Bandella maxi, Bickel, 2002

Bickel, Daniel J., 2002, Bandella, A New Hilarine Fly Genus from Australia (Diptera: Empididae), Records of the Australian Museum 54, pp. 313-324 : 322

Bandella maxi n.sp.

Figs. 2g, 4d

Type material. HOLOTYPE 3 (K 173140), Queensland: Mt Lewis, Mt Lewis Rd nr forestry hut, 1100 m, 10.xii.1974, at light, M.S. Moulds ( AMS).

Description (male): length: 10.0; wing: 7.5×2.2. Head: post-cranium, vertex and frons shining black with no pruinosity; ventral postcranium with scattered pale setae; postorbitals reduced to short hairs, white ventrally, black dorsally; face as wide as frons and covered with silvery pruinosity; palp yellow with white setae, curved and slightly clavate; proboscis yellow with dark brown apex, elongate, length about one and a half head height, and projecting ventrally; antenna dark brown.

Thorax: pleura and anterior mesonotum mostly redbrown; anterior mesonotum red, interdigitating with black posterior mesonotum ( Fig. 2g); scutellum black with reddish margin; postnotum black, posterior slope of mesonotum covered with field of short setulae.

Legs: coxae mostly reddish yellow; but CIII laterally infuscated; coxae with only short pale vestiture, no strong setae; all tarsi with strong black claws and large yellowish pulvilli; I: 9.0; 9.8; 5.0/ 2.1/ 1.5/ 1.8/ 1.4; leg I mostly redyellow; FI and TI mostly with short vestiture; TI without anteroapical comb; TI and It 1 each with 2–3 pairs of apical av and pv setae, It 2 and It 3 each with single av-pv setal pair; all of tarsus I with pale ventral pile; II: 10.0; 10.5; 4.5/ 1.8/ 1.3/ 1.4/ 1.0; FII mostly reddish yellow but infuscated in distal half; TII and IIt 1 red-yellow; distal tarsomeres II dark brown; TII with pair strong av setae; each tarsomere IIt 1–3 with apical av-pv setae; IIt 3 and IIt 4 with dense pale ventral pile; III: 13.5; 13.0; 5.0/ 2.0/ 1.3/ 1.5/ 1.3; FIII yellowish in basal half but distally dark brown; TIII yellow in basal third, and with distal two-thirds of TIII, and all IIIt dark brown; FIII gradually expanding apically, and weakly clavate in distal third; TIII without strong setae; IIIt with short black vestiture.

Abdomen: terga 1 and 2 reddish, remainder of abdomen black; cuticle glabrous, without pruinosity; segment 7 with well-developed tergum and sternum, tergum 7 not excavated; nor differentiated from segments anteriad; tergum 8 reduced to narrow band; sternum 8 unmodified; hypopygium ( Fig. 4d).

Female unknown.

Remarks. Bandella maxi is known only from submontane rainforest above 1000 m on Mt. Lewis, in the Queensland wet tropics. It has a greatly expanded and keel-like hypopygium.

However, male abdominal segments 7 and 8 are relatively unmodified, and therefore plesiomorphic with respect to the other Bandella species. This species is named for the collector, Max Moulds.