Teuchophorus vexillifer, Meuffels & Grootaert, 2004

Meuffels, Henk & Grootaert, Patrick, 2004, The genus Teuchophorus in South-East Asia and New Guinea, description of new species, species-groups and their phylogeny (Insecta, Diptera, Dolichopodidae), Journal of Natural History 38 (2), pp. 143-258 : 154-156

Species 4: Teuchophorus vexillifer sp. nov. (male)

(figures 13–22)

Etymology. Lat. vexillifer , ‘bearing a flag’.

Diagnosis. Rather large species, without stigma. Eyes nearly touching on face. Third antennal segment slightly deeper than long, with a short, subacute apex. Hind margin of wing with a ‘flag’ of agglutinated, apically bent bristles. Mid tibia bent, narrowed at middle, with a very long, flattened, yellow ventral bristle at three-fifths from base. Mid femur ventrally with only short, yellow bristles. Hind femur ventrally with a partly double row of short, pale hair-like bristles.

Material examined. Type material: Thailand: Trang province: Trang, riverbanks in secondary rain forest, 26 October 1997,    male, three      male (No. 97121, leg. P. Grootaert) .

Male

Body length 1.55–1.75 mm; wing length 1.3–1.45 mm.

Head. Frons and face with shining dark metallic green ground colour. Eyes nearly touching each other on face. Palpi small, blackish, each with a small, black apical bristlet. Rostrum brown. Occiput shining dark metallic green. Chaetotaxy as usual; a pair of very small, thin postocellars. Postoculars uniseriate, black. Antenna (figure 13): basal segments brown or dark brown; third segment lighter brown to yellowish brown. Marginal bristlets on second segment very short, but including a rather long, thin dorsal bristle (nearly as long as third antennal segment). Third segment slightly deeper than long, with a downward shifted, subacute apex. Arista about three times as long as antenna, very shortly pubescent; basal aristal segment a little shorter than third antennal segment.

Thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum shining dark metallic green; pleurae dark metallic green, with a brownish gloss; unsclerotized parts brown. Chaetotaxy as usual; acr uniseriate, relatively long. Scutellum without lateral hairs. Propleurae with two minute hairlets.

Legs. Legs including coxae, yellow; mid coxa with a faint, brownish longitudinal stripe. Hind femur feebly browned towards apex; hind tibia and tarsus also feebly browned.

Fore leg. Coxa anteriorly with few very short, yellow hairs; towards apex a row of about four short, yellow, hair-like bristles, one of which is darker and longer. Femur with only a short, weak preapical pv. Tibia shorter than femur (about 3:4), without bristles or serration. No ventral spinules at base of first tarsal segment. Tarsal segments 2–4 shortened (figure 17). Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.3:0.2: 0.06:0.05:0.05: 0.07.

Mid leg. Coxa anteriorly with short hairs; at tip some bent, bristle-like hairs. Femur (figures 14–16) thickened on basal two-fifths, then rather abruptly narrowed posteriorly, and slightly bent; ventrally, at thickest point, two short, pale, diverging bristlets; from there a posteroventral row of short, pale bristles, that grow longer towards apex of femur, there being longer than apical diameter of femur; a rather long, bent, dark anterior preapical bristle. Tibia (figure 14) shorter than femur, ventrally on basal half somewhat bulging, on apical half slightly bent, ventrally concave; a rather long, black dorsal bristle at two-fifths from base and a smaller ad at same level; ventrally, on the bulging basal half, an irregular double row of short bristles of unequal length; ventrally, in the concavity of the apical half, a very long, flattened, yellow bristle, arising from a small papilla; anterodorsally, at level of the long ventral bristle, a curious row of three small, bent bristles, followed by a rather long preapical ad; a rather long preapical ventral bristle. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.4:0.2: 0.15:0.14:0.09: 0.08.

Hind leg. Hind leg long and slender. Coxa with a weak, black exterior bristle. Femur (figure 18) ventrally with a partly doubled row of short, pale, hair-like bristles, shorter than greatest diameter of femur; a thin preapical av. Tibia a little longer than femur; one rather small dorsal bristle at about apical fourth, followed by some lengthened hairs; no ventral bristles, but near base one or two small, pale hairlets. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.65: 0.15: 0.25:0.15: 0.11: 0.09.

Wing. Wing (figure 19) very feebly brownish tinged, without stigma; costa slightly thickened. r4+5 and m1+2 parallel. Hind margin irregularly curved, shallowly indented towards tip of m3+4. On lowest part of axillary lobe a small indentation, bearing a ‘flag’ (figure 20), consisting of two rows of dark bristles: an upper row of at least five long, coagulated, apically bent bristles and a lower row of shorter, straight bristles.

Abdomen. Terga dark brown, with a metallic green gloss. Sterna pale brown. Hairs and hind-marginal bristles on terga dark, very short (hind-marginal bristles on first tergum longer). Hypopygium (figures 21, 22) rather large, dark brown; surstyli finger-shaped. Cerci pale yellow. Hypandrium lengthened beyond tips of surstyli, yellow.

Female Unknown.

Discussion

T. ornatulus sp. nov. and T. ornatuloides sp. nov. are closely related by the shape and bristling of mid tibia and mid femur. T. ornatulus does not possess a ‘flag’ on posterior wing margin, and possesses very long bristles near base of mid femur; T. ornatuloides has a narrower flag and a dark ventral bristle on the hind femur.