Cheilosia lucense Ricarte

Ricarte, Antonio, Rotheray, Graham E., Lyszkowski, Richard M., Hancock, E. Geoffrey, Hewitt, Stephen M., Watt, Kenneth R., Horsfield, David & Macgowan, Iain, 2014, The syrphids of Serra do Courel, Northern Spain and description of a new Cheilosia Meigen species (Diptera: Syrphidae), Zootaxa 3793 (4), pp. 401-422 : 403-406

Description of Cheilosia lucense Ricarte sp. nov.

(figs 1–5)

Male: Measurements. L= 10.6 mm, WL= 7.8 mm. Head. Eye facets increasingly large towards the upper part of eye, but never as large as an ocellus; eye with conspicuous reddish-yellow hairs; vertical triangle black, elevated and punctured centrally, faintly white-pollinose on the anterior corner; vertical triangle with reddish-yellow hairs (longer than those on eye) and a few black hairs intermixed; frontal triangle black, punctured, faintly white pollinose laterally, with long reddish-yellow hairs and a few black hairs centrally; frontal triangle 1.5 times longer than eye contiguity; lunule shiny reddish brown; scape and pedicel with both pale and black hairs; scape black; pedicel brownish black, paler towards the apex; basoflagellomere nearly circular ( Fig. 1 ), reddish brown and white pollinose; antennal arista black, with very short hairs, the length of which is about half the maximum width of arista; face black and with whitish microtrichia, except for the central shiny tubercle; eye rim at its maximum width as wide as shiny part of facial tubercle; eye rim with yellowish-white hairs and as long as those on the closer areas of eye; face with a triangular shiny area from the mouth edge to eye rim; gena and occiput black, with white pollinosity, which is denser on the occiput; gena with a reddish brown spot just below the eye; upper half of occiput conspicuously narrower than lower half; occiput with yellowish red hairs and a row of black hairs of increasing length on the upper part. Thorax. Scutum shiny black, with long reddish-yellow hairs and, on the posterior half of scutum and near the notopleuron, black hairs intermixed; pleuron black, faintly grey pollinose; posterior anepisternum, anepimeron and katepisternum with reddish yellow hairs; ventral part of anterior anepisternum with whitish yellow hairs anteriorly; metasternum haired; scutellum shiny black, with long red hairs and, on the centre, a few black hairs intermixed; subscutellar fringe of hairs red; black coxae, pale haired; femora black except for the red apices; femora with reddish yellow hairs and, on the apical half, black hairs intermixed (black hairs shorter towards the femur apex); metafemur with a few outstandingly long pale hairs ventrally; tibiae red, with a faint black ring; tibiae with pale and black hairs intermixed; protarsus black dorsally; mesotarsomeres 1–3 blackish brown, mesotarsomeres 4 and 5 black; metatarsus black dorsally (tarsomeres 1–3 reddish apically); all tarsi red ventrally except for the blackish tarsomeres 5; claws red on the basal half; wing wholly microtrichose, with basal veins red; calypter white, reddish marginally; halter red, with capitulum blackish. Abdomen. Slender, 1.6 times longer than wide; hairs on central part of terga shorter than those on the central part of thoracic scutum; terga covered in reddish yellow hairs; terga black; tergum I dark pollinose except for the shiny posterior margin; tergum II dark pollinose except for lateral margins; tergum III shiny except for a central dark-pollinose stripe not reaching the posterior margin; tergum IV wholly shiny; sternum I wholly grey pollinose; sternum II grey pollinose except for two posterior semicircular areas; sterna I and II wholly pale haired; sterna III and IV grey pollinose on both the anterior and posterior margins and with black hairs posteriorly; pleural membrane brownish black. Genitalia. Surstylus elongate (3.2 times longer than wide in lateral view), straight ( Fig. 3 ); lateral expansion of surstylus at its maximum width 1.9 times wider than that at the base of the expansion in dorsal view ( Fig. 2 ); ventral lobe of gonostylus slightly widening towards the apex, 3.7 times longer than the dorsal lobe of gonostylus, which is short, slightly waisted centrally and with apex sclerotised ( Fig. 3 ).

