Tachydromia cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade, 2021

Gonçalves, Ana Rita, Grootaert, Patrick, Andrade, Rui, Paulo, Octávio S. & Mengual, Ximo, 2021, Revision of the morphology, phylogenetic relationships, behaviour and diversity of the Iberian and Italian ant-like Tachydromia Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Hybotidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 732, pp. 1-56 : 18-20

Tachydromia cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1F27952E-DD08-44E5-AF55-39019FD06488

Figs 1 , 4 , 15 I–J, 18 A–B, 19 H, 20 C–D

Diagnosis

Overall dark. Wing dimorphic: male stenopterous; wing with lobed distal apex, no veins distinguishable, dark brown for most part, with black and white lobe; female micropterous, wing bilobate, with 1 seta on each lobe. Palpi, proboscis and antennae black; postpedicel sub-conical, ca 1.5 times as long as pedicel. Legs with a colour pattern of yellowish and dark brown to black; male fore tibia with ciliation of long hairlike setae. Abdomen black, tergites and sternites with evenly distributed setae, covered with grey microtrichia. It shares similarities with T. nigrohirta sp. nov. and T. stenoptera sp. nov., but can be distinguished from these species by the darker leg colouration, lobed distal apex of male wing without any trace of apical digitation, sub-conical postpedicel, and male terminalia.

Etymology

This species is named after the Spanish Cantabrian mountain range, where it was found.

Material examined

Holotype SPAIN • 1 ♂; Palencia, Río Carrión ; 42º50′34.9″ N, 4º51′16.9″ W; 14 May 2014; A.R. Gonçalves and R. Andrade leg.; RBINS.

Paratypes SPAIN • 4 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; Palencia, Río Carrión ; 42º50′34.9″ N, 4º51′16.9″ W; 14 May 2014; A.R. Gonçalves and R. Andrade leg.; RBINS .

Additional material examined

SPAIN • 2 ♂♂ (terminalia studied, RBINS); León, La Pola de Gordón ; 42°51′00.5″ N, 5°39′46.0″ W; 13–14 May 2014; A.R. Gonçalves and R. Andrade leg. • 1 ♀ (terminalia studied, RBINS); León, Boca de Huérgano 42º56′27.3″ N, 4º54′10.0″ W; 13–14 May 2014; A.R. Gonçalves and R. Andrade leg.

Description

Male

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.1–2.3 mm (n = 3). Wing length: 0.8–0.9 mm (n = 3).

HEAD. Face and frons largely glabrous, shiny black; ocellar tubercle shiny anteriorly and finely pollinose posteriorly. 1 pair lateroclinate ocellars, same length as postpedicel, no posterior ocellars. 1 pair proclinate verticals, ca ¼ shorter than length of postpedicel, and numerous setae on occiput; no postocular ciliae present; mouth margin covered by grey microtrichia and with long setulae.

ANTENNA. Black, covered by grey microtrichia. Scape as long as wide; pedicel twice as long as wide, with apical circlet of black setae, ventrals longer; postpedicel sub-conical, ca 1.5 times as long as pedicel, with numerous pale setulae longer dorsally and apically; stylus almost twice as long as scape, pedicel and postpedicel combined.

PALPUS. Elongate oval, about 3 times as long as wide. Black in ground colour with grey microtrichia, dorsally clothed in strong, long silvery-white and black setae, bearing one strong black sub-apical seta slightly shorter than palpus; less numerous setae present ventrally with distinct seta on ventral apex.

PROBOSCIS. Black, mostly glabrous, setae present ventrally, slightly larger than palpus.

THORAX. Elongated, overall black and largely shiny, with long setae black, short ones pale. Postpronotal lobe, episternum, mesopleuron and sternopleuron almost undifferentiated, scutellum short; notopleuron, anepisternum, katepimeron, meron and postscutellum well developed. Pleura black, overall glabrous with defined patches of grey microtrichia: prosternum and prothoracic episternum partially, but densely covered, appearing subtriangular in lateral view; katepimeron, meron, scutellum and upper part of the metathorax thinly covered. Postpronotal lobe bearing ca 4 setae laterally, no dorsocentrals, eight acrostichal setae, biseriate, of equal length; notopleuron with 1 strong, prominent, seta plus 2 small setae; 4 small, incurvated, prescutellar setae; scutellum bearing 2 strong, long setae medially; 1 pre-alar seta.

WING. Stenopterous. Lobed distal apex, suboval, with minute digitation. Stalk-like portion dark brown, distal ⅔ of lobe black with basal ½ and digitation translucid (appearing white under most light conditions) ( Fig. 20C ). No veins distinguishable. Uniformly covered in microtrichia.

