Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) wajiira, Buenaventura & Valverde-Castro & Wolff, 2021

Buenaventura, Eliana, Valverde-Castro, César & Wolff, Marta, 2021, New carrion-visiting flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) from tropical dry forests of Colombia and their phylogenetic affinities, Acta Tropica 213, pp. 1-14 : 3-5

Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) wajiira sp. nov.

( Fig. 2 )

Type material. Holotype ♂ (deposited at CEUA): Co [ Colombia] lg [La Guajira departmentdepartment] Riohacha Barrio Jorge / Perez Urbano intra domiciliario / 11̊32′25.02′'N 72̊55′47.45′'W 10 m/ VSR [Van Someren-Rydon trap] fruta [fermented fruit] dia [day] / 17 Jul 2010 C. / Valverde CEUA / 85,089 [hand written] // [red label] HOLOTYPE ♂ / Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) / wajiira Buenaventura , / Valverde-Castro & Wolff, 2020. [Holotype missing anterior right leg and mid left leg; male terminalia dry-mounted and glued on a squared piece of card and pinned under the source specimen.] Paratypes: 1♂: same data as holotype, but ( ZMHB); 1♂: Co [ Colombia] lg [La Guajira department] Riohacha Barrio Jorge Perez Urbano intra domiciliario 11̊32′25.02′'N 72̊55′47.45′'W 10 m VSR [Van Someren-Rydon trap] pez [decomposing fish] dia [day] 10 Jul 2010 C. Valverde CEUA 85,086 [hand written] ( ZMHB); 1♂: Co [ Colombia] lg [La Guajira department] Uribia Santa Ana Rural peri‑urbano 12̊19′52.3″N 71̊17′55.5″W 16 m VSR [Van Someren-Rydon trap] fruta [fermented fruit], dia [day] 23–26 Jan 2013 C. Valverde CEUA ( CEUA); 1♂: same data but pez [decomposing fish], dia [day] 23–26 Jan 2013 C. Valverde CEUA ( CEUA); 1♂: same data but copro [human feces], dia [day] 23–26 Jan 2013 C. Valverde CEUA ( CEUA).

Diagnosis. Amedium-sized species with the following unique combination of character states in the male: apical posteroventral seta of hind tibia not differentiated; cercal prongs divergent but not widely separated in dorsal view; pregonite very flat and small with long setulae; basi- and distiphallus fused, hinge between them not distinct; lateral styli not tube-shaped, but as two symmetric plates, concave longitudinally, as forming a tube between them, each with a small proximal acute tip, squared distally with a preapical, dorsal, recurved tip; ventromedian bridge between lateral styli and proximal to the median stylus not clear; median stylus very elongated and slightly recurved; juxta reduced or absent.

Description. Male. Total length 11.6 mm (n = 6, SD = 0.26).

Head. Fronto-orbital and parafacial plates with golden microtrichosity and postocular strip with silver or golden microtrichosity; parafacial plate with short setulae. Frontal vitta blackish. Frons with a row of seven frontal setae, 2–3 below the dorsal limit of the lunula. Outer vertical seta differentiated from postocular setae but much shorter than the inner vertical seta. Gena and postgena blackish with golden microtrichosity; gena with blackish setulosity; postgena with blackish setulosity anteriorly and yellowish setulosity posteriorly. Antenna brown; pedicel length more than twice its width; arista long and plumose on proximal half. Proboscis dark brown. Palpus orangish.

