Elaphropeza scutellaris 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 : 138-139

Elaphropeza scutellaris Bezzi, 1912

Elaphropeza scutellaris Bezzi, 1912: 487 (male and female).

Re-description. Male. Body length 2.0– 2.2 mm, wing length 2.4–2.5 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. Antenna with postpedicel brown, scape and pedicel paler, brownish yellow (sometimes antenna wholly brownish). Pedicel with circlet of subequally short setulae. Postpedicel 3.0 times longer than wide. Style normally pubescent, brown, nearly 2.5 times longer than postpedicel and about 1.5 as long as scape, pedicel and postpedicel combined. Proboscis brownish yellow. Palpus yellow, small, rounded.

Thorax almost entirely yellow, shining, with brownish bristles; scutum with brownish elongate spot on notopleural space and narrow median indistinct vitta in anterior part (sometimes absent according to Bezzi), scutellum and metanotum with brownish spot in middle, metapleuron brownish in upper part. Prothoracic episterna lacking long upturned bristle just above fore coxa and 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 bristles 2-serial, lacking on prescutellar depression; dorsocentrals multiserial in anterior part, becoming 1-serial toward scutellum, 1 pair of prescutellars long.

Legs quite long and slender, wholly yellow. Coxae and trochanters with unmodified setation. Fore femur with rows of short antero- and posteroventral bristles (2 bristles near base longer). Fore tibia lacking prominent bristles (except subapicals). Mid femur 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 black ventral spinules, lacking prominent bristles (except subapicals). Hind femur bearing 1 row of short anteroventrals and 3–4 erect dorsal bristles near base. Hind tibia bearing 2 anterodorsal bristles in middle part; apical projection prominent, small, angular, clothed in dense brownish setulae. Tarsi of all legs unmodified.

Wing normally developed, hyaline, covered with uniform microtrichia; veins yellowish to brownish yellow. Costal vein with moderately long setulae along anterior margin. Basal costal bristle long, yellow. Costal index: 68/26/59/13. Vein Rs somewhat longer than crossvein bm-cu. Veins R4+5 and M1+2 parallel near wing apex, the former evenly bowed, the latter straight. Vein CuA1 reaching wing margin. Vein A1 present as fold. Crossvein bm-cu slightly oblique. Crossvein r-m somewhat before middle of cell bm. Halter yellow.

Abdomen with tergites 2–3 and 6–7 brownish yellow; with unmodified setation, tergite 7 bearing quite long posteromarginal bristles. Tergite 4 broadest, brown, with numerous squamiform setae. Tergite 5 concolorous with tergite 4, bearing numerous squamiform setae.

Terminalia quite large, yellow. Not examined.

Female. Segment 8 and cercus brownish yellow. Otherwise as in male.

Material examined. 2 females pinned on one plate, Tainan, Formosa, H. Sauter II.09; Elaphropeza scutellaris male and female Bezzi [hand-written] . 6 ♂♂, 17 females [and 2 specimens with missing abdomen] Tainan, Formosa, H. Sauter II.09; Bezzi det. 2 ♀♀, Chip-Chip , Formosa, Sauter, II.09; Bezzi det. 1 ♂, Anping , Formosa, H. Sauter, VI.1912. ( DEI) .

Neotype designation. Bezzi (1912) described this species after numerous specimens taken by H. Sauter from Chip-Chip (II.09), Tainan (II.09) and Takao (X.07). Later, he noted that this species was common throughout the island ( Bezzi, 1914). The type of E. scutellaris 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 good condition, labelled: “ Anping / Formosa / H. Sauter, VI.1912; Bezzi det.”) is herewith designated as Neotype of Elaphropeza scutellaris 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. scutellaris are unclear beyond inclusion within the E. ephippiata species group. Bezzi (1912) noted that E. scutellaris has a quite variable pattern of the scutum and that anterodorsal bristles on the hind tibia sometimes are absent. However, in the specimens listed above these characters are stable.