Howickia nudistylus Marshall

Marshall, S. A., Luk, S. P. L. & Dong, H., 2014, A revision of the New Zealand species of Howickia Richards, Zootaxa 3887 (1), pp. 1-36 : 19

Howickia nudistylus Marshall sp. nov.

( Fig. 45)

Description. Colour: Head pale reddish except for silvery frontal strips. General colour dull pale brown. Tarsi pale yellow to white, fore and hind tarsi paler than mid tarsi. Face entirely pale microtrichose.

Head: Interfrontal bristles in 2 pairs, lower pair minute. One large orbital bristle, similar in size to outer vertical bristle. Ocelli small but distinct. Eye 2.5X genal height. Vibrissa strong; subvibrissa weak or absent. Arista with long hairs, hairs twice as long as width of first aristomere.

Thorax: Scutellum microtrichose, 3.0X as wide as long; basal marginal bristles short, apical bristles broken off unique type. Wing rudiment flat, slightly longer than scutellum, microtrichose, anterior half ringed by a loop vein. Halter fully developed, pale.

Male abdomen: Sternite 5 subequal to sternite 4, slightly paler medially but otherwise unmodified; sternite 3 as long as sternites 4 and 5 combined. Subanal plate damaged on unique type. Surstylus narrowly triangular, tapering posteriorly and with irregular ventral surface and only small setae. Distiphallus narrow, tubular. Postgonites strongly bent posteriorly, narrow in distal portion as in H. mercurialis .

Female unknown.

Type material. Holotype (male, NZAC, debu00127402): North Island, Te Paki, forest litter, 6.Dec.1984, N.O. Mitchell. The internal genitalia plus the subepandrial sclerite and surstyli have been detached from the epandrium on this specimen so some characters (cerci, subanal plate) are obscured.

Etymology. The specific name refers to the characteristically shaped surstylus, which lacks the stout ventral bristle found in closely related species.

Comments. The strongly bent postgonite is similar to that of H. mercurialis and H. bicolor . These three species are certainly closely related and also share similar wing rudiments and a fused, capsule-like tergites 1–3. Howickia nudistylus is described on the basis of a single somewhat damaged specimen, but several characters, especially the distinctive surstylus, distinguish it from the other two species in the clade.