Borboroides danielsi, McAlpine, 2007

McAlpine, DK, 2007, Review of the Borboroidini or Wombat Flies (Diptera: Heteromyzidae), with Reconsideration of the Status of Families Heleomyzidae and Sphaeroceridae, and Descriptions of Femoral Gland-baskets, Records of the Australian Museum 59, pp. 143-219 : 167-169

Borboroides danielsi n.sp.

Figs 42–46

Material examined. HOLOTYPE.!, New South Wales: Boyd River [or Morong Creek] crossing, Kanangra-Boyd National Park , 13.iv.2004, D.K.M. ( AM K219745 ). Near wombat dung. Mounted on card point . PARATYPES. New South Wales: 3!!, same locality as holotype, April 2002 –2004, B.J.D., D.K.M. ( AM) ; 2??, 11!!, Kanangra Road , 9.2 km S of Oberon-Jenolan Road junction, April 2004, B.J.D. ( AM) ; 1?, 1!, Baldy Bill Fire Road, Kanangra Plateau , March 1975, G.D. ( UQ) ; 2??, 1!, Rudy’s Road turnoff, 15 km N of Jenolan Caves, April 2004, B.J.D. ( AM) ; 2??, 15!!, Barrington Tops , April 1949, S.J.P. ( ANIC) .

Description (male, female). Moderately small blackish fly, slightly stouter than other species of stewarti group.

Coloration. Head with c. posterior half of postfrons and entire occiput black to brown-black; c. anterior third to half of postfrons and cheek tawny yellow, latter coloration giving way to dark brown where it impinges on lower occiput; face predominantly brown or tawny-brown, with greyish pruinescence; postfrons almost entirely densely pruinescent, with very small shining zone in front of anterior ocellus and shining to subshining zone laterad of each posterior ocellus.Antenna tawny; segment 3 extensively suffused with dark brown. Prelabrum and palpus black or brown-black. Thorax black, with dark grey pruinescence covering most of surface; small anteroventral zone of mesopleuron glossy black; barette (or katepimeron sensu J. McAlpine, 1981: 26, 27) with small yellow spot (sometimes indistinct). Coxae and femora largely dark brown to blackish, latter often with narrowly yellowish apices; tibiae tawny-brown to yellowish; tarsi yellow, becoming brown distally. Wing membrane faintly smoky, without markings; veins yellowish brown. Halter yellow, with pale brownish base. Abdominal tergites and sternites 1 to 5 in male, 1 to 7 in female black or dark brown with extensive grey pruinescence; tergite 5 of female with pair of widely separated glossy black lateral zones; in male sternite 8 and epandrium black with grey pruinescence, latter often partly tawny brown; in female cercus yellow or tawny-yellow.

Head higher than long; eye rounded, slightly higher than long; postfrons only moderately prominent anteriorly; anterior half of postfrons with numerous short, non-seriate, mostly proclinate setulae; height of cheek 0.36–0.48 of height of eye; posterior fronto-orbital bristle of only moderate length, markedly shorter than ocellar bristle; anterior frontoorbital bristle eclinate–reclinate, not more than half as long as posterior one, sometimes much less. Antenna resembling that of B. tonnoiri , but segment 3 shorter in both sexes, with similar sexual dimorphism. Prelabrum broader and deeper in female than in male; palpus of moderate length.

Thorax rather stout (for stewarti group); intradorsocentral setulae in two pairs of well developed but rather irregular series; mesopleuron without setulae; thoracic bristles as given for B. tonnoiri . Fore leg without stridulatory modification; fore femur with a well-developed series each of posterodorsal and posteroventral bristles; mid femur not much curved, slightly more slender than other femora, with anterior bristles of small to moderate size, and, in male only, with a ventral to posteroventral longitudinal series of fine erect setulae; hind femur without apparent sexual dimorphism, with preapical dorsal bristle; fore tibia sometimes with distinct preapical dorsal bristle; mid tibia with usual pair of preapical dorsal bristles, one or two anterior bristles, a longitudinal series of two to four short ventral bristles, one anterior and one posterior subapical spur, also one ventral subapical spur well developed only in female, in male with few erect hair-like posteroventral setulae; hind tibia almost straight, with distinct preapical dorsal bristle and vestigial subapical anteroventral spur; mid basitarsus with a series of small, spaced ventral bristles or stout setulae, more distinct and regular than in most species. Wing similar to that of B. musica ( Fig. 38); apical section of vein 4 1.8–2.5× as long as penultimate section.

Abdomen. Sternite 1 reduced, represented by pair of lateral plates; in male, tergite 5 much shorter than tergite 4 but nearly as wide; sternite 5 much shorter than sternite 4, not attenuated medially; in female, tergite 5 and sternite 5 respectively slightly shorter than tergite 4 and sternite 4. Male postabdomen: tergite 6 vestigial; sternite 6 forming strongly sclerotized and pigmented band on left side, dorsally fused with sternite 8; segment 8 moderately elongate, subconical, with sternite 8 ventrally bridged on anterior part; epandrium subovoid, extensively setulose with non-terminal anterior foramen and extensive anteroventral bridge with thickened transverse ridge on margin of foramen; surstylus subquadrate, slightly longer than broad, with few setulae of various sizes and, on inner surface of distal part, numerous large spinules; prehypandrial membrane receding but not invaginated, with many comb-like groups of short microtrichia; gonite short and tumid, with moderately long setulae on outer surface and spinescent setulae on medial surface; aedeagus with pair of rounded, membranous laterobasal wings; basiphallus very short, apparently sclerotized at sides; distiphallus moderately short and stout, tapered distally, with pair of anterobasal lamellae, and beyond base with many tooth-like and scale-like tubercles and some fine ridging; aedeagal apodeme long, with ventral branch connecting to marginal ridge of epandrial foramen; cercus short and moderately broad, subtruncate distally, its posterior surface with elongate setulae, the longer ones tending towards mollisetae, its anterior prominence also with well-developed setulae. Female postabdomen tapering but not much attenuated; tergites and sternites 6 and 7 undivided, not elongate; tergite 8 divided by median desclerotization; cercus moderately elongate, not clavate.

Dimensions. Total length,? 2.4–2.9 mm,! 2.6–3.2 mm; length of thorax,? 1.1–1.5 mm,! 1.2–1.5 mm; length of wing,? 2.3–3.3 mm,! 3.1–3.7 mm.

Distribution. New South Wales: highlands, from Barrington Tops to Jenolan Caves district.

Notes

Borboroides danielsi is a species of the stewarti group with almost entirely black thorax. Among the three other such species it is distinguished from B. donaldi by the extensively pruinescent mesopleuron without a central glossy zone, by the presence of two or more short, stout non-terminal ventral bristles on the mid tibia, and by having the middle dorsocentral bristle as long as the anterior one, also by numerous details of the male postabdomen, and the pruinescent tergite 4 and less reduced tergite 5 of the female. From B. lindsayae and B. tonnoiri it is distinguished by the darkly pigmented prelabrum and lower occipital region of the head; also in the male by the absence of long ventral mollisetae on the mid tibia, the non-invaginated prehypandrial membrane, and the stout spines on the surstylus; in the female by the extensively pruinescent tergite 5 (particularly its central part).

The material collected by B.J.D. and the author was taken around wombat dung baits.

The specific epithet refers to Gregory (Greg) Daniels, who collected this and other interesting species of Borboroides .