Hoplocheiloma ferrugatum Hennig

Marshall, S. A., 2011, A review of the genus Hoplocheiloma Cresson (Diptera: Micropezidae), Zootaxa 2806 (1), pp. 1-23 : 5-6

Hoplocheiloma ferrugatum Hennig

Fig. 5

Hoplocheiloma ferrugatum Hennig, 1935:56 ; 1934 plate 4, figure 2 (without differentiating statement).

(Description of holotype female only): Body length 11mm. General colour: Most of head and thorax orange; face white-pollinose (part of a pollinose white band extending to upper parafacial) with a broad black band across lower margin; proepisternum with a transverse black band just above the sparse, short black ventral proepisternal setae. Abdominal tergites 1–3 brown, other tergites yellow.

Head: Frons uniformly orange except dark brown ocellar triangle, frontal vitta broad, dull (microsetulose) and slightly tapered anteriorly; orbital strips subshining and depressed below level of frontal vitta but not otherwise distinctly differentiated from frontal vitta on ventral half; epicephala and paracephala shining, paracephala conspicuously bulging ( Fig. 5 ). Frontal setae (2) very small; orbital, inner vertical and vertical setae large. Ocellar triangle black. Clypeus uniformly pale orange laterally, middle part with two prominent setae and a few small setulae, lateral portions of clypeus covered with fine white setulae. Lunule with a few scattered black setulae; face, subantennal area and parafacial crossed by a broad white band at middle and a black band across lower margin. Palpus very broad, almost egg-shaped, half as long as clypeus; with evenly spaced small black setae. Mentum strongly setose.

Thorax: Notum orange, with a uniform row of very small acrostichal and dorsocentral setae, anterior setae not enlarged; one large prescutellar dorsocentral seta. Notopleuron with a single large posterior seta and a smaller anterior seta. Main vertical row of katepisternal setae golden with a weaker anterior row of similarly golden setae, ventral apex of katepisternum with one long thick seta and one long thin one, in addition to some small setae. Katatergite bulging, rounded.

Legs: Fore coxa densely covered with white microsetulae on anterior surface, bare and reddish brown on most of posterior surface. Fore femur and tibia reddish, tibia with dense white microsetulae ventrally in distal third, tarsomere one and basal quarter of tarsomere two of foreleg white, other fore tarsomeres reddish brown; mid and hind femora mostly yellowish with an indistinct narrow distal dark preapical band; mid and hind tibiae brown, basal two thirds of first tarsomere of hind legs white, first tarsomere of mid leg pale, tarsomeres otherwise brown.

Wing with a broad basal band, a very broad discal band with a straight or convex distal edge, and a large infuscated apical area or distal band (fused preapical band and apical infuscation); infuscated areas separated by narrow clear areas ( Fig. 5 ). R 2+3 ending as far beyond plane of dm-cu as length of dm-cu.

Female abdomen: Abdominal pleuron darkly pigmented except for a contrasting yellow-white circle under the middle of segment 3. Oviscape shining except for basal silvery white densely microsetulose area broadly encircling base of oviscape. Internal genitalia not observed.

Type material. HOLOTYPE (♀, AMNH): MEXICO: Yucatan, Chichen Itza. “VI-29”.

Comments. This species is known only from the unique female type, from a relatively well-collected part of Mexico. The type specimen is the only confirmed Hoplocheiloma record from outside the Caribbean islands. While undoubtedly belonging in Hoplocheiloma , H. ferrugatum differs from all other congeners in a number of striking features, of which the most obvious are the swollen paracephala and the apparent desclerotisation of the female tergites four and five. Both features appear within the related genus Taeniaptera , many species of which also have wing pigmentation similar to H. ferrugatum . No data on internal male or female genitalia are available, limiting inference about the relationships of this species. Since, however, H. ferrugatum is the only strictly mainland species of a group that has undergone extensive radiation in the Caribbean it seems a reasonable hypothesis that it is the sister species to the rest of the clade.

Figures

FIGURES 5. 5A. Hoplocheiloma ferrugatum Hennig female holotype.