Erebomyia aetheoptera Hurley & Runyon

Hurley, Richard L. & Runyon, Justin B., 2009, A review of Erebomyia (Diptera: Dolichopodidae), with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 2054, pp. 38-48 : 41-42

Erebomyia aetheoptera Hurley & Runyon , n. sp.

( Fig. 4 )

Description. Male: Body length: 4 mm; wing: 3.5 mm x 1.75 mm. Head: Face dense gray pollinose; middle third obliterated by encroachment of eyes, dorsal third and ventral third reduced to slender triangles. Vertex blue-green laterally, magenta medially, with moderate dense gray pollen. Ocellar setae long, subequal in size to dc setae. Outer vertical setae one-half length of ocellar setae. Palpus yellow-brown, elongate triangular; with rather long, light brown hairs. Scape cylindrical, rather long (subequal in length to first flagellomere), yellow. First flagellomere a little longer than wide. Thorax: Mesonotum dark brown with blue reflections; with sparse rusty-gray pollen. Pleura blue-green, with sparse gray pollen. Metepisternum and metepimeron yellow. Proepisternum with 2 short, slender white hairs on dorsal half and 2 similar hairs on ventral half. Thorax with 12 rather long, slender ac which are slightly longer than one-half length of dc. Legs: Coxa I with sparse anterior hairs. Coxa II narrowly darkened dorsally at base; with diffusely darkened stripe around insertion of brown ad seta; with moderately dense yellow hairs anteromedially. Coxa III with brown dorsal seta. Tibia II with ad setae near 1/5, 5/8; pd seta near 1/4. Tibia III with ad setae near 1/4, 5/8; with row of smaller dorsal setae on distal two-thirds; with about 5 short ventral setae. Tarsus III(2–5) brownish. Ratios of tibia:tarsomeres for leg I: 13-11-6-5 -3-2; for leg II: 24-14-7-5 -2-2; for leg III: 32-6-11-5-3 -1.5. Wing ( Fig. 4 ): rather broad, with distal margin bilobed because of shallow, wide indentation between tips of R4+5 and M1, which bears tuft of about 5 hooked cilia of increasing length (longest equal to distance between R4+5 and M1 at apex). Costa with long seta just basal to humeral crossvein; with rather long, slender spines of gradually increasing length, becoming sparse near apex of R2+3, then reappearing to apex of R4+5; with additional row of slender, hooked hairs before apex of R2+3. Ve in s R 2+3 and R4+5 gradually divergent; R4+5 and M1 parallel beyond crossvein, both with gradual anterior bend. Abdomen: dark brown with poorly differentiated, yellowish areas on T2 and T3. T2 with long hairs laterally; T2-T5 with long, slender setae along posterior edge. S5 with moderately stout seta at each side preapically. Hypopygium (not dissected); cerci similar to E. exalloptera ( Fig. 7 ), narrowed and darker on apical half, with 3 long (subequal to length of cercus), yellow setae at apex. Large, hooked left hypandrial arm visible in unprepared specimen.

Female: a single specimen collected with the holotype male appears to belong to this species. Body length: 4 mm; wing: 3.5 mm x 1.75 mm. The following combinations of characters should separate females of E. aetheoptera : femur III with preapical anterior seta equal to or longer than width of femur at insertion; wing broad (length approximately equal to 2 times width), bend in section of M1 beyond crossvein dm-cu occurring at or just basal to termination of CuA1 at wing margin.

Etymology: derived from Greek aethes (ảΦς) = unusual, strange + ptera (πτέρον) = wing, in reference to the curiously modified wings of the male.

Holotype: 3: ARIZONA: Cochise Co., Ramsey Canyon, Huachuca Mtns., 5500 feet, 23-IV-2002, R. Hurley & J. Runyon. Deposited: CAS.

Additional (non-type) material: Ƥ: same data as holotype.

Remarks: The male and female of E. aetheoptera were collected with E. ramseyensis along Ramsey Creek, Arizona, from a cavity created by several large boulders with some standing water underneath.

Figures

FIGURES 3 – 5. Erebomyia, male wings. 3. E. akidoptera; 4. E. aetheoptera; 5. E. ramseyensis. Note: in wing of E. aetheoptera, the anterodistal and posterobasal margins are slightly bent forward (toward reader).

FIGURES 6 – 8. Erebomyia genitalia. 6. E. exalloptera, ventral view; 7. E. exalloptera, left lateral view; 8. E. ramseyensis, left lateral view. Abbreviations: bac scl—bacilliform sclerite, cerc—cercus, dsur—dorsal lobe of surstylus, ej apod—ejaculatory apodeme, epand — epandrium, hypd—hypandrium, hypd arm—hypandrial arm, pgt—postgonite, ph—phallus, S 8 — sternite 8, vsur—ventral lobe of surstylus.