Curranosia wyatti, Zielke, 2020

Zielke, Eberhard, 2020, Two new species of the genus Curranosia PATERSON, 1957 (Diptera: Muscidae) from the Afrotropical Region, Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 70 (1), pp. 197-202 : 200-202

Curranosia wyatti spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:971D4E89-CCE4-471D-BAF2-6703B1766324

Material examined:  holotype ( Fig. 2 ) is marked with two labels. The first label bears the information: CK. 97, Keneba, Gambia, M. C. D. Speight, 1975-09-21, rainy season; and the second one reads: In Malaise trap by 4 ft. grass, between lawn & Arachis crop .

The left hind tarsi are lacking.

(bar = 1 mm).

Description (male): Head ground-colour dark brown to blackish, partly greyish-white dusted. Eyes large with some tiny hairs, anterior facets near to frons distinctly enlarged, facets of outer side of eye smaller; shortest distance between eyes barely twice the diameter of anterior ocellus. Fronto-orbital plates separated by narrow frontal vitta, almost as broad as anterior ocellus, width of fronto-orbital plate at shortest distance between eyes about as wide as diameter of the adjacent facets. Parafacial at level of base of antenna about as broad as anterior ocellus, dilating below all over the length to more than half the width of postpedicel. In profile upper mouth margin about in line with profrons. Depth of gena below lowest eye margin approximately equal to width of postpedicel. Face, fronto-orbital plate, frontal vitta, parafacial and gena dark brown or black, at some points of viewing face, gena, parafacial and anterior third of fronto-orbital plate whitish dusted. Antennal segments dark brown with some greyish-brown dust. Postpedicel about 3.3 times as long as broad and more than three times as long as pedicel. Arista dark brown, basal half somewhat thickened, rather short, at most 1.3 times as long as length of postpedicel, longest dorsal hairs of arista more than twice as long as width of postpedicel. Fronto-orbital plate all over its length with a row of setulose hairs, the hairs anterior to ocellar tubercle either inclinate or proclinate, at level of ocellar tubercle two shorter and more reclinate hairs. Parafacial bare. Vibrissal setae strong and more than twice as long as longest surrounding peristomal setae. Upper surface of gena bare or with some short hairs, lower part and margin with setulose hairs. Proboscis slender, about three times as long as its diameter, dark, prementum brown and shining; labella somewhat longer than depth of proboscis; palpus dark brown, slender, somewhat clavate, about as long as prementum.

Thorax. Ground-colour shining dark green, dorsally without white pollinosity. When viewed from behind mesonotum and scutellum shining green with some weak brass reflections without any whitish pattern. Anterior pleura shining green, posterior pleura predominantly shining brown, when viewed very much from the anterior the pleura appearing to be slightly greyish dusted. Anterior spiracle contrasting white ( Fig. 2 ), posterior one brown. Dorsocentrals 2+3, the anterior postsutural seta distinctly shorter than the posterior ones and the presutural dorsocentrals; acrostichals 0 + 1, three postpronotal setae, the inner one shorter than the outer ones; two notopleural setae, posterior one slightly shorter, notopleuron densely haired; pre-alar seta at least half as long as posterior notopleural seta; one intra-alar seta. Infra alar bulla without setulae, suprasquamal ridge with fine, but distinct seta-like hairs at certain angle of light of golden-yellow colour. Prosternum bare, anepimeron with longer hairs on the posterior surface. Proepimeral area and katepimeron bare; meron with some hairs below posterior spiracle. Katepisternals 1+3, the lower two very close to the posterior seta and shorter. Anepisternum with a distinct anterior seta about opposite to anterior notopleural seta and at posterior margin with a row of 6 strong setae, the longest one at the top of the row then decreasing in length and with only very few shorter interstitial hairs. Scutellum with a pair of strong apical and lateral setae, subapical setae about half as long as apical setae and basal seta hardly distinguishable from long setulose ground hair; lateral surface and margin to the ventral surface haired.

