Metasphenisca Hendel, 1914

Singh, Maneesh Pal & Hancock, David Lawrence, 2025, Five new species of subfamily Tephritinae (Tephritidae: Diptera) from Himalayas and description of postabdominal structures in Chaetostomella completa (Kapoor, Malla & Ghosh), Pliomelaena spathuliniforma (Dirlbek & Dirlbek) and P. zonogastra (Bezzi), Zootaxa 5689 (2), pp. 299-332 : 325-327

Genus Metasphenisca Hendel, 1914

Type species Metasphenisca gracilipes (Loew) .

Metasphenisca Hendel was discussed by Hancock (1990, 1991 & 2010) and includes African as well as Indian species. Only two species were recorded previously from the Indian subcontinent, M. nigricans (Wiedemann) and M. reinhardi (Wiedemann) . Metasphenisca bifaria (Munro) was synonymized with M. nigricans by Hancock (2007b). The genus can be identified by its inverted U-shaped lunule, longer than length of scape, flagellum dorsally pubescent, outer vertical seta shorter than inner and stubby white, scutum shiny black, predominantly black wing with anterior and posterior elongate hyaline indentations, narrow costal band connected to black cell sc, elongate argents, narrow wing base, apical scutellar setae usually smaller than basal and tubular opening of glans.

Key to species of genus Metasphenisca Hendel from India

1. Apical and basal scutellar setae almost equally long, wing with 2 posterior hyaline indentations and the two anterior triangular hyaline indentations extend beyond vein R 4+5 ( cf. Munro 1947 fig. 153 (as bifaria ); Kamiji and Matsuura 2022 fig. 31).................................................................................... M. nigricans (Wiedemann)

- Apical scutellar setae about half length of basals, wing with 3 posterior hyaline indentations and two anterior triangular hyaline indentations that do not extend beyond vein R 4+5 …............................................................2

2. Basal posterior hyaline indentation broad, less than its own width from medial indentation ( cf. Munro 1947 fig. 159; Hardy 1973 pl. 5 fig. 46), mid and hind femora at least dorsally black............................. M. reinhardi (Wiedemann)

- Basal posterior hyaline indentation narrow, more than its own width from medial indentation, legs yellow except long black rectangular patch on ventral side of each femur...................................... … M. snehae Maneesh , sp. nov.