Empidideicus persicus Gharali & Evenhuis

Gharali, Babak, Kamali, Karim, Evenhuis, Neal, Talebi, Ali Asghar & Khalgani, Jafar, 2010, First record of the genus Empidideicus (Diptera: Bombylioidea: Mythicomyiidae) from Iran, with description of six new species, Zootaxa 2627, pp. 1-19 : 14-18

Empidideicus persicus Gharali & Evenhuis , sp. nov.

( Figs. 6 a–g, 7f, 8f)

Specimens examined: Holotype (female, dried by HMDS), 5 males, 10 females as paratype (in alcohol), IRAN: Yaleh-gonbad region, Ghazvin province, 36° 31' 46" N 49° 41' 69" E, 1169 m asl., 14 Sep. 2009, sweeping net, leg. B. Gharali (all in TMUC); 10 males, 10 females as paratypes (in Alcohol), same as holotype (BPBM). 1 male, IRAN: Tabriz, Khosroshahr, East Azerbaijan province, 1346 m asl., N 37°58' 28" & E 46°02' 55", 6 Aug. 2008, Malaise trap, leg. H. Lotfalizadeh (BPBM); 7 males, 8 females as paratypes (in Alcohol), same data as holotype (ZMHB); 6 females as paratypes, same data as holotype, personal collection of Jorge Almeida ( Portugal); 10 females, 2 males, same as holotype & 1 female, 1 male IRAN: Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province, Khosroshahr, 1346 m asl., N 37° 58' 28" & E 46°02' 55", 6 Aug. 2008, Malaise tarp, leg. H. Lotfalizadeh (personal collection of first author).

Diagnosis. E. persicus is separated from congeners in Iran by black occiput, the black dorsum of mesonotum, black prescutellar area and completely yellow scutellum.

Description. Female. Length 2 mm (Female)— 1.8 mm (Male) (n=10).

Head ( Fig. 7 f). Slightly longer than high; eyes dichoptic, separated at vertex by 2 times distance between lateral ocelli; occiput and postgena black; frons slightly depressed medially, yellow with triangular black mark medially, face, oral margin and mentum yellow; antennae ( Fig. 5 a) dark brown, set in deep pocket; scape short, subtrapezoidal; pedicel ellipsoid, wider than long; first flagellomere oblong oval, length 1.7 times greatest width; second flagellomere 0.7 length of first flagellomere, with minute, bullet-shaped, transparent apical style; clypeus yellow; about as long as labrum; proboscis blackish brown, length 0.5–1.1 times head height; labrum sclerotised, stiff, pointed apically, slightly shorter than proboscis.

Thorax ( Fig. 8 f). Slightly wider than head, mesonotum shiny, black, anterior margin medially black laterally yellow; humeral callus, lateral margins from humeral callus to postalar callus yellow; scutellum yellow; pleura yellow with black color on following: anepisternum with crescent mark anteroventrally, anepimeron with black mark anteroventrally; katepisternum except upper margin narrowly yellow, lower three-fourths of meron; halter stem and knob yellowish white.

Legs. Yellow except coxa III faintly brownish basally; femora with brown mark basally; tarsal segments blackish brown except metatarsi yellow.

Wings ( Fig. 6 b). Longer than width (2.6 times), hyaline; costa, Sc, R1, CuA2, R4+5, and crossveins brown, M1, M2 and M1+2 thin, less sclerotised, costa ends slightly beyond end of R4+5; vein Sc incomplete; vein separating basal cells, Rs at connection with R1 evanescent; R4+5 fairly straight; M1 curved to wing margin; M2 slightly sinuous; cell dm open; A1 basally evident, continuing as faint trace to wing margin; anal cell open at wing margin; fringe of hairs on posterior margin of wing shortest at wing tip becoming longer and more sparse toward base.

Abdomen. With minute sparse yellow hairs; tergite I black; tergites II–III black, with very narrow yellow posterior margins; tergites IV–V black with wide yellow posterior margins, remainder to last tergite yellow; last tergite yellow with brownish mark basally; lateral margin of all tergites yellow; sternites completely yellow.

