bancrofti , S. baroalba nov.sp. and S. remex nov.sp. share a bifid apex of sternite 9, a mesal expansion and subconical gonocoxites with a rather thick apical spine and complex gonostyli. The prominent element of the gonostyli in S. collessi , S. baroalba and S. remex nov.sp. does not bear long distinct setae along posterior margin as it does in S. bancrofti and it is only produced mesally as in S. bancrofti and S. remex versus produced mesally and laterally (double-winged) in S. baroalba . In S. collessi the mesal lobe of the prominent element of the gonostyli is rounded to truncate versus broadly triangular in S. bancrofti and sharply pointed in S. remex .

Figures

Map 1: Distribution of the species of the Styringomyia bancrofti group: S. bancrofti, S. baroalba, S. collessi, S. remex, S. edwardsorum.

Figs 17-19: Styringomyia collessi nov.sp., terminalia: (17, 18) male: (17) ventral; (18) dorsal; (19) female, lateral.