Lispe alkalina, Vikhrev, 2021

Vikhrev, Nikita E., 2021, Lispe (Diptera, Muscidae) of Africa, Amurian Zoological Journal XIII (3), pp. 369-400 : 370-371

Lispe alkalina sp. nov.

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ 29D5B82A-3983-419A-A4AD-7D58C994C56E Figs 1–8

Holotype: male, ETHIOPIA, Oromia reg., Langano Lake , 1590 m asl, 7.646 ° N 38.706 ° E, 13–15 March 2012, N. Vikhrev ( ZMUM).

Paratypes, 26♂, 18♀: ETHIOPIA: Oromia reg.: Langano Lake , 1590 m asl, 7.646 ° N 38.706 ° E, 13–15 March 2012, N. Vikhrev , 11♂, 4♀; Abijatta alkaline lake, 1580 m asl, 7.61 ° N 38.65 ° E, 14 March 2012, N. Vikhrev , 3♂;

KENYA, Elementeita alkaline lake, 1800 m asl, 0.46 ° S 36.26 ° E, 20–21 November 2012, D. Gavryushin, 8♂, 5♀ ;

TANZANIA, Mbeya reg .: Rukwa alkaline lake, 8.36 ° S 32.84 ° E, 800 m asl, 13 December 2015, N. Vikhrev, 3♂, 9♀ (all ZMUM) .

Description. Male. Body length 4.8–5.6 mm. Head with frons, fronto-orbital plates, face, parafacials and gena with an intense silver pollinosity (Fig. 2); occiput with whitish-grey pollinosity. Margin between fronto-orbital plates and frontal triangle hardly distinct, the latter with convex margins. Fronto-orbital plates with 2 long inclinate setae and with 3–6 setulae in an outer row; parafacials wide, with 3–6 fine hairs in lower third. Antenna black, short, postpedicel falling of mouth margin by more than its own length. Aristal hairs hardly longer than half width of antenna. Vibrissae strong, almost 2x longer than distance between their insertion places. Palpi yellow with outer surface with dense silver pollinosity.

Thorax evenly grey dusted. dc 2+3, strong; meron bare above hind coxa, anepimeron with 10–12 setulae. Wing clear, calypters white, halter yellow. Legs dark, densely grey dusted, with reddish knees. Characteristic for the L. caesia group ventral spines hardly distinct only on fore femur. f1 with a row of 7 long pv setae. t1 with long submedian pv seta; ground setulae on d surface somewhat elongated. Mid coxa with a pair of curved, backward directed spinules consisting of several closely set setulae (Fig. 4). f2 with several a setae in basal half, 3 long pv at middle and 2 p preapical. t2 with a long pv below middle. Hind coxa with seta on posterior margin. f3 with 2 long and strong av in apical half (submedian and preapical) and 2 (1–3) shorter av in basal half and 1(2) fine long pv setae at base. t3 with 1 strong ad. Tarsi unmodified.

Abdomen grey dusted, tergites 1+2 to 4 with a large black triangular median spot each, tergite 5 mostly grey with some black pattern antero-laterally (Figs 1, 3). Male terminalia (shown on Figs 5, 6): cercal plate with elongated and pointed apical part and with a pair of lateral processes which are curved and hairy at apex.

Female differs from male as follows: body length 5.5–6.5 mm. Head and body with yellowish dusting instead of the silvery one. Frontal triangle, fronto-orbital plates, face and gena yellowish. Palpi yellow, without silver pollinosity. Mid coxa without pair of spinules. f1 and f2 with rows of distinct ventral spines. t3 apart from ad with av seta in apical third.

Etymology. The name refers to alkaline (or soda) water in the lakes where the new species was collected.

Habitat. Specimens were found on silty or sandy shores of lakes along the Great African Rift at altitude 800–1800 m asl. Abijatta, Elementeita and Rukwa lakes are terminal basins, so their square and salinity strongly change depending on the season and year. Thus, it is impossible to know the exact salinity of these lakes at the time of collecting material there from the literature sources, but I can offer indirect data. While collecting I went swimming in Langano and Rukwa lakes and found the water almost fresh to the taste, about as fresh as the water of the Caspian Sea, that is, at the salinity level of 20–40 g /l. However, even such a low level of salinity is ecologically important, for example, it makes Lake Langano free of schistosomiasis, unlike truly freshwater lakes in Africa.