Female: Same as the male except for the following characters: L= 11.3 mm, WL= 8.2 mm. All eye facets equal in size; frons black, finely punctured and with disperse white pollinosity; frons with a central excavation from the ocellar triangle to the area close to the lunules; ocellar triangle and frons only with reddish yellow hairs; basoflagellomere slightly curved dorsally and strongly curved ventrally, with a conspicuous corner dorso-apically ( Fig. 4 ); basoflagellomere red, faintly pollinose, with pits both on the inner and outer sides ( Fig. 4 ); arista with hairs slightly longer than those in male but shorter than the maximum width of arista; face profile as in Fig. 4 ; upper half of occiput slightly narrower than lower half but conspicuously wider than that on male; scutum and scutellum only with reddish yellow hairs; profemora only with pale hairs; meso- and metafemora with yellow hairs except for a few short black adpressed hairs dorsally on the apices and a few black (longer than those dorsally) hairs ventrally, near the apices ( Fig. 5 ); tibiae mainly pale haired, with some black hairs intermixed; mesotarsomeres 1-3 paler than those in male; abdomen oval, more stocky than in male (1.3 times longer than wide); tergum III extensively shiny; sternum II pollinose anteriorly and laterally; sternum III narrowly pollinose laterally; sternum IV narrowly pollinose laterally and posteriorly.

Differential diagnosis. The male of this species can be separated from the male of the similar C. chrysocoma (Meigen) in the following characters: in C. lucense sp. nov., anterior side of hypandrium nearly straight, dorsal lobe of gonostylus short and stocky, surstylus short in lateral view ( Fig. 3 ), conspicuously expanded in dorsal view ( Fig. 2 ); in C. chrysocoma , anterior side of hypandrium excavated, dorsal lobe of gonostylus elongated, surstylus long in lateral view (ratio length/width higher than that in the new taxon), surstylus moderately to slightly expanded in dorsal view (see figures 2, 9 and 16f in Claussen 1998). Females of C. lucense sp. nov. are most similar to those of C. chrysocoma . The female of C. lucense sp. nov. keys out to C. chrysocoma in Claussen (1998) and Bartsch et al. (2009b). The basoflagellomere in C. chrysocoma female usually has a conspicuous dorsal corner ( Claussen 1998) which is absent in the examined females of C. chrysocoma from Durmitor ( Montenegro). Female of C. lucense sp. nov. also has a dorsal corner in the basoflagellomere ( Fig. 4 ). A few characters may help to separate females of these two species: in C. lucense sp. nov. facial tubercle angular in profile ( Fig. 4 ); sternum II pollinose, with a semicircular shiny area on the posterior margin; in C. chrysocoma facial tubercle more roundish; sternum II extensively shiny, only narrowly pollinose on the anterior and lateral margins. Specimens of both C. lucense sp. nov. and C. chrysocoma were found in Courel. Type material of C. lucense sp. nov. was compared with specimens of C. chrysocoma from the north of Spain (León) [CEUA], England [NMS], Serbia and Montenegro [FSUNS].

Type material. Holotype: 1♂, Spain, Galicia, Lugo, Folgoso do Courel , A Fontela, path edge vegetation, 1280 m, 25.v.2012, leg. A. Ricarte [ NMS] . Paratypes: 1♀, Spain, Galicia, Lugo, Folgoso do Courel, meadow along Moreda valley, 720 m, on flowers of Chaerophyllum hirsutum , 23.v.2012, leg. A. Ricarte [ CEUA]. Leg. R.M. Lyszkowski : 2♂, Spain, Galicia, Lugo, Folgoso do Courel, nr. Pedra Boa, 750 m, 24.v.2012 [1♂ in MNCN, 1♂ in RL].

Etymology. The epithet lucense means ‘from Lugo’ and refers to the Spanish province of the type locality, Lugo.

Distribution. Spain (Lugo province).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 3. Cheilosia lucense Ricarte, sp. nov. male holotype. 1: left antenna, inner side, scale = 0.5 mm; 2: genitalia, dorsal view; 3: genitalia, lateral view, scale = 0.7 mm. Legend: dg, dorsal lobe of gonostylus; ls, lateral expansion of surstylus; su, surstylus; vg, ventral lobe of surstylus.

FIGURES 4 – 5. Cheilosia lucense Ricarte, sp. nov. female paratype. 4: head, lateral view; 5: left metafemur, anterior side, scale = 1 mm.