Wing. Membrane hyaline, uniformly covered with microtrichia, cross-veins and surrounding membrane not infuscate. Tegula dark brownish, basicosta yellowishbrown, veins yellowish to brownish. Costal spine hardly distinguishable from surrounding bristles. Distal end of stem vein dorsally with a short hair, ventrally with at least two setulae, one distinctly longer; radial node and vein R 4+5 dorsally with a row of setulae almost reaching crossvein r-m, ventrally with a row reaching about midway to r-m. Vein M 1 apically distinctly curved to vein R 4+5 the distance between the two veins at wing margin at most half as long as the length of r-m. Cross-vein r-m distinctly basad of the point where vein R 1 enters costa; distal cross-vein dm-cu sinusoid and oblique. Upper calypter predominantly hyaline transparent with darker margin, lower calypter brownish and almost twice as long as upper calypter. Basis and stem of haltere brownish, knob yellowish-white.

Legs uniformly brown, depending on angle of view either dark brown or somewhat paler. Pulvilli and claws clearly shorter than the corresponding tarsomere. Fore femur with complete rows of posterodorsal and posteroventral setae. Fore tibia without median posterior seta. Mid femur with irregular rows of anteroventral and posteroventral setulose hairs, apart from one longer seta-like hair at basis the length of hairs barely as long as depth of femur at level of insertion, basal half of femur with a row of distinct but not very long anterior setae, preapically two strong posterodorsal setae. Mid tibia with about four short posterior setae, the middle one distinctly stronger, one strong posteroventral seta distally at middle third of tibia. Hind coxa bare on posterior surface. Hind femur with a row of strong anterodorsal setae and a row of anteroventral shorter setae at the apical half and somewhat longer hairs in the basal half, posteroventral surface at about middle third with approximately three longer seta-like hairs, preapically two strong posterior to posterodorsal setae. Hind tibia with a row of several short anterodorsal setae and one longer one opposite to two distinct anteroventral setae at apical half, at apical third a strong and long posterodorsal seta.

Abdomen. Without specific pattern, shining dark green with strong reflections. Depending on angle of view anterior half of syntergite 1+2 shining brownish. When viewed from very much behind tergites 3 and 4 thinly greyish dusted. Tergites 3 and 4 laterally with some stronger marginal setae, tergite five with almost a complete row of distinct marginals and laterally with few longer discals. Ventral parts of tergites predominantly concolorous with dorsal parts. Sternite 1 with some setulose hairs, sternites predominantly brownish.

Male genitalia. The species is distinctly distinguished from the known species of the genus by several taxonomic characteristics. Therefore it deemed wiser to refrain from extracting the genitalia to avoid inflicting damage on the hitherto only available specimen.

Measurements. Length of body almost 4 mm; length of

wing about 3.6 mm.

Etymology: It is a pleasure to name this species after Nigel Wyatt, curator at the Diptera collection of the NHM, London. I wish herewith to express my gratitude for the great support of my studies on Muscidae that he granted me in the recent years. Be it at my visits to the collection of the London Museum, or be it for sending materials for comparative studies or for the work on unidentified specimens, it was always a great help.

The species name wyatti is a noun in genitive case.

Diagnosis: Due to the white anterior spiracle and the brownish lower calypter the small male of Curranosia wyatti spec. nov. leads in the Curranosia key ( ZIELKE 1971a) to a subspecies of Curranosia spekei (JAENNICKE, 1867) , namely Curranosia s. pilarara (SNYDER, 1951) . The new species, however, is clearly distinguished from this subspecies by the shining green mesonotum lacking any dusted markings, the presence of 1+3 katepisternal setae and the clearly hyaline wing membrane. Apart from the distinctly larger body size of six and more mm, the presutural surface of the mesonotum of the C. s. pilarara male is marked at least with a dusted patch, there are 1+2 katepisternals and the wing membrane has a distinct brownish shine.

Figures

Fig. 2: Curranosia wyatti spec. nov., male holotype, lateral view