Genitalia ( Fig. 6 g). Spermathecal reservoir elliptical, wider than high, with apical pitcher-shaped invagination with greatest width about one-half of reservoir width, depth one-half of reservoir height, its floor puffed up; apical spermathecal duct membranous, about 4.2 times reservoir height, slightly sclerotised basally, brownish; sperm pump striated, gradually narrowing toward base, with well sclerotised apical valve, 0.8 times apical duct in length; basal spermathecal duct sclerotised, brown, length 1.5 times reservoir height; common spermathecal duct absent; furca U-shaped, lateral arms subapically with pointed, inwardly oriented processes.

Male. Similar to female except smaller.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 6 c–f). Epandrium yellow, subrectangular in anterior view, with acutely pointed dorsoapical tip; gonocoxa dark brown, ellipsoid, with round tip, well sclerotised except outer margin; gonostylus trapezoidal, outer margin minutely dentate, upper margin basally with patch of minute bristles, inserted on crescent-shaped sclerotised plate; gonocoxal apodeme as long as aedeagal apodeme; aedeagal bulb large, oblong oval; basal aedeagal apodeme narrow, as long as lateral aedeagal apodeme; epiphallus consists of 2 triangular plates with pointed tip in lateral view.

Comments. Empidideicus persicus is separated from the congeners in Iran by the completely black mesonotum and yellow scutellum. Zaitzev (1971) described a new species from Uzbekistan which has the dorsum of the mesonotum black, but this species is easily separated from the Iranian species by the color of two basal antennal segments that are yellow in E. asiaticus (antennae in E. persicus is completely black) and also by the shape of the black mark on mesonotum which doesn’t reach to the posterior margin of mesonotum in E. asiaticus so prescutellar area is yellow (this black mark on the mesonotum reaches the posterior margin in E. persicus and prescutellar area is black).

In our key to species, E. turkestanicus Paramonov, 1934 , occurring in Mongolia and Uzbekistan, runs to E. persicus but it is distinguished from E. persicus by the presence of a closed discal cell that places this species as a member of subgenus Anomaloptilus . Empidideicus sugonjaevi Zaitzev, 1971 , described from Middle Asia, also has a black occiput and the dorsum of the mesonotum is completely black, but it is distinguished from E. persicus by the dark scutellum basally (scutellum completely yellow in persicus ), upper half of frons black (frons is yellow with a small black mark in E. persicus ), and male genitalic features. In E. sugonjaevi the aedeagal bulb has a pair of lateral processes but E. persicus has no such process in that location.

Etymology. The specific epithet derives from “ Persia ”, the historical name of the country from where specimens were collected in great numbers.

Distribution. This species is currently known only from Iran (Ghazvin and East Azerbaijan provinces).

Variability. In a few specimens collected from Tabriz city, the black mark on the frons is an inverted Vshaped instead of triangular mark.

Remark. Specimens of the new species were collected on the plant species Mentha longifolia L. ( Lamiaceae ), a fast-growing, perennial herb; and on Inula britannica L. ( Asteraceae ), both of which were growing at the margin of a narrow river.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Empidideicus matricarius: a—antennae lateral view, b—wing, c—phallic complex dorsal view, depandrium anterodorsal view, e—phallic complex lateral view, f—gonocoxa dorsal view, g—female genitalia.

FIGURE 6. Empidideicus persicus: a—antennae lateral view, b—wing, c—phallic complex dorsal view, d—epandrium anterior view, e—phallic complex lateral view, f—gonocoxa dorsal view, g—female genitalia.

FIGURE 7. Lateral view of Empidideicus adults (females): a— E. amicus, b— E. ebellicus, c— E. greatheadi, d— E. matricarius, e— E. legulicoxa, f— E. persicus.

FIGURE 8. Dorsal view of Empidideicus mesonotum (females): a, b— E. amicus, c— E. ebellicus, d— E. greatheadi, e— E. matricarius, f— E. persicus.