Sciara tryoni Skuse, 1890

Broadley, Adam, Kauschke, Ellen & Mohrig, Werner, 2016, Revision of the types of male Sciaridae (Diptera) described from Australia by F. A. A. Skuse, Zootaxa 4193 (3), pp. 401-450 : 444-446

Sciara tryoni Skuse, 1890

( Fig. 27 A‒E)

Sciara tryoni Skuse, 1890 [ Skuse (1890): 391 ‒393].

Type locality. Australia, Queensland, Brisbane, Hamilton, Upper North Pine.

Lectotype (here designated): Male. Slide bears original label data verbatim ‘ Sciara tryoni / Ƌ (ink) TYPE./ F. A. A. Skuse’ (print), ‘ Hamilton / Upp-Nth-Pine/ C.J.W. Jan-90 ’ (print). Mounted in Canada balsam Dec. 2015 . (ANIC; Slide No. 048-1).

Paralectotype. Female (not studied).

Preservation. In good condition, claws missing, apical third of one gonostylus missing.

Remarks. Original description states “ Hab.—Brisbane (H. Tryon and F. Allbon), Hamilton, Upper Nth. Pine , Queensland (C. J. Wild); several specimens in Coll . Queensland Museum. January to March.” A search of the Queensland Museum collection was made in July 2015 and no types were found (C. Lambkin, pers. comm.).

= Sciara insulana Vilkamaa, Hippa & Mohrig, 2015 syn. n. [ Vilkamaa, Hippa & Mohrig (2015): 590 ‒591, fig. 1 A‒D]. Type locality. New Caledonia.

Holotype: Sciara insulana Vilkamaa, Hippa & Mohrig, 2015 , male.

Additional description. Male. Head. Brownish. Eye bridge not visible; antenna brownish, with bottle-like necks; 4th flagellomere with l/w index of 3.5, densely hairy, as long as the width of the basal node, with bottle-like necks; palpus 3-segmented, rather short, basal segment without deepened sensory area, with 3‒4 bristles. Thorax. Yellow; scutum with fine, sparse pale hairs; scutellum with a few short marginal bristles; postpronotum bare. Wing pale; R1 long, joining C opposite to the M-fork; R5 with dorsal macrotrichia only; y shorter than x, with macrotrichia; all posterior veins with macrotrichia, a few macrotrichia on A1 as well. Haltere short, brownish. Legs long and thin, yellowish-brown, hind leg distinctly darker; fore tibia with a large area of dense bristles; spurs of middle and hind tibia equal in size, as long as the width of tibia apex; claws missing. Abdomen. Brownish, with long dense hair. Hypopygium yellow, with broad v-shaped ventral base, without lobe or patch of bristles; gonocoxite with fine, sparse and short hairs on the inner ventral margin; gonostylus elongate, with black apical spines (3 long and 1 short), below the spines there is a small lobe, covered densely with spine-like bristles, below these bristles is a short tooth; tegmen rather narrow, pyramid-like, slightly shouldered laterally. Body length: calculated 4.8 mm.

Comments. The species is characterized by flagellomeres with bottle-like necks; yellow-brown thorax; wings with macrotrichia on posterior veins; elongated gonostylus with 4 black apical spines, a somewhat subapical small lobe, covered densely with short spine-like bristles and a short subapical tooth. The latter is a unique character in species of the genus Sciara . Sciara tryoni is similar to the North American species S. futilis Johannsen which also possesses a subapical tooth. Vilkamaa et al. (2015) placed this species together with S. futilis and two species from Nepal and Inner Mongolia, respectively in a separate Sciara futilis group. Sciara insulana is identical to S. tryoni Skuse in nearly all morphological details except the darker thorax and fewer macrotrichia on the posterior wing veins. These are less important characters and occur often in species that are geographically widespread. It has been described from New Caledonia, where it was collected from sclerophyllous forest.

Distribution. Australia (Queensland), New Caledonia.

Figures

FIGURE 27. Sciara tryoni Skuse, 1890. A. Hypopygium; B. Apical half of gonostylus; C. Gonostylus from S. insulana Vilkamaa, Hippa & Mohrig (after Vilkamaa et al. 2015); D. Flagellomeres 3 ‒ 4; E. Apex of fore tibia.