Carreramyia megacera, Reemer, Menno, 2013

Reemer, Menno, 2013, Taxonomic exploration of Neotropical Microdontinae (Diptera: Syrphidae) mimicking stingless bees, Zootaxa 3697 (1), pp. 1-88 : 12-14

Carreramyia megacera spec. nov.

Figs 13–16 .

Studied type specimens. HOLOTYPE. Female. SURINAM: Commewijne, Peperpot, 05°46'08"N – 55°07'33"W, 17–24.II.2006 (malaise trap), leg. M. Reemer, coll. RMNH.

Description (based on holotype)

Adult female. Body size: 6 mm.

Head. Face occupying about 2/5 of head width in frontal view; pale yellow with two vague submedian vittae; with short, sparse black pile, getting longer and more bristly around oral margin. Gena pale yellow, with a few black setae. Frons pale yellow, except for black lunula, black macula laterad of antennal fossa and narrow black line along eye margin; bare. Vertex pale yellow and bare on anterior half, black and with black bristly pile on posterior half; strongly elevated. Occiput black; black pilose dorsally, white pilose ventrally. Eye bare. Antennal fossa about as wide as high. Antenna black; ratio of scape:basoflagellmere approximately as 1:5; pedicel very short; basoflagellomere very long, about 1.5 times as long as face; arista yellow, about 2/3 of length of scape.

Thorax. Scutum black; bristly black pilose. Postpronotum yellow; bare. Postalar callus yellow; bristly black pilose. Scutellum black; bristly black pilose; deeply sulcate posteromedially; in lateral view making angle of about 45° with scutum. Anepisternum a little convex, without sulcus; black anteriorly, yellow posteriorly; bristly black pilose anterodorsally and along posterior margin, with wide bare part in between. Katepisternum black, except for small yellow macula at dorsal margin; dorsally bristly black pilose, bare ventrally. Katepimeron yellow; convex; bare. Calypter black. Halter yellow.

Wing: hyaline, faintly infuscated between base and stigmal crossvein, with faint yellow cloud apically of stigmal crossvein and crossvein r-m; microtrichose, except bare on 1st costal cell, on cell br except along vena spuria , on most of cell bm except apical 1/6 and a narrow median stripe from base to apex, on anterior 1/3 of cell cup.

Legs: missing in holotype, except middle leg: long and slender; femur black, except faintly yellow near apex; tibia black, except yellow at basal and apical 1/10; tarsus yellow; entirely black pilose. Coxae and trochanters black; bristly black pilose.

Abdomen. Black. Second segment wider than thorax, widest point at posterior margin; tergites 3 and 4 strongly narrowing. Tergites 1 and 2 black pilose, except yellow pilose medially along posterior margin of tergite 2. Tergite 3 black pilose, except for two large submedian patches of yellow pile which reach posterior margin. Tergites 4 and 5 mainly black pilose, with limited yellow pile. Sternites black, with wide yellow membrane between sternites 1 and 2. Sternite 1 bare, other sternites bristly black pilose.

Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the very long antennae: megas (Gr., large), keras (Gr., antenna, horn).

Diagnosis. Immediately distinguished from the other three Carreramyia -species by its black colouration and the deeply sulcate scutellum.

Notes. The male is unknown, so whether it has the furcate basoflagellomere characteristic for this genus or not can only be guessed at. Nevertheless the female is very similar to C. megacephalus in the diagnostic and other important characters: basoflagellomere very long, vertex strongly produced, face very wide, near oral margin with bristly pile, scutellum sulcate, vein R4+5 without appendix, crossvein r-m close to base of cell dm. Because of these characters, this new species is placed in Carreramyia .

Distribution. Only known from Surinam.

Ecology. The holotype was collected in a malaise trap in secondary forest on moist clay soil in a former coffee- and cocoa plantation.

Figures

FIGURES 11 – 21. 11 – 12. Carreramyia megacephalus. 11. head male lateral; 12. head female frontal (Costa Rica, coll. RMNH). 13 – 16. Carreramyia megacera female (holotype). 13. habitus dorsal; 14. habitus lateral; 15. head lateral; 16. wing. 17 – 21. Carreramyia tigrina female (holotype). 17. habitus dorsal; 18. habitus lateral; 19. head frontal; 20. head lateral; 21. head dorsal.