Grallipeza scurra (Enderlein)

Marshall, S. A., 2013, Grallipeza Rondani (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae) of the Caribbean and North America, Zootaxa 3682 (1), pp. 45-84 : 78-79

Grallipeza scurra (Enderlein)

Figs. 76–81

Systellapha scurra Enderlein 1922: 191 .

Grallipeza scurra, Hennig, 1934: 310 ; Steyskal, 1968: 48.8.

Description: Size: Approximately 8 mm. Colour: Head orange except black ocellar triangle ( Fig. 78 ). Thorax with notum and pleuron entirely orange (pleuron of some specimens with slightly darkened areas); fore femur and fore tibia entirely black; fore tarsomere 1–2 and the base of tarsomere 3 off-white, 3–5 otherwise pale brown. Mid femur dark brown except for a strongly contrasting narrow yellow distal ring; hind femur strikingly bicolored, with basal third yellow-white and distal 2/3 dark brown except for a narrow yellow distal ring. Katepisternal bristles black. Abdominal tergites 1–6 pollinose black, T1 and anterior part of T3 with extensive grey pollinosity; T7 and oviscape shining black except pale oviscape apex. Female abdominal pleuron entirely black on all specimens examined; male pleuron apparently gray but no fresh specimens were available for study.

Head: Arista conspicuously long-haired at least over basal1/2, hairs as long as pedicel ( Fig. 78 ). Pedicel with long ventroapical bristles, 0.7X as long as first flagellomere. Supraantennal shelf small but exposed as a triangular piece between lower frons and scape. Lunule with black setulae, face pale setulose. Clypeus shining orange. Palpus orange, tapered apically, with short dark bristles on ventral half and apex. Gena with dense silvery setulae. Frontal vitta slightly expanded and raised in front of ocelli, slightly depressed and narrowed behind ocelli, expanding again at back.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite flat, unmodified, microsetulose ventrally. Postpronotum bulging, with a few small indistinct setulae along posteroventral margin. Fore femur with only small ventral setulae. One distinct dorsocentral bristle, 1 small suprahumeral bristles. Wing: Anal cell bare, wing membrane darkly and distinctly banded, with a broadly quadrate discal band, a distinct apical infuscation, and a diffuse dark spot over CuA1 ( Fig. 77 ).

Female abdomen: Paired spermathecae on an elongate, long duct branching at a small spherical bulb; each branch expanding into a sinuate bulbous spermathecal base, distal part of each spermatheca small and spherical ( Fig. 76 ). Single spermathecae on a shorter, slightly wider duct; body of spermatheca elongate, transverse and irregular in shape.

Male abdomen: Genital fork brown at base, arms white and strongly curved near middle, inner surface with about 20 short stout bristles, outer surface with a group of long hairs before apex ( Fig. 79 ). Epandrium elongate, hypandrium and anterior part of phallapodeme as long as epandrium. Distiphallus slightly longer than epandrium, ending in a complex structure strikingly different from the “genital bulb” of congeners; distal area with a cylindrical base, a flat trilobed distal lobe and a sinuate whip-like apical piece that tapers to a fine thread ( Fig. 81 ).

Type material: Three syntypes (2 3, 1 Ƥ) in the Zoological Museum of the Humboldt University of Berlin were examined and photographed in 2002. This species is unmistakable and a lectotype was not designated. Type locality: Moritz, Puerto Rico.

Non-type specimens examined: Puerto Rico. El Verde Res.Stn., 400–500m, Tabanuco – palm forest, 31.i.1989, S.A. Marshall (2 Ƥ, DEBU); El Yunque Rec. Area, BigTreeTrail, Tabonuco forest, 4.ii.1989, S.A. Marshall (1female, DEBU); El Yunque, 1000m, sweeps, 7.viii.1981, L. Masner (1 Ƥ, DEBU 00256972); San Germain, 16.iv.1967, J.W. Boyes (3 3, 1 Ƥ, CNCI, all labelled “ Grallipeza spinuliger (Cresson) det. L. Albuquerque”); Caribbean National Forest, La Mina Area, 650m, 8.ii.1990, O.S. Flint Jr., U.V. light (1 Ƥ, 1 3, USNM); Verde Field Station, Quebrada below Sta, Malaise trap, 370m, 8–10.ii.1990, O.S. Flint Jr. (1 Ƥ, USNM); Toro Negro For., Dona Juana, 23–24.v.1969, O.S. Flint Jr. (1 Ƥ, USNM). El Verde Res. Sta., 27–31.xii.2002, M.A. Ivie et al (1 Ƥ, MTEC); Orocovis, Bosque Estatal del Toro Negro, 1.2kmWCerro Dona Juana, Cordillera Central, 8.vi. 1996, 600m, R. Davidson et al (1 3, CMNH); Rio Grande, El Verde Station, 3.1km WNW Pico ElYunque, Sierra de Luquillo, 3–5.vi.1996, C. Young et al (1 Ƥ, CMNH).

Comments: This Puerto Rican endemic is an exceptionally distinctive species, readily separated from other Caribbean Grallipeza by leg colour, wing banding, and several derived features of the male and female terminalia.

Figures

FIGURES 76 – 81. Grallipeza scurra. 76, spermathecae and ducts with single spermatheca repeated as inset; 77, female right lateral; 78, female dorsal; 79, male sternite 5; 80, epandrium and associated parts; 81, apex of distiphallus. Abbreviations: d, distiphallus; hy, hypandrium; ph, phallapodeme; ea, ejaculatory apodeme.