LEGS. Fore femur stout and inflated basally, mid femur less so and hind femur least. Black with the following pale brown/yellowish: basal portion of coxae, trochanters, basal portion of mid and hind femora, distal apical surface of fore and mid femora, knees, basal 4/5 surface of tarsomere 1 and basal ⅔ surface of tarsomere 2. Legs mostly covered with regular rows of numerous black and pale setulae, except for coxae, trochanters and posteroventral surface of femora; anteroventral surface of coxae, femora (except most of ventral surface) and tibiae covered by grey microtrichia; coxae with several short, downward directed, dorsal anteroapical setae. Femora with a few distinct apical setae. Fore tibia bearing sparse ciliation of hair-like setae (shorter than maximum diameter of tibia) with slightly curved tips, and row of long, erect, setae present at its distal ½ posterodorsal surface. Tarsomere 1 of fore tarsus with strong and long (twice tarsomere 1 width) setae; at posterior distal surface with row of distinct, short, black setae. Mid tibia with spur at anteroventral apex, with barely noticeable apical elongation, about as long as diameter of tibia at apex ( Fig. 19H ); spur has several distinct setae and, on distal half margin, five short, stout, curved, spinose setae.

ABDOMEN. Black, uniformly covered with grey microtrichia. Tergites and sternites with evenly distributed setae; apical sternites with long, distinct setae.

TERMINALIA ( Fig. 4 ). Subglobular, mostly covered with grey microtrichia, dark brown. Right surstylus short with anterior margin produced into short slender projection, mostly glabrous, without microtrichia, bearing stronger setae mostly on dorsal margin, with several (ca 8) distinct denticles, most of which aggregated on distal apex. Right epandrial lamella with irregularly placed long setae, with patch of similar setae on lateral surface. Cerci of similar length, both with long setae of unequal length, enclosed in epandrial lamellae. Left epandrial lamella slightly shorter than left cercus, bilobed, with a few long setulae on apical margin. Left surstylus subrectangular with rounded apical margin, 3 times as long as wide, distinctively longer than cercus, densely covered with grey microtrichia with equally long setae on apical margin.

Female

Similar to male, except for following features: micropterous, with wings round, brownish, bilobate, bearing 1 seta on apical margin of each lobe, covered by grey microtrichia ( Fig. 20D ); legs covered with regular rows of setae; spur on mid tibia absent; cercus pale brown with grey microtrichia and setae; no longer setae on apical sternites.

Distribution

Spain. Currently only known from the Cantabrian Mountains.

Figures

Fig. 1. Currently known distribution of the Iberian ant-like Tachydromia Meigen, 1803. Each dot represents a presence point, with each colour corresponding to a different species. When two species co-occur in the same area, their presence is represented by a smaller dot on top of a dot of regular dimension, each of those with the colour corresponding to the co-occurring species. The dots surrounded by a black circle with a vertical line represent localities previously known.

Fig. 4. Terminalia of Tachydromia cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov., holotype (RBINS). A. Right surstylus and right epandrial lamella. B. Epandrium with cerci. C. Left epandrial lamella and left surstylus. D. Right surstylus. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.

Fig. 15. Habitus of live specimens of the Iberian ant-like Tachydromia Meigen, 1803. Males are pictured in the left column, females in the right. A–B. T. lusitanica (Grootaert, Shamshev & Andrade, 2009). C–D. T. nigrohirta Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. E–F. T. ebejeri Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. G–H. T. stenoptera Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. I–J. T. cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov.

Fig. 18. Mounted specimens of the Iberian ant-like Tachydromia Meigen, 1803. Males are pictured in the left column, females in the right. A–B. T. cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. C–D. T. iberica (Arias, 1919). E–F. T. semiaptera (Gil Collado, 1923). G–H. T. pieltaini (Gil Collado, 1936). I–J. T. pandellei (Séguy, 1941). Scale bars: 1 mm.

Fig. 19. Images obtained by scanning electron microscopy of the spur-like structures present on the apical portion of the male mid tibia. A. T. lusitanica (Grootaert, Shamshev & Andrade, 2009). B. T. pandellei (Séguy, 1941). C. T. pieltaini (Gil Collado, 1936). D. T. ebejeri Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. E–F. T. semiaptera (Gil Collado, 1923). G. T. stenoptera Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. H. T. cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. I. T. nigrohirta Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. J. T. apterygon Plant & Deeming, 2006. Scale bars: 10 µm.

Fig. 20. Drawings of the tip of stenopterous wings and images obtained by scanning electron microscope (SEM) of the micropterous wings. Males are pictured in the left column, females in the right. A–B. T. ebejeri Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. C–D. T. cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. E–F. T. lusitanica (Grootaert, Shamshev & Andrade, 2009). G–H. T. nigrohirta Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. Scale bars: A–B, D, F, H = 10 µm; C, E, G = 50 µm.