Minilimosina (Svarciella) cornigera Roháček & Marshall , 1988

Su, Lixin, Liu, Guangchun & Xu, Jie, 2015, A review of Minilimosina Roháček (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae) from China, Zootaxa 4007 (1), pp. 1-28 : 12-13

Minilimosina (Svarciella) cornigera Roháček & Marshall, 1988

( Figs. 39–44 )

Minilimosina (Svarciella) cornigera Roháček & Marshall, 1988: 255 [male, phylogenetic notes, illustr.]. Type locality: Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Ulu Gombak. HT male (CNCI).

Diagnosis. Head brownish black to black; anterior margin of frons up to ocellar triangule, lunule and face brownish orange, antennae orange. Legs yellow except for coxa, mid and hind femora dark brown. Posterior dorsocentral seta as long as scutellum length. Mid tibia: ventroapical seta shorter than or as long as width of mid tibia, proximal anterodorsal seta longer than distal anterodorsal. Hind first tarsomere 3/5 times as long as the second tarsal segment. Haltere pale yellow. Male postabdomen: sternite 5 ( Fig. 40 ) posteromedially with a pair of robust hornlike but flattened spines and a row of long blunt comb-like spines. Gonostylus ( Fig. 39 ) bilobed; outer lobe with a ventral spine; anterior inner lobe with a ventral spine, posterior inner lobe with a row of thick posteroapical setae; cerci obviously separated.

Female (new): Body length 1.8 mm, wing length 1.5 mm. Ventroapical seta of mid tibia longer than that of male. Abdomen: syntergite 1+2 large, heavily sclerotized; tergites 3–4 strongly reduced, pale but sclerotized; width of tergite 5 subequal to its length, heavily sclerotized ( Fig. 42 ). Synsternite 1+2 and sternites 3–4 rectangular, desclerotized; sternite 5 ( Fig. 43 ) heavily sclerotized, rectangular.

Female postabdomen: Tergites 6–7 strongly reduced, pale but sclerotized. Tergite 8 ( Fig. 42 ) divided into 2 dark sclerites. Tergite 10 ( Fig. 42 ) semicircular, with anterior third pale and bare, posterior two thirds dark and setulose, posterior half with 2 long setae. Sternites 6–7 heavily sclerotized, sternite 6 triangular, sternite 7 ( Fig. 43 ) short and transverse. Sternite 8 ( Fig. 43 ) pale and setulose, with two pairs of long setae. Sternite 10 ( Fig. 43 ) setulose with anterolateral corners pale and bare, posterior margin dark pigmented and having a posteromedial invagination. Cercus with a distinctly thick and long dorsopreapical seta. Spermathecae ( Fig. 44 ) subspherical, with no apparent invagination but with granules on surface; sclerotized part of ducts relatively long, half as long as spermathecal body.

Materal examined. (LKLSU, in alcohol): 2 males: China, Guangxi, County Shangsi, Mt. Shiwan, sweep, 16.Aug.2011, Jianfeng Wang; 1 female: China, Guangxi, County Shangsi, Mt. Shiwan, sweep, 17.Aug.2011, Jianfeng Wang.

Comments. The species is recorded in China for the first time (previously only known from Malaysia). It can be easily identified by the colouration of legs and distinctive formation of the male sternite 5, gonostylus and distiphallus. The peculiarly modified abdomen of female M. cornigera is extraordinary in the genus Minilimosina (cf. tergite 5 large, square; tergite 6 small, divided into 2 parts; tergite 7 very short, wide; tergite 8 divided into 2 parts; sternite 10 with posteromedial invagination). In the M. flagrella group proposed by Roháček & Marshall (1988), female of M. cornigera is most similar to M. flagrella Roháček & Marshall, 1988 in sharing the following characters which are possibly synapomorphies: tergites 3–4 strongly reduced and declerotized, sternite 10 with posteromedial invagination, spermathecae ball-shaped and with grains. Note: female of M. hastata Roháček & Marshall, 1988 , also belonging to the M. flagrella group, remains unknown.

Distribution. Oriental: China (Guangxi), Malaysia.

Figures

FIGURES 39 – 41. Minilimosina (Svarciella) cornigera Roháček & Marshall: 39, gonostylus, lateral; 40, male sternite 5, ventral; 41, male sternite 5, posterior.

FIGURES 42 – 44. Minilimosina (Svarciella) cornigera Roháček & Marshall: 42, female abdomen, dorsal; 43, female postabdomen, ventral; 44, spermathecae. (abbreviations: ce, cercus; S, sternite; T, tergite)