Sororsenexa macalpinei, Plant, 2011

Plant, Adrian, 2011, Sororsenexa-New Genus (Diptera: Empididae: Hemerodromiinae) from Australia, Records of the Australian Museum 63 (3), pp. 267-272 : 269-270

Sororsenexa macalpinei n.sp.

Figs 1–7

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂, AUSTRALIA: Royal National Park near Sydney, NSW, 13 Aug. 1971, D.K. McAlpine (Australian Museum) . Paratypes 7♂♂, 8♀♀, same data as holotype : 3♂♂, 3♀♀, Calga, Hawkesbury Distr. , NSW, 29.9.1956, D.K. McAlpine (9♂♂, 10♀♀, Australian Museum; 1♂, 1♀, National Museum of Wales) .

Description. Length 1.0– 1.1 mm (♂), 1.1–1.3 mm (♀); wing 1.3–1.4 mm. Head black rather thickly and uniformly covered with silvery grey dust. Male antenna yellow, postpedicel not contrasting with basal segments, stylus black. Female antenna darker, postpedicel blackish contrasting with somewhat paler basal segments. Mouthparts yellowish with apex of proboscis black. Setae brownish in male, blackish in female, rather paler on lower occiput near mouth cavity.

Thorax with ground colour of scutum and scutellum varying from dark yellow to almost black, generally paler in males but always heavily obscured by silvery grey dusting which in certain lights can appear blackish along median line or along line of dorsocentral setae on scutum; pleura somewhat paler and rather less strongly but uniformly dusted; all setae dark yellowish brown.

Legs yellow to yellowish brown, apical two segments of tarsi vaguely darker; all setae yellowish but front tibia with apical spine and front femur with ventral denticles and ventrobasal setae shining black.

Abdomen dark brown with similarly coloured or slightly paler setae; thinly but uniformly greyish dusted including hypandrium and epandrium. Subterminal segments progressively narrower than anterior segments in female, similarly sized in male.

Wings faintly tinged brownish yellow, veins yellow to yellowish brown, halter dirty yellow.

Etymology. The specific name honours David McAlpine who has collected all known specimens of S. macalpinei .

Comments. The precise collection localities we not recorded but the collector considers both known sites to have been a mixture of scattered eucalypts and sclerophyll heath. All specimens were taken in August or September which are cool months of the austral late winter and early spring.

Figures

Figure 1. Sororsenexa macalpinei n.sp., male habitus.

Figures 2–3. Sororsenexa macalpinei n.sp. (2) female head, dorsal; (3) male anterior leg, anterior aspect.

Figures 4–6. Sororsenexa macalpinei n.sp. male genitalia: (4) lateral view; (5) posterior view; (6) cerci in dorsal view.Abbreviations: cer, cercus; epan, epandrium; hyp, hypandrium; ph, phallus; ps, phallic sheath; subep, subepandrial process.

Figure 7. Sororsenexa macalpinei n.sp. male wing showing nomenclature of major veins and cells.