Grallipeza placida (Loew)

Marshall, S. A., 2013, Grallipeza Rondani (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae) of the Caribbean and North America, Zootaxa 3682 (1), pp. 45-84 : 74-75

Grallipeza placida (Loew)

Figs. 59–65

Calobata placida Loew, 1866: 49 .

Systellapha placida, Cresson, 1930: 323 .

Grallipeza placida, Hennig, 1934: 307 ; Steyskal, 1967:80; 1968: 48.8.

Description. Size: Approximately 8 mm. Colour: Head, including frontal vitta and palpus, almost entirely orange with only ocellar triangle black; gena and central occiput all or partly silvery. Distal half of fore femur and all of fore tibia black, first two fore tarsomeres white. Thorax almost entirely orange, sometimes with silvered or browned patches on the pleuron. Katepisternum with a double row of black bristles, anterior row small. Abdominal pleuron white on at least ventral ¾.

Head: Arista conspicuously long-haired at least over basal ¾. Pedicel with long ventroapical bristles, one almost as long as first flagellomere. Supraantennal shelf small but exposed between lower frons and scape. Lunule dark setulose, upper half of face setulose with dark setulae above and pale setulae below. Clypeus shining orange. Gena with dense silvery setulae. Frontal vitta slightly tapered anteriorly and slightly expanded behind ocelli.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite sexually dimorphic, ventral surface in female with a prominent bulge covered with pores or pits, in male unmodified with fine setulae. Postpronotum bare. Fore femur with only small ventral setulae. Two distinct dorsocentral bristles, 1 small suprahumeral bristle and a row of small acrostichal bristles on each side. Wing: Anal cell bare, membrane otherwise setulose, membrane with a dark central spot extending almost from margin to margin.

Male abdomen: Pleuron of segment 2 with a large, semispherical membranous dome differing in pigmentation from surrounding membrane. Anterior tergites slightly paler than posterior tergites in some specimens, posterior tergites dark. Epandrium small, similar in size to the genital fork on sternite 5, densely setose on posteroventral angle. Genital fork with long, dense apical setae; mesal surface with a quadrate basal lobe with 3 teeth, other teeth (5–6) spread out along inner surface of lobe ( Fig. 65 ). Distiphallus broad, ending in a broad distally trilobed portion as wide and long as genital bulb, genital bulb about twice as wide as basal portion of distiphallus ( Fig. 64 ).

Female abdomen: Pleuron mostly pale with dark pigmentation dorsally. Spermathecae with a pair of large, recumbent and bell-like spermathecae on a long common duct with a ball-like spherical swelling before splitting into separate stems for the two spermathecae; single spermatheca small and T-shaped, on a thin duct about half as long as the duct leading to the large spermathecae ( Fig. 59 ).

Variation: Specimens from Santiago and Baracoa differ slightly in femoral colour, colour of abdominal tergites (anterior tergites paler in Baracoa specimens) and in the colour of the female pleuron (the dorsal dark area is more extensive on segments 5–6 on Baracoa specimens). In the absence of a larger collection of specimens to compare, and in the absence of females available for dissection, this variation is treated as intraspecific.

Type material: Holotype female: West Indies, " Cuba ”, Gundlach (not seen).

Material examined: Cuba, Santiago de Cuba, El Cañon, 24.xi.2005, S.A. Marshall, 600m, coffee plantation (1 3, 1 Ƥ, DEBU); Baracoa Cuba, P.N.Humboldt west section, N 20°21.253' W 74°38.833', 09.vi.2012, S.A. Marshall 1 3, DEBU). Cuba, Parque Nacional Alexander Humboldt N 20°30.6' W 74°41.025', 6.vi.2012, S.A. Marshall (1 Ƥ, DEBU).

Comments: Although I have not seen the type, there seems to be only two Grallipeza species in Cuba and this is apparently the only species with an unbanded hind femur, plumose arista, and black first tarsomere on the hind leg. Hennig (1934) treated Calobata mellea Williston , from St. Vincent, as a synonym of G. placida , and also listed specimens of G. placida from Costa Rica and Hispaniola. Steyskal (1967, 1968) treated these species as separate. There are no confirmed records of G. placida from outside Cuba, although one of the species here described as new from Hispaniola would key to G. placida in Hennig (1934) and may be the species he referred to as G. placida .

Figures

FIGURES 59 – 65. Grallipeza placida. 59, spermathecae and ducts; 60 – 61, live female, Santiago de Cuba; 62, live male, Santiago de Cuba; 63, epandrium and associated parts, left lateral; 64, phallic bulb; 65, male sternite 5.