Miltogramma thompsoni Szpila and Pape, 2024

Szpila, Krzysztof, Walczak, Kinga, Grzywacz, Andrzej, Akbarzadeh, Agnieszka Soszyńska Kamran, Bystrowski, Cezary & Pape, Thomas, 2024, Underexplored diversity in Palaearctic Miltogramma Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201, pp. 1-21 : 12-14

Miltogramma thompsoni Szpila and Pape , sp. nov.

( Figs 3D , 8A–M )

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:DE903A74-B028-4F9D-A84C-24C6F28E58EF .

Type material. Holotype: 1M, Uzbekistan, Besh-Bulak , 25 June 2019, 39.3762 63.1735, leg. KEiB Expedition . Paratypes: 3M, 1F Uzbekistan, Besh-Bulak , 25 June 2019, 39.3762 63.1735, leg. KEiB Expedition (barcoded: KEIB _DIP_02302, KEIB _DIP_02303) .

Male ( Fig. 8A–J ). Body length 9– 5 mm (N = 5). Head. Parafacial plate pale yellow, moderately broad, parallel along whole length, with the same width at level of vibrissal angles and at the base of antenna. Frons narrow, almost parallel, 0.28 head width at the ocellar triangle and 0.30 head width at the base of antenna. Fronto-orbital plates entirely pale yellow. Frontal viưa broad, 3× as broad as than fronto-orbital plate at vertex, almost parallel, only slightly widened at lunule, entirely yellow without microtrichosity. Scape, pedicel, and first flagellomere yellow, arista black. Ocellar triangle with a pair of laterally directed setae slightly larger than additional ocellar setulae, one pair of small postocellar setae present (N = 2) or absent (N = 3). Inner vertical seta strong, almost straight, outer vertical seta curved and 0.8× as long as inner vertical seta; 12–16 pairs of frontal setae, setae not crossed over the frontal viưa. Frontal viưa and vertex bare, paravertical setae absent. One to two proclinate orbital setae, one reclinate orbital setae. Fronto-orbital plate with 0–3 fine setulae distributed around orbital setae. Parafacial plate with sparse, short, whitish-yellow setulae. Lunule bare. Scape and pedicel with short setulae. Gena and postgena with sparse, short, whitish-yellow setulae. Postcranium with yellow setulae. Antenna inserted distinctly above level of middle of eye. Antenna short, first flagellomere 2× as long as pedicel and 0.7× as long as distance between tip of first flagellomere and lower margin of facial plate, tip reaching to about 0.5 of parafacial plate. Arista micropubescent, aristomer 1 shorter and aristomer 2 slightly longer than their greatest diameter, aristomere 3 widened in basal 0.3. Facial plate with low keel below antennal insertion. Vibrissa not differentiated from surrounding setae, vibrissal angle situated distinctly above lower margin of facial plate. Subvibrissal setae numerous, black. Height of gena 0.35× length of first flagellomere and 0.1× eye height. Proboscis long, labellum 0.4× as long as prementum, palpus short, yellow.

Thorax. Black ground colour; covered with dense golden-yellow microtrichosity; scutum with unclear median stripes, presutural area with five stripes: a pair of broad lateral stripes flank three narrow inner stripes, postsutural area with three stripes: the continuation of the broad lateral stripes and the narrow median stripe.

Legs. Foreleg tarsomeres 1–5 with length proportions 1–0.5– 0.4–0.3–0.4. Fore tarsus with claws shorter than tarsomere 5. Tarsomeres without specialised chaetotaxy. Mid-tibia with one strong and four to six weak anterodorsal setae. Legs otherwise without particular modifications.

Wing. Tegula brown, basicosta yellow, veins yellow; costal spine not developed; base of vein R 4 * 5 with one to three setulae; distal part of vein M bent at right angle, M cell r 4 * 5 open.

