Oxysarcodexia culmiforceps Dodge, 1966

Souza, Carina Mara De, Pape, Thomas & Thyssen, Patricia Jacqueline, 2020, Oxysarcodexia Townsend, 1917 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) - a centennial conspectus, Zootaxa 4841 (1), pp. 1-126 : 45-46

Oxysarcodexia culmiforceps Dodge, 1966

( Figs 90–92 )

Oxysarcodexia culmiforceps Dodge, 1966: 687 ; Brazil, Distrito Federal, Rio de Janeiro, Jacarepaguá. Lectotype male (designated by Tibana & Mello 1983a: 248), an unspecified number of male paralectotypes [no labels indicating their type status as either syntypes or paralectotypes] and one female paralectotype in MNRJ.

Oxysarcodexia culminiforceps: Lopes (1969: 25 ; 1975c: 465), incorrect subsequent spelling of culmiforceps Dodge, 1966 .

Diagnosis. Male. Length 8.0–9.0 mm. Postocular plate with golden pollinosity. Ocellar bristles well developed. Thorax with golden pollinosity laterally. Two well-differentiated posterior and 1–3 smaller anterior post-sutural dorsocentrals. Apical scutellar bristles absent. Legs blackish. Abdomen with silvery pollinosity, T5 with golden pollinosity laterally (“spot stain-like”). T3 with 2 pairs of lateral marginal bristles, T4 with 1 pair of median marginal and 2 pairs of lateral marginal bristles. ST5 with deep median cleft with margins almost parallel and with pilosity and bristles along margins. Cercus bent backwards very conspicuously, with pointed obliquely cut apex and dorsal subapical barb. Cercus with bristles ventrally only in distal third. Cerci with distal third as broad as middle part in posterior view; diverging and with a distinct constriction mid length. Pregonite with expanded base, gradually narrowing to apex, which is darker than base. Postgonite with expanded base and sudden narrowing at apex; unicolorous. Distiphallus with ventroapical concavity with serrated margin, a lateroapical furrow, conical apex, sinuous dorsal outline, large dorsoapical swelling and lateroapical expansions. Vesica symmetrical, with angular median projection of main branch; distal lobes reduced, with filaments, tapering, partially membranous, with spines only along margins.

Remarks. Lopes (1946b) misidentified specimens of what is now considered O. culmiforceps as O. culminata , although he pointed out differences in thorax pollinosity, the color of T5, the setosity of the male cercus, and the shape of ST5, considering these as intraspecific variation of O. culminata . Dodge (1966) assessed these differences as sufficient to erect a separate species, proposing the name O. culmiforceps . Differentiation of O. culmiforceps from O. culminata is based on the distiphallus apex and details of the vesica ( Lopes 1975c) ( Figs 91, 94 ). The distiphallus apex of O. culminata is more conical (lateral view) than in O. culmiforceps , with median fringe-like projections distally and a few grooves laterally, not found in O. culmiforceps . The vesica of O. culminata presents microscopic spines only distally on the distal lobes, whereas in O. culmiforceps these microscopic spines are scattered on the entire surface of the distal lobes; furthermore, the distal lobes of the vesica of O. culmiforceps show an upward filamentous projection in lateral view, absent in O. culminata . A pad of short, golden bristles is observed on the tip of the cercus in O. culminata , but absent in O. culmiforceps . See also remarks under O. aurata . The female of O. culmiforceps has T7 membranous ( Tibana & Mello 1985).

Dodge (1966: 687) gave several localities for the male syntypes, without giving an exact number of specimens: “ Estado de São Paulo ( Capital , Juquiá , São José dos Campos e Eugenio Lefevre ), Estado de Minas Gerais ( São José da Lagoa e Lagoa Santa ) do Rio de Janeiro ( Distrito Federal ) e Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Pinheiral, Vassouras e Angra dos Reis)”. A single female syntype was included: “Uma fêmea da República do Paraguai ”.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL. Argentina (Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Misiones), Brazil (Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo), Paraguay, Uruguay (Canelones).

