Empis (Empis) serbica, Shamshev & Ivković, 2020

Shamshev, Igor V. & Ivković, Marija, 2020, The Empididae (Diptera) of Serbia: faunistic survey and description of a new Empis species, Zootaxa 4853 (1), pp. 79-98 : 80-82

Empis (Empis) serbica sp. nov.

( Figs 1–3 )

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FE4C12F0-B8B1-4F73-B7B9-4997E134002A

Type material. HOLOTYPE, ♂, labelled: “ SERBIA, Stara Planina ,/ 43.37N 22.60E, 1500 m,/ 1–8.v.2015, N. Vikhrev ”; “ Holotypus / Empis / serbica / Shamshev & Ivković, sp. n. ” ( ZMMU).

Diagnosis. Rather small blackish grey fly; fore basitarsus slender, hind basitarsus thickened, elongate oval; wing hyaline, CuA+CuP (anal vein) complete, halter brownish; abdomen pale setose; tergite 8 without projections or tubercles; cercus notched apically; phallus slender, long, curved at right angle beyond middle, with two loops apically.

Description. Male ( Fig. 1 ). Body length 3.3 mm, wing length 3.8 mm. Head with dense greyish pruinescence on face, frons, postgena, ocellar triangle and occiput. Holoptic, eye with upper ommatidia enlarged. Frons represented by very small triangular space below ocellar tubercle and slightly larger subtriangular space above antennae, bare. Ocellar triangle with 2 moderately long and some short fine setae. Occiput with numerous fine black setae on upper part and brownish setae on lower part. Antenna black; scape and pedicel short, scape slightly longer, both with short setulae; postpedicel conical, 2.4X longer than wide; stylus short, half as long as postpedicel. Palpus dark; with scattered dark fine setae. Proboscis with labrum 1.47X head height.

Thorax densely brownish grey pruinose, black setose; scutum with some traces of indistinct dark vittae along rows of dorsocentral and acrostichal setae (dorsal view, more distinct in anterodorsal view). Prosternum bare. Proepisternum with 5–6 fine setae on lower portion and 3 similar setae on upper portion opposite anterior spiracle. Antepronotum with 6 setae on each side. Postpronotal lobe with 1 long strong and several fine short setae. Mesonotal setae well-differentiated but mostly rather fine; 1 presutural intra-alar (flanked with 1 finer seta), 1 long presutural supraalar, 3 notopleurals (with two minute setulae anteriorly), 1 postsutural supra-alar, 2 postalars (one very short) and 4 scutellars (lateral pair shorter); acrostichals arranged in 2 irregular rows, long, fine, scattered, lacking on prescutellar depression; dorsocentrals arranged in 1–2 irregular rows, mostly similar to acrostichals, 2 prescutellar pairs strong long (nearly as long as scutellars). Laterotergite with several dark setae. Anterior and posterior spiracles brown.

Legs long, slender, uniformly brownish, subshiny and with black setation; coxae densely greyish pruinose; femora whitish pubescent ventrally. Fore femur with rows of long very fine anteroventral and posteroventral setae. Mid femur with long anterodorsal setae on about basal 2/3; anteroventral and posteroventral rows of fine setae, which are very long on basal part (longest setae nearly 2X of femur with) and becoming shorter toward apex. Hind femur slender, slightly narrowed on about basal third; anteroventral setae somewhat longer on about apical half (longest setae nearly as long as femur width). Fore tibia with several moderately long fine dorsal setae near base and similar setae over entire length posterodorsally. Mid tibia with 2 long anterodorsals on about basal third, 3–4 posterodorsals of different lengths, 1 long anterodorsal subapical seta, rows of numerous short to moderately long anteroventral and posteroventral setae. Hind tibia straight, slightly evenly thickened toward apex; with numerous moderately long anterodorsal and posterodorsal setae; no seta in posteroapical comb. Fore basitarsus slender; hind basitarsus thickened, nearly as broad as hind tibia at apex, elongate oval; with some longer setae dorsally.

Wing membrane hyaline. Basal costal seta present, fine, moderately long. Pterostigma quite distinct, pale brownish. Veins brownish, well sclerotised. CuA+CuP (anal vein) complete, but mostly fine, short subapical portion stronger sclerotised. Cell dm long, with almost truncate apex. Anal lobe well developed; axillary incision acute. Squama brownish, dark fringed. Halter with dark brown knob and slightly paler stem.

Abdomen dark in ground-colour, uniformly faintly light grey pruinose, somewhat lustrous; covered with numerous pale setae longer on tergites laterally and on sternites. Segment 8 with fused tergite and sternite; in dorsal view tergite 8 somewhat convex antero-medially, without projections or tubercles posteriorly, in lateral view deeply concave anteriorly, with lower anterior corner produced anteriorly; sternite 8 trapezium-like viewed laterally.

Terminalia ( Figs 2, 3 ). Cercus black, subshiny, with dark setulae denser and slightly longer near base; fused near base with epandrial lamella; apex extending slightly beyond apex of epandrial lamella, notched apically (lateral view); without internal projections (dorsal view). Epandrial lamella black, subshiny, trapezium-like (lateral view), with dark setae mostly along lower margin and apically. Hypandrium brownish, subshiny, narrowly subtriangular, bare. Phallus ( Fig. 2 ) yellow, long, mostly slender, only slightly thicker beyond basal curvature, evenly arcuate on about basal half, curved at right angle beyond middle, with two loops apically. Ejaculatory apodeme beyond basal curvature of phallus, with small lateral wings.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. Palaearctic: Serbia.

Etymology. The epithet refers to the country of the origin of the new species.

Remarks. The new species is closely related to E. (s. str.) simulium (Nowicki) and its allies sharing primarily similar male terminalia (especially undulating phallus). Chvála & Pont (2015) united these species in the E. simulium group and provided its main diagnostic features. In addition, these authors added to the E. simulium group species that have been assigned previously to the Rhamphomyia subgenus Aclonempis Collin (these species have no radial fork but they have similar male terminalia). The definition of the E. (s. str.) simulium group sensu Chvála & Pont (2015) requires some refinement. However, a discussion of this problem is beyond the scope of our paper. Within the key provided by Chvála & Pont (2015), the new species would run to E. umbripes (Becker) . However, the new species differs from E. umbripes primarily by the presence of radial fork (originally, E. umbripes was considered a species of Rhamphomyia ( Aclonempis )) and simple abdominal tergite 8 (lateral tubercles present in E. umbripes ). In addition, the new species could be compared with E. maerens Loew that has variable colour of the halteres. The new species differs from E. maerens primarily by pale abdominal setation and simple tergite 8.

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Empis (Empis) serbica sp. nov., holotype, male. 1. habitus, lateral view; 2. postabdomen, lateral view; 3. terminalia, lateral view. Abbreviations: cerc—cercus; ej apod—ejaculatory apodeme; epand—epandrium; hypd—hypandrium; ph—phallus.