Abdomen.Coveredwithdensegolden-yellowmicrotrichosity. Syntergite 1 * 2 entirely with microtrichosity. Posterior part of tergite 3–5 with a band across posterior margin. Band on tergite 3 brown, on tergites 4 and 5 brownish-black. Black bands occupy 0.2–0.3 of the tergite length. In dorsal view each segment with median small lustrous black spot separated from the lateral bands by area covered with golden-yellow microtrichosity.

Terminalia ( Fig. 8H–J ). Cuticle black, with yellow microtrichosity. Cercus (c) black, slightly curved (lateral view) and gradually tapering into a pointed tip (lateral and posterior view). Cercus with scaưered setae and short setulae in basal half, almost bare in distal half. Gonostylus (gst) brown, straight in lateral view, the same length like cercus, rounded apically and with setulae along whole length. Pregonite (prg) broad, slightly curved anteriorly with rounded tip; postgonite (pog) almost straight, broad with slightly pointed tip and strong anterior seta. Basiphallus (bp), ventral plate (vp) and dorsal plate (dp) strongly sclerotized; dorsal plate shallowly bifid apically (posterior view); ventral plate much shorter than dorsal plate. Membranous part of phallus with numerous denticles, acrophallus (ac) widened at tip.

Female ( Fig. 8K–M ). Differs from male only by primary sexual characters.

Biology. Unknown. Specimens were collected around noon in dry river beds, perching on large, flat stones in mountainous habitat.

Barcoding. Barcoded specimens (male and female) were grouped together with maximum support and nested inside clade of Miltogramma sg. Miltogrammidium ( Fig. 4 ).

Etymology. Species is named in honour of recently deceased, eminent American dipterist, Dr Frederic Christian (Chris) Thompson.

Remarks. Identifying specimens of M. thompsoni sp. nov. using the keys provided by Rohdendorf (1930, 1935), Verves (1994), and Povolný and Verves (1997) leads to species belonging to their subgenus Miltogrammidium (narrow, parallel frons and abdomen with distinct band along posterior margin of tergites). The combination of unmodified chaetotaxy of male fore tarsomere 1–5, broad frontal viưa, golden-yellow body coloration with narrow posterior band on abdominal tergites is not observed in any known species of Miltogrammidium .

Figures

Figure 3. Male fore tarsus of Miltogramma spp.A, M.vervesi sp. nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view. B, M.mikolajczyki sp. nov., right tarsus, dorsal view. C, M. soszynskii sp. nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view. D, M.thompsoni sp. nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view. E, M.rognesi sp.nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view.F, M.vera, right tarsus, anterior lateral view. G, M. manouchehrii sp. nov., right tarsus, dorsal view. Scale bars:0.2 mm.

Figure 4. Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on COI gene sequences of Miltogramma species.Numbers at branch nodes represent bootstrap support values as a percentage of 1000 replicates. The scale bar, measured in 0.2 substitutions per nucleotide position, indicates the genetic distance between the species. The asterisk (*) in Miltogramma efflatouni indicates a specimen that was misidentified as Miltogramma nuda in Kuưy et al. (2010).

Figure 8. Miltogramma thompsoni sp. nov. (male holotype:Uzbekistan, Besh-Bulak, 25 June 2019, 39.3762 63.1735, leg. KEiB Expedition, NHMD; female paratype: Uzbekistan, Besh-Bulak, 25 June 2019, 39.3762 63.1735, leg. KEiB Expedition, NHMD; male genital apparatus: paratype Uzbekistan, Besh-Bulak, 25 June 2019, 39.3762 63.1735, leg.KEiB Expedition). A, male, habitus, lateral view.B, male, habitus, dorsal view. C, male, head, lateral view.D, male, head, frontal view. E, male, head, dorsal view.F, male, wing, dorsal view. G, male, right fore tarsus, anterior lateral view. H, epandrial complex, dorsal view. I, epandrial complex, lateral, view. J, phallus, pre- and postgonites, ejaculatory sclerite, hypandrium. K, female, head, lateral view. L, female, head, frontal view. M, female, head, dorsal view.