Elaphropeza melanura Bezzi, 1912

SHAMSHEV, IGOR V. & GROOTAERT, PATRICK, 2007, Revision of the genus Elaphropeza Macquart (Diptera: Hybotidae) from the Oriental Region, with a special attention to the fauna of Singapore, Zootaxa 1488 (1), pp. 1-164 : 117-118

Elaphropeza melanura Bezzi, 1912

Elaphropeza melanura Bezzi, 1912: 489 (male and female).

Elaphropeza menalura Yang and Yang, 1992b: 1094 and 1096, misspelling.

Re-description. Male. Body length 1.5–1.7 mm, wing length 1.6–1.8 mm. Occiput black, subshining, finely greyish pollinose, with yellow to brownish yellow setation. Anterior ocellars long, proclinate; posterior ocellars minute. Inner verticals long, outer ones hardly prominent. Frons shining. Antenna with scape and pedicel yellow, postpedicel brown. Pedicel with circlet of subequally short setulae. Postpedicel 3.0 times longer than wide. Style normally pubescent, brown, nearly 1.5 times longer than postpedicel and about as long as scape, pedicel and postpedicel combined. Proboscis brownish yellow. Palpus yellow, small, rounded.

Thorax almost entirely yellow, shining, with yellow to brownish yellow bristles; scutellum and metanotum brown to black. Scutellum truncate. Prothoracic episterna lacking long upturned bristle just above fore coxa, with 1 short bristle in upper part. Postpronotal bristle not prominent. Mesonotum with 2 notopleural, 1 postsutural supra-alar, 1 postalar and 4 scutellar (inner ones very long, cruciate; outer ones very short) bristles. Acrostichal and dorsocentral bristles multiserial, uniform (except for 1 pair of long prescutellars), the former not quite reaching base of scutellum.

Legs almost entirely yellow, tarsomere 5 of all legs brown. Coxae and trochanters with unmodified setation. Fore and hind femora and tibiae somewhat thickened. Fore femur with rows of short antero- and posteroventral bristles (2 bristles near base longer). Fore tibia lacking prominent bristles (except subapicals). Mid femur slender, with 2 rows of spinule-like, short, ventral bristles (becoming shorter in apical part of femur), 1 long thin bristle near base and 1 anterior subapical bristle. Mid tibia with hardly prominent ventral spinules in apical part, lacking prominent bristles (except subapicals). Hind femur with 1 row of short anteroventrals and 3–4 erect dorsal bristles near base. Hind tibia bearing 1 anterodorsal bristle in about middle; apical projection prominent, small, rounded, clothed in dense brownish setulae. Tarsi of all legs unmodified.

Wing normally developed, finely uniformly infuscate, covered with uniform microtrichia; veins yellowish to brownish yellow. Costal vein with moderately long setulae along anterior margin. Basal costal bristle long, brown. Costal index: 36/31/31/14. Vein Rs somewhat longer than crossvein bm-cu. Veins R4+5 and M1+2 divergent near wing apex, both straight. Vein CuA1 reaching wing margin. Vein A1 as fold. Crossvein bm-cu transverse. Crossvein r-m before middle of cell bm. Halter yellow.

Abdomen with tergites 1–3 and 6–7 brownish, with unmodified setation; tergite 7 with rather long posteromarginal bristles. Tergite 4 broadest, brown, with squamiform setae.

Terminalia moderately large, brown. Not examined.

Female. Mid tibia with ordinary setulae, lacking ventral spinules. Segment 8 elongate, brown. Cercus brownish yellow. Otherwise as in male.

Material examined. 1 male [head missing], Anping, Formosa, H. Sauter, VI.1912; Elaphropeza melanura male and female Bezzi [hand-written] . 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Anping, Formosa, H. Sauter, VI.1912 . 3 ♂♂, 4 females [additionally, 1 empty pin and 2 specimens with missing abdomen], Tainan, Formosa, H. Sauter, II.09; Bezzi det. 1 ♀, same labels and data except X.08. 1 ♀, Chipun ( Formosa), H. Sauter VII. 1912; Bezzi det. ( DEI) .

Neotype designation. Bezzi (1912) described this species from a few specimens taken by H. Sauter from Takao and Tainan and later (1914) he noted that this species is quite common on the island. The type of E. melanura was deposited in the Hungarian Museum (Budapest) and it was destroyed in 1956 (Papp and Földvári, pers. comm.). The specimens housed in the DEI are not syntypes ( Bezzi, 1914).

The male specimen of this species deposited in the DEI (in fairly good condition, pinned on one plate with a female and labelled: “ Tainan / Formosa / H. Sauter, II.09; Bezzi det.”) is herewith designated as Neotype of Elaphropeza melanura Bezzi, 1912 and it was labelled accordingly by the authors in 2006 to fix and stabilize the current concept of the name.

Distribution. Taiwan.

Remarks. The relationships of E. melanura are unclear beyond inclusion within the E. ephippiata species group.