Zalea wisei, McAlpine, 2007

McAlpine, D. K., 2007, The Surge Flies (Diptera: Canacidae: Zaleinae) of Australasia and Notes on Tethinid-Canacid Morphology and Relationships, Records of the Australian Museum 59 (1), pp. 27-64 : 54-55

Zalea wisei n.sp.

Figs 66, 67, 71

Material examined. HOLOTYPE?, New Zealand: Otata Island , Noisies Islands , Hauraki Gulf, North Island vicinity, 8.xii.1979, K.A.W. ( AMNZ). “Swept at low tide. Intertidal rocks, N. coast.” Mounted on card point impaled directly on pin . PARATYPE. 1?, identical data to holotype ( AMNZ). Mounted on card point glued to square card on pin .

Description (?,! unknown). Size larger than that of most New Zealand Zalea spp. ; habitus rather stout.

Coloration. Head dark grey to greyish brown; postfrons without yellowish or other pale zones; parafacial, face, and cheek grey-pruinescent. Antenna greyish-tawny. Prelabrum grey or partly blackish; palpus tawny yellow. Thorax dark grey-pruinescent, brown-pruinescent dorsally. Legs dark grey-brown; tarsi more tawny-brown, mostly darker apically. Wing membrane tinged with smoky-grey; veins brown. Halter yellow. Abdomen dark grey-brown.

Head higher than long; eye, in profile, obliquely oval, 1.25–1.27 times as high as long; triangle formed by joining centers of ocelli not broader than equilateral triangle; postfrons narrowed anteriorly so that minimum separation of eyes = 0.36 of total width of head; face concave; vibrissal region not very prominent; cheek 0.25–0.26 of height of eye; postvertical bristles strongly divergent; ocellar bristles very slightly closer together than are posterior ocelli; posterior fronto-orbital bristle not at all reclinate, curved outwards; vibrissa smaller than anterior peristomial bristles; postgenal region with vertical series of four or five setulae. Antenna: segment 5 3.6 times as long as wide; palpus extending beyond prelabrum when proboscis withdrawn.

Thorax. Prosternum without bridge, widely separated from propleuron on each side; proepisternal bristle well developed (compared with horningi group); mesopleuron with two large bristles near posterior margin; scutellum with pair of setulae between bristles of apical pair, each c. half as long as apical bristle. Fore tibia usually with three posterodorsal bristles longer than tibial diameter; mid and hind tibiae with several long dorsal setulae or bristles. Wing: cell-4 index = 0.39–0.43.

left surstyli and cercus, scale = 0.05 mm.

Abdomen. Epandrium broad, rounded, with two pairs of large dorsal bristles and smaller setulae; surstyli ( Fig. 67) with short setulae and no apparent microtrichia; hypandrium and associated structures not elucidated.

Dimensions. Total length 2.2–2.3 mm; length of thorax 1.1 mm; length of wing 2.2–2.4 mm; width of epandrium (dried) 0.34 mm.

Distribution. Only known from the Noisies (or Noises) Islands in Hauraki Gulf, North Island vicinity, New Zealand. These are a group of islets and rocks near Auckland. “Otata Island” is 38°42'S 174°58'E in Gazetteer.

Notes

Zalea wisei and the closely related “sp. 1” differ from other New Zealand Zalea spp. in the non-reclinate posterior frontoorbital bristle, absence of the prothoracic precoxal bridge, longer proepisternal bristle, presence of a pair of setulae between the apical scutellar bristles, presence of two large posterior mesopleural bristles, and smaller C-4 index. For comparison with sp. 1 see under that species.

The specific epithet refers to Keith A.J. Wise, who collected the type material and other significant material of Zalea .