Thorax. Black in ground color, entirely covered in weak silver microtrichosity, interrupted by three longitudinal blackish or brownish vittae. Chaetotaxy: Acrostichals not differentiated, dorsocentrals 1 + 4 (2 anterior shorter), intra-alars 1 + 2, supra-alars 2 + 3, postpronotals 3, postalars 2, notopleurals 4 (2 long primaries and 2 shorter subprimaries), scutellum marginal 2, scutellum apicals present, discals 1, katepisternals 3, postalar wall setulose. Wing hyaline; vein R1 bare dorsally; vein R4+5 setulose dorsally not reaching crossvein r-m; third costal sector bare ventrally. Legs blackish with silver microtrichosity; mid femur with 4 median anterior setae, 2 posterior preapical and with ctenidium (circular cross-section); mid tibia with 1 anterodorsal, 2 posterodorsal and 1 posterior setae; mid and hind tibia with long bristle-like setae on the ventral distal half; hind tibia with 3 anterodorsal and 2 posterodorsal setae and seta apical posteroventral not differentiated.

Abdomen. Tergites and sternites dark brown with silver and golden microtrichosity; tergite 5 dark brown to blackish with golden microtrichosity.

Terminalia. Sternite 5 reddish and V-shaped with a wide cleft, and two processes close to the median line, which are elongated, distally rounded with short strong setae. Syntergosternite 7 + 8 and epandrium reddish with golden microtrichosity. Cercus reddish and with black tip, with weak golden microtrichosity proximally and black setulosity; cercal prong strongly bent in profile, equibroad proximally, with a subapical lateral expansion and tapering towards apex in posterior view, with short spiny setae leterodorsally, with cercal tip slightly curved ventrally, bare (without setulae or microtrichosity) and acute in dorsal view. Surstylus reddish, knot-shaped distally with apical, short, strong setae, and as long as the half cercal-prong length. Pregonite reddish, flat with proximal setae. Postgonite dark brown, straight with one short seta anteriorly closer to the postgonite apex than to the base. Basiphallus tubular and very long. Distiphallus either completely reduced or merging imperceptibly with basiphallus. Paraphallus not surrounding the acrophallus. Vesica reduced. Acrophallic structures emerging at the distal level of the distiphallus and visible in any view; lateral styli not tube-shaped, but as two symmetric plates, concave longitudinally, as forming a tube between them, each with a small proximal acute tip, squared distally with a preapical, dorsal, recurved tip; capitis flat and simple; median stylus elongated and slightly recurved.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL – Colombia (La Guajira).

Biology. Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) wajiira sp. nov. was collected only in urban and peri‑urban environments in and around built-up areas, which indicates synanthropy. Adult males are attracted to and possibly feed on fermented fruit, decomposing fish and human feces.

Etymology. The specific epithet, which should be treated as a noun in apposition, refers to the department of the type locality, “La Guajira”, written as “wajiira ” in the wayuunaiki language of the Wayuu people. The Wayuu is an indigenous American ethnic group constituting the largest portion of the inhabitants of the Guajira Peninsula in the northernmost part of Colombia and northwest Venezuela.

Remarks. Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) wajiira sp. nov. has no obvious morphological affinities with any known species of the genus Blaesoxipha . However, four species of the subgenus Gigantotheca Townsend share a few features with B. (G.) wajiira sp. nov. These four species are Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) guadalupensis Arnaud, 1963 , Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) impar (Aldrich, 1916) , Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) isla Curran, 1934 and Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) mystica Pape, 1994 , but none of these has a phallus with a median stylus as slender and as elongated as in B. (G.) wajiira sp. nov ( Fig. 2H ). Both of the species B. (G.) mystica and B. (G.) wajiira sp. nov. have a small pregonite ( Fig. 2G–H ), but they can easily be separated by their dissimilar cerci and the shape of the processes close to the median line of the male sternite 5, among other features of the male terminalia.

Figures

Fig. 2. Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) wajiira sp. nov., paratype ♂. A. Habitus, left lateral view. B. Head and anterior part of thorax, left lateral view. C. Sternite 5, ventral view. D. Terminalia, left lateral view. E. Terminalia, dorsal view. F. Cerci, dorsolateral view. G. Terminalia, left ventrolateral view. H. Phallus, pregonite and postgonite, left lateral view. Abbreviations: ce, cerci; ls, lateral stylus; ms, median stylus; po, postgonite; pp, paraphallus; pr, pregonite; ST5, sternite V; sr, surstylus.