Eosphaerophoria nigrovittata Mengual, 2010

Mengual, Ximo & Ghorpadé, Kumar, 2010, The flower fly genus Eosphaerophoria Frey (Diptera, Syrphidae), ZooKeys 33 (33), pp. 39-80 : 67-69

Eosphaerophoria nigrovittata Mengual , sp. n.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7977AD10-D231-40A0-9AB4-53E6952A9C8E

Fig. 36; MorphBank [http://www.morphbank.net/?id=478082]

Vockeroth 1969: 135 as Eosphaerophoria sp. (citation).

Male. Unknown.

Female. Head. Face straight, broad, with distinct round tubercle, yellow with medial broad black vitta (about 1/2 of face width) narrowing ventrally to oral apex, yellow pilose; gena yellow; oral apex and oral margin brownish; lunula black; frons completely black on dorsal 2/5 (length between anterior ocellus and lunula), yellow on basolateral 3/5 with medial broad black vitta (about 2/3 of frons width) that reaches lunula and continues laterally with black facial vitta, yellow pilose; vertex and vertical triangle black, black pilose; ocelli brownish; antenna yellow, scape brown, basoflagellomere brown dorsally, oval; arista brown; occiput mainly black, yellow ventrally, yellow pilose an silvery pollinose ventrally, black pilose and golden pollinose dorsally.

Thorax. Scutum mainly black, shiny medially, black pollinose laterally, yellow laterally with lateral yellow stripe from postpronotum to scutellum, narrower after transverse suture with ventral black area, golden brown pilose; postpronotum yellow; notopleuron yellow with distinct posterolateral obtuse protuberance, yellow pilose; scutellum triangular, yellow with dorsomedial triangular black area continuing from posterior mesonotum, golden brown pilose. Pleura mainly yellow pilose, with only 2 black pile, one on posterior anepisternum and another on anterior anepimeron; propleuron, anepisternum and anepimeron entirely yellow; katepisternum black with dorsal yellow macula; meron black; katepimeron yellow; katatergum mainly yellow, black posteriorly; calypter dark brown; halter yellow. Wing. Wing bare basomedially.

Legs. Pro- and mesoleg entirely yellow, except metacoxa darker, tarsi darker and distal part of mesofemur and basal part of mesotibia slightly darker, yellow pilose except tarsi with short black setulae ventrolaterally; metacoxa and trochanter yellow, yellow pilose; metafemur yellow on less than basal 1/4, black on distal 4/5, brownish pilose; metatibia black, golden brown pilose; metatarsus black, golden yellow and brown pilose.

Abdomen. Fig. 36. Dorsum mainly black, black pilose except 1st tergum yellow pilose laterally; 1st tergum black with anterior and lateral yellow margin, medially reaching anterior margin of 2nd tergum dividing black area in 2 triangular maculae; 2nd tergum black dorsally, narrowly yellow basolaterally; 3rd tergum black with basomedial very narrow black fascia not reaching margins and with basal yellow fascia, about 1/3 of tergum length, produced posteriorly in a medial triangular emargination reaching half length of tergum, yellow on anterior 1/2 of lateral margin; 4th tergum similar to 3rd, basal yellow fascia slightly broader; 5th tergum black with basome- dial very narrow black fascia not reaching margins and with basal broad yellow fascia (about 1/2 of tergum length) narrowing medially very much; 6th tergum black with 2 basolateral yellow maculae; sterna brownish yellow, yellowish pilose.

Variation. Paratype specimen without black pile on pleura and has the medial black frontal vitta slightly broader, probably due to drying process that darkened the frons. Paratype female has 2nd tergite black medially but with an uncertain lighter point that could be a macula or an artefact resulting from the drying process. Holotype female has a medial small hole in the 2nd abdominal tergite that obscures any existing macula if it was present. Thus, the examined material has no clear evidence to affirm that this species has a medial macula on the 2nd tergite.

Type locality. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Morobe, Bulolo, NE Wau. 7°20'42.92"S 146°43'5.31"E.

Type. Holotype: “ NEW GUINEA: NE // Wau , 1100–1200 m // VI.1968 ” “ N.L.H. Krauss // Collector // BISHOP MUSEUM” “ HOLOTYPE // Eosphaerophoria // nigrovittata // det. X. Mengual 20 09 ” [red, second and third lines handwritten] USNM ENT00036559 [1♀, BPBM] . Paratype: “Neth. Ind.-American // New Guinea Exped. // Araucaria Camp 800 m // 11.iii.1939 L.J. Toxopeus” “ PARATYPE // Eosphaerophoria // nigrovittata // det. X. Mengual 20 09 ” [yellow, second and third lines handwritten] USNM ENT00036563 [1♀, RNH].

Length (1): body, 5.8 mm; wing, 5.1 mm.

Distribution: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia.

Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin nigro meaning black, blackened ( Brown 1956: 149), and the Latin vittata meaning decorated or bound with a ribbon ( Brown 1956: 660), and it refers to the characteristic broad medial black vitta of the face. Species epithet to be treated as adjective.

Differential diagnosis. Female with a medial broad black facial vitta, very distinctive. It has the largest black facial vitta in the genus. Eosphaerophoria nigrovittata also has a characteristic broad abdomen (see Fig. 36). Similar to E. bifida with 5th tergum with a yellow fascia, but E. bifida has yellow face and a central elongated yellow macula on 2nd abdominal tergum.