Biology. This species has been collected from human and dog feces, chicken viscera (especially liver), rotten bovine liver, rotten squid, fish, sardine, mouse and pig carcasses, rotten bananas mixed with yeast or brown sugar and in organic rice fields ( Ferreira 1979; Dias et al. 1984c; Mendes & Linhares 1993; Carvalho & Linhares 2001; Leandro & D’Almeida 2005; Mariluis et al. 2007; Rosa et al. 2011; Vairo et al. 2011; Mulieri et al. 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015; Carmo & Vasconcelos 2016; Dufek et al. 2016; Souza & Von Zuben 2016; Acosta et al. 2017; Remedios-De León et al. 2017; Faria et al. 2018; Remedios-De León et al. 2019). Despite this variety of substrates, no differences in attractivity of human feces, chicken viscera and mouse carcasses were observed ( Linhares 1981; Dias et al. 1984c), nor any preference for either sunlight or shaded areas ( Linhares 1981). However, Ferreira (1979) recorded a preference of O. culmiforceps for human feces, although the synanthropy index calculated for this species was low. Mulieri et al. (2015), collecting with dog feces and bovine liver, considered this species to be a male-biased generalist without significant association with any of the baits used. Oxysarcodexia culmiforceps has been collected in numerous habitats: grassland, woodland ( Mulieri et al. 2008), wetlands of rural and wild areas ( Dufek et al. 2016), urban, suburban and rural areas ( Mulieri et al. 2011), semirural area ( Remedios-De León et al. 2017), Brazilian Cerrado [collected only in the dry season by Rosa et al. (2011) and as a single specimen only in the humid season by Faria et al. (2018)], forest, rural and urban areas (in order of abundance at each site) in southern Brazil ( Linhares 1981; Ferreira 1979; Souza & Von Zuben 2016), a Brazilian zoological garden ( Oliveira et al. 2002), a remnant of a semi-deciduous mesophytic forest ( Carvalho & Linhares 2001), an ombrophilous forest in the Brazilian south ( Vairo et al. 2011), in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest (Souza, unpublished), and in Brazilian insular lands ( Carmo & Vasconcelos 2016). In Itamaracá, a continental island (Pernambuco state, Brazil), this species was considered accidental, collected only in an area of low anthropogenic impact ( Carmo & Vasconcelos 2016). Dufek et al. (2016) considered this species to be hemi- or non-synanthropic in Argentinean wetlands. This species has been recorded visiting flowers of Sebastiania brasiliensis Spreng. (Euphorbiaceae) and Scutia buxifolia (Rhamnaceae) ( Mulieri et al. 2010).

Type material examined. Lectotype ♂: [ Brazil] INS.OSW.CRUZ N.-1U.337 / Rio de Janeiro H. Souza Lopes / Oxysarcodexia culminata [no italics] Aldr. 1916 Lopes. det 1944 / Lectotypus / O. culminiforceps [sic, no italics] Dodge, 1966 Det. Tibana e Mello. 1981 [ MNRJ] .

Other material examined. [ ♂] BRAZIL: Minas Gerais, Extrema, Serra do Lopo , Pedra das Flores, 27.II.2012; A. G. Savino, M. P. Nassu, M. D. Grella / O. culmiforceps , Extrema-MG; 27/02/2012 [ LIE] .

Figures

FIGURES 90–98. Oxysarcodexia spp., males. 90–92. Oxysarcodexia culmiforceps Dodge (Brazil, Minas Gerais, Extrema, LIE, except Fig. 92 from MACN). 90. Habitus, lateral view. 91. Terminalia, lateral view. 92. Terminalia, posterior view. 93–95. Oxysarcodexia culminata (Aldrich) (Puerto Rico, Ponce, Cerro de Punta, NRM). 93. Habitus, lateral view. 94. Terminalia, lateral view. 95. Terminalia, posterior view. 96–98. Oxysarcodexia cyanea Lopes, holotype (Dominica, Trafalgar Falls, USNM). 96. Habitus, lateral view. 97. Terminalia, lateral view. 98. Terminalia, posterior view. Figs 96–98 by T. Dikow (USNM); Fig. 92 by P.R. Mulieri (MACN).