Hypselosyrphus pseudorhoga, Reemer, Menno, 2013

Reemer, Menno, 2013, Taxonomic exploration of Neotropical Microdontinae (Diptera: Syrphidae) mimicking stingless bees, Zootaxa 3697 (1), pp. 1-88 : 35

Hypselosyrphus pseudorhoga spec. nov.

Figs 91–95.

Studied type specimens. HOLOTYPE. PERU. Label 1: “Quincemil / Peru 24/ 31 X / 1962 / L.E. Pena”; label 2 (red): “CNC / Ottawa”; label 3: “ Pseudorhoga / new genus! / n. sp.!”. Coll. CNC.

Redescription (based on holotype)

Adult female Body size: 7 mm.

Head. Face occupying about 1/5 of head width in frontal view; yellow; entirely yellow pilose. Gena hardly developed. Oral cavity directly bordering eye margins; with lateral margins not produced. Frons yellow; yellow pilose. Vertex flat; shiny dark brown with faint metallic hues; yellow pilose. Occiput black; entirely yellow pilose. Eye bare. Antennal fossa about as high as wide. Antenna yellow; antennal ratio approximately as 2.5:1:5.

Thorax. Mesoscutum yellow with four blackish maculae anterolaterally and posterolaterally, with wide, vague, brownish median vitta; entirely yellow pilose. Scutellum semicircular; shining blackish brown with faint metallic hues; yellow pilose. Postpronotum and posterior callus yellow; yellow pilose. Pleurae yellow and yellow pilose. Anepisternum convex, without sulcus; anterior and posterior parts pilose. Anepimeron entirely pilose. Katepisternum bare. Katatergum long yellow microtrichose. Anatergum short microtrichose. Other pleurae bare. Mediotergite blackish. Calypter and halter yellow.

Wing: hyaline. Microtrichose, except bare on 1st costal cell, basal 2/3 of 2nd costal cell, basal 1/5 of cell r1, along anterior and posterior margins of cell br, posterobasal 3/4 of cell bm, anterobasal 1/2 of cell cup.

Legs: Yellow, except hind tibia dark brown with yellow apices. All legs yellow pilose, except hind tibia with long black pile on dark parts.

Abdomen. Widest point at posterior margin of tergite 2. Tergites yellow, with oval dark macula medially on tergite 2 and three dark vittae on tergites 3-5; yellow pilose. Sternites yellow; yellow pilose, except sternite 1 bare.

Male. Unknown.

Etymolgy. Chris Thompson coined the name pseudorhoga because of the Rhoga -like appearance of this species, as evoked by the dark maculae on the mesoscutum and the three dark vittae on the abdomen. The name is to be treated as a noun in apposition.

Diagnosis. No other known species of Hypselosyrphus has a basoflagellomere that is twice as long as the scape. The abdominal colour pattern is also characteristic: yellow with three dark vittae. The unproduced vertex is only shared with H. ulopodus , from which it differs by the two characters just mentioned.

Notes. Only a female of this species is known. As this differs from other species of Hypselosyrphus in the unproduced vertex and the short scape, its placement in this genus is very tentative and preliminary. The phylogenetic affinities of this species should be revisited once additional specimens have been found, based on molecular studies and the male genitalia.

Distribution. Only known from Quince Mil in southern Peru, a place in the foothills of the Andes at around 600- 700 m. above sea level.