Lamprolonchaea

Macgowan, Iain, 2005, New species of Lonchaeidae (Diptera: Schizophora) from central and southern Africa, Zootaxa 967, pp. 1-23 : 2-4

GENUS: LAMPROLONCHAEA , BEZZI, 1920: 199

Lamprolonchaea longicerca sp. nov.

Description. Male: Head: Eyes bare. Frons flat and subshining black in colour. Orbital plates broad and shining, without any hairs. Frons long in proportion to the head, antennal bases situated at a level half way down the eyes. When seen from above frons, face and parafacials slightly silvered. First flagellomere short and small, one and a half times as long as it is deep but because the antennae are situated low on the face they reach the mouth margin, entirely black. Arista with very short hairing, about twice as long as the first flagellomere.

Thorax: Thoracic disc brightly shining, blackish anteriorly but deep green centrally and posteriorly, sides of thorax shining black. One strong propleural, the one stigmatical rather hair like. Anepisternum with one strong anterior and three strong posterior bristles, the posterior bristles becoming weaker below. Katepisternum with one strong bristle, no hairs posterior to or below this bristle. Scutellar disc bare, brightly shining dark green, on margin between strong lateral and apical bristles with one short hair, no hairs between apical bristles. Squamae and fringes whitish, wings clear with yellow veins. Wing length 2.8mm. Front coxae with silver dusting anteriorly, all femora and tibiae black, basal and second tarsomeres clear yellow, other tarsomeres darkened. Abdomen shining brassy.

Male genitalia: Fig. 1 ; 1,2,3. The most obvious feature is the lateral flattening of the genitalia. Epandrium much broader than it is high bearing hairs along its posterior margin. Cerci large and elongate but flattened, lying parallel to the epandrium and projecting ventrally beyond it. The aedeagus is rather short, thickened and angular; within the genitalia it lies in a reversed position with the basal portion lying ventral to the apical portion.

Female: Unknown.

Differential diagnosis: There are approximately twenty described species of Lamprolonchaea in the world. The majority of these were described by McAlpine (1964) from the Pacific and Australasian regions. Only one species, Lamprolonchaea smaragdi Walker, 1849 has previously been identified from Africa and this was described and figured by McAlpine (1960) under the synonymous name aurea Macquart, 1851. Although Lamprolonchaea specimens are easy to identify to a generic level due to their metallic body colouration, identification to species level is dependent on examination of the male genitalia. This species, with its large cerci and angular reversed aedeagus, can be easily told apart from L. smaragdi and other previously described Lamprolonchaea species. No doubt there are still many other African representatives of this genus to be described.

TYPE MATERIAL: Holotype male. TANZANIA: East Usambara, Amani, 1000m, 21.i.1977. H. Enghoff, O. Lomholdt, O. Martin leg. Only known from the holotype. Specimen in the Zoological Museum, Copenhagen.

Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the long flattened cerci of the male genitalia.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Male genitalia of: Lamprolonchaea longicercus sp. nov. 1. epandrium and associated structures, lateral view. 2. posterior view. 3. aedeagus lateral view. Lonchaea asymmetrica sp. nov. 4. epandrium and associated structures, lateral view. 5. ventral view. Lonchaea grandiseta sp. nov. 6. epandrium and associated structures, lateral view. 7. ventral view. 8. aedeagus lateral view.