Lichtwardtia formosana Enderlein, 1912

Tang, Chufei, Yang, Ding & Grootaert, Patrick, 2018, Revision of the genus Lichtwardtia Enderlein in Southeast Asia, a tale of highly diverse male terminalia (Diptera, Dolichopodidae), ZooKeys 798, pp. 63-107 : 63

Lichtwardtia formosana Enderlein, 1912 Figs 19, 20

Lichtwardtia formosana Enderlein, 1912: 407. Type locality: Taiwan (China).

Lichtwardtia taiwanensis Zhang, Masunaga & Yang, 2009: 199, figs 6-10. Type locality: Taiwan (China).

Lichtwardtia formosana Enderlein, 1912, in Selivanova, Negrobov & Yang, 2010: 144, re-description, figs 1-5.

Material examined.

CAMBODIA (all coll. RBINS): 10 males, Siem Reap prov., Angkhor, Preah Khan Temple, 24 January– 21 February 2005, malaise trap in secondary forest (leg. Oul Yothin). 1 male; same provenance, 12 November– 7 December 2005. 4 males, same provenance, 28 March– 4 April 2006. 2 males, same provenance, 4-11 April 2006. 1 male; same provenance, 12 May 2006. 1 female, Siem Reap prov., garden Sam Vesna Centre, 6 June 2005, malaise trap (leg. Oul Yothin).

SINGAPORE (all coll. LKCNHM): 1 male, Semakau, 3 April 2012, sweeping along path in back mangrove (leg. P Grootaert). 1 male, Semakau, 12 July 2012, sweeping along path in mangrove (leg. Jayanthi Puniamoorthy & P Grootaert). 1 male, 2 females, West Coast Park, 7 December 2003; sweeping nets along shrubs along sandy beach (leg. P Grootaert). 1 male, 5 female, Sungei Buloh, 1-6 June 2005, malaise trap in mangrove (leg. P Grootaert). 5 female, same provenance the previous, 20-27 July 2005. 1 male, 2 females, Clementi Woods, sweeping nets along drains in park (leg. P Grootaert). 1 male, 1 female, Labrador Park, 3 April 2005, sweeping along drains (leg. P Grootaert).

Diagnosis.

Antenna entirely dark yellow. Mid coxa entirely darkened, hind coxa anteriorly with a rectangular brown spot. No thickening of the costa present. Wing nearly hyaline, lightly tinged brown. Apex of phallus looking smooth though microscopic small denticles are present.

Description.

Male. Body length 3.8 mm, wing 3.5 × 1.2 mm.

Head dark metallic green, with thick pale pollinosity; face slightly raised, frons and face both with thick pale pollinosity, gradually narrowed downward. Hairs and bristles on head black except postocular bristles pale. Antenna dark yellow; postpedicel nearly triangular, blunt apically, 1.4 times as long as wide, covered by short brown pubescence; arista-like stylus dorsal, black to dark yellow onwards, inserted at basal half of postpedicel, nearly as long as head width, black, feather-like, with long black pubescence, basal segment 0.5 times as long as apical portion of arista-like stylus. Proboscis brown, with black hairs; palpus yellow, with one short black apical bristle.

Thorax dark metallic green, with pale grey pollinosity. Hairs and bristles on thorax black; five strong dc, ten pairs of strong acr. Scutellum with two pairs sc, apical pair long strong, basal pair short and weak. Legs mainly yellows, except basal 2/3 of mid coxa brown, hind coxa with one brown spot, tip of hind tibia brown, tarsi yellow to brown onwards. Fore coxa anteriorly with five strong bristles at apical half, mid coxa anteriorly with four strong bristles, hind coxa with two short outer bristles. Fore and hind trochanters with one weak outer bristle at middle. Mid trochanter with two short weak outer bristles. Fore femur without distinct bristle. Mid and hind femora each with one preapical pv. Fore tibia with two short ad, two pd, one av, and three ap. Mid tibia with two ad, three pd and four ap. Hind tibia with six ad, four pd, two pv, and three ap. Hind tarsomere I with one short strong ad at apical third, one av at basal fifth and one short apical bristle. Relative lengths of tibia and five tarsomeres of legs LI: 2.5: 1.1: 0.5: 0.4: 0.3: 0.3; LII: 3.0: 2.0: 1.0: 0.8: 0.5: 0.3; LIII: 4.0: 1.5: 1.5: 1.0: 0.8: 0.5. Wing nearly hyaline, lightly tinged brown; veins brown. M with fading M2, M1 with one short subvein. Crossvein dm-cu almost straight. CuAx ratio 1.0. Lower calypter pale with black hairs. Haltere pale.

Abdomen metallic green, with pale pollinosity. Hairs and bristles on abdomen black.

Male terminalia: Epandrium 2.0 times longer than wide (Figure 20); epandrial lobe three pale ap. Ventral surstylus with five long ap, dorsal surstylus with three ap and two digitations each with one apical bristle, of which one thin spinous, one rod-like; all pale except rod-like bristle brown. Cercus nearly triangular, pale except for the black marginal seam, with weak digitations around outer margin and with thin pale marginal bristle on digitations. Hypandrium simple. Phallus with a patch of minute spinules near apex (these spinules are visible like a darkened patch and can only be distinguished well under a light microscope).

Female. Has the same characteristics as the male: large rectangular black spot on the hind coxa and the tip of the hind tibia brown.

Comments.

Lichtwardtia formosana is the only Oriental species known at the moment with a rectangular black (dark brown) patch on the hind coxa. In all other species the hind coxa is entirely yellow. Lichtwardtia formosana looks different but has a double row of microscopic denticles ventrally on the tip of the phallus. Otherwise the shape of the postgonite is identical to the L. nodulata group. The cercus lacks a strong dorsal bristle at the inside.

Distribution.

China (Taiwan), Cambodia, Singapore.