Leia flavipennis Laštovka & Matile, 1974

Polevoi, Alexei & Salmela, Jukka, 2016, New data on poorly known species of the genus Leia Meigen (Diptera, Mycetophilidae) from the Palaearctic region, Zootaxa 4103 (5), pp. 487-500 : 488-490

Leia flavipennis Laštovka & Matile, 1974

( Figs. 1 ; 6A)

Leia flavipennis Laštovka & Matile, 1974: 99

= Leia automnala Ostroverkhova & Grishina, 1974: 80 syn.n.

Material examined: RUSSIA: 1♂, Kamchatka territory, Kozyrevka, on Kamchatka river, 8.8.1908 ( ZIN, A. Derzhavin leg., pinned); 1♂, Yakutia, Namtsy(Namskoje), left shore of Lena river, 90 km E of Yakutsk, 17.7.1926 ( ZIN, N. Moskvin leg., pinned).

Diagnosis. A yellowish or mainly dark-brown species, with clear wings and strongly sclerotized bean shaped gonostylus.

Description. Male (n=2)

Head dark-brown, covered with pale setae. Three ocelli in a line, with laterals close to, but not touching, eye margin. Clypeus brown, mouthparts and palpus yellow. (In Yakutian specimen head mainly yellowish-brown and clypeus yellow). Scape and pedicel yellow, first flagellomere yellow at base, the rest of flagellum yellowish-brown to brown. Middle flagellomeres slightly longer than wide.

Thorax from yellow to mainly dark-brown with pale setae. Mesoscutum completely yellow or dark-brown with paler lateral areas. Scutellum yellow or brown with four strong marginal bristles. Propleuron yellow, the other lateral parts of the thorax and mediotergite yellow or brown.

Wing ( Fig. 6 A). Wing length 4.08–4.71 mm. Wing hyaline, yellowish tinged, small dark spot present at base of anal veins. Veins yellow. All, except Sc and A2 densely setose on dorsal side. Sc2 well beyond the middle of Sc. Base of M-fork beyond the middle of ta. CuA1 interrupted at base. R1 0.72–0.78 times as long as ta, which is 0.31– 0.35 times as long as R5 and 1.27–1.43 times as long as M-stem. Haltere yellow, with slightly darkened club.

Legs. Coxae yellow, fore coxa with punctiform black spot at the apex, mid and hind coxa with narrowly darkened apical margins. Trochanters yellow with dark ventral spots. Femora yellow, apex of hind femur narrowly darkened. Tibiae and tarsi yellow, hind tibia slightly darkened at base. Ratio of femur to tibia for fore, mid and hind legs: 1.02–1.16; 0.89–0.97; 0.70–0.74. Ratio of tibia to basitarsus for fore, mid and hind legs: 1.29; 1.52–1.70; 2.17–2.19. Tibial setae black, spurs yellow. Fore tibia with one spur that is 2.11–2.43 times as long as apical tibial diameter. Mid and hind tibiae with two spurs. Posteroventral spur on mid tibia 1.24–1.30 times longer than anteroventral spur and posteroventral spur on hind tibia 1.14–1.31 times longer than anteroventral spur.

Abdomen uniformly brown (in Yakutian specimen tergites 2–3 yellow with brown apical bands) with pale setae. Terminalia ( Fig. 1 ) yellowish-brown. Gonocoxite with numerous bristles in approximately apical half. Medial ventral process of gonocoxite long, consisting of two narrow lamellae (each with one apical and several subapical setules) and inner membranous structure with brush-like apical formation. Gonostylus strongly sclerotized, bean-shaped, with subapical crest. Tergite 9 evenly narrowing to the apex and setose in the apical half. Cerci near triangular, twice shorter than tergite 9. Aedeagus very long, sword-shaped in ventral view. Paramere wide and bowed, slightly shorter than aedeagus. Hypoproct apically with a medial emargination and two submedial groups of stout setae.

Female. We did not study females of this species. In the original description authors only state that it is similar to the male and give the figure of the female terminalia in lateral view ( Lastovka & Matile 1974, p. 100, Fig. 10).

Biology. Collected by sweep net in mixed oak-pine forest.

Distribution. East Russia, Mongolia.

Remarks. We did not study the types of L. flavipennis , however specimens examined by us can be reliably identified based on description and figures by Laštovka & Matile (1974). The type of L. automnala (type locality: Russia, Tomsk province, Kolpashev) is apparently lost (E. Subbotina pers. comm.), however several characters mentioned in the description and key features of the male terminalia, traceable in the sketchy original figures (see Ostroverkhova & Grishina 1974, p.41. fig. 2: 1), allow reliable association. As the exact publication date of both descriptions is not known we give priority to L. flavipennis on the basis of the imprimatur date of appropriate journal volumes (29.08.1973 for Laštovka & Matile paper and 18.03.1974 for Ostroverkhova & Grishina paper). Leia flavipennis is easily distinguished from other representatives of the genus by the peculiar structures of the male terminalia (e.g. strongly sclerotized, bean-shaped gonostylus and very long, sword-shaped aedeagus).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Leia flavipennis Laštovka & Matile, male terminalia. A. ventral view. B. dorsal view. C. lateral view. D. aedeagal complex, lateral view. E. aedeagal complex, ventral view. F. hypoproct. Scale bars = 0.2 mm. Abbreviations: aed = aedeagus, cerc = cercus, gc = gonocoxite, gst = gonostylus, par = parameres, tg = tergite, vmpg = ventral medial process of gonocoxites.

FIGURE 6. Wings of Leia males. A. Leia flavipennis. B. Leia iturupensis. C. Leia nigricornis. D. Leia rufiptera. Scale bars = 2 mm.