Teuchophorus miricornis, Meuffels & Grootaert, 2004

Meuffels, Henk & Grootaert, Patrick, 2004, The genus Teuchophorus in South-East Asia and New Guinea, description of new species, species-groups and their phylogeny (Insecta, Diptera, Dolichopodidae), Journal of Natural History 38 (2), pp. 143-258 : 184-186

Species 22: Teuchophorus miricornis sp. nov. (male) (figures 102–105)

Etymology. Lat. mirus, ‘marvellous’, cornu, ‘horn’, ‘antenna’.

Diagnosis. Rather large species, with extremely long antennae: third antennal segment as long as the height of the head, bearing on its basal part a very short, thick arista, shorter than depth of third antennal segment at base. Face rather broad. Costa not thickened. Bristles on head, thorax and legs yellow or yellowish brown.

Material examined. Type material: Papua New Guinea: Madang Province, Baiteta,    male: 3 May 1994 (FOG XN, fogging of canopy; leg O. Missa); 9 April 1993, one      male, fogging of canopy (leg. O. Missa) .

Male

Body length 1.7 mm; wing length 1.5 mm.

Head. Frons broad, with shining metallic green ground colour; face concolorous with frons, relatively broad, narrowing downwards to clypeus, being there about as wide as the distance between the two ocellar bristles. Palpi small, yellow, with a small yellowish brown apical bristle. Rostrum yellow. Occiput shining metallic green. Chaetotaxy as usual; two small yellow postocellars. Postocular cilia uniseriate, short, yellow. Antenna (figure 102): yellow, very long. Second segment with very short yellow bristlets. Third segment with a very long protracted, pointed apex, bearing rather long yellowish hairs and giving the impression of being articulated. Arista very short, inserted on the basal part, shorter than basal depth of third antennal segment, looking like a thick yellow bristle.

Thorax. Mesoscutum and scutellum shining metallic green. Pleurae dark brown, with a black spot on metapleura; neck yellowish. Chaetotaxy as usual, bristles yellow or yellowish brown; acr uniseriate. Scutellum with two marginals, flanked each by a minute hairlet. No propleural bristle.

Legs. Legs, including coxae, yellow.

Fore leg. Coxa with very short, sparse yellow hairlets, and a row of yellow bristles towards apex. Femur with a few short yellow preapical hairs. Tibia about as long as femur, without bristles or serration. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.45: 0.28:0.12:0.09: 0.07:0.07.

Mid leg. Coxa with short yellow hairlets, and a rather long brownish yellow exterior bristle. Femur with one yellow preapical av and one yellow preapical pv. Tibia slightly shorter than femur, with a rather long brownish yellow ad on basal third; apical crown with two somewhat longer bristles. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.62: 0.25:0.1: 0.08:0.06:0.06.

Hind leg. Coxa with a yellow exterior bristle (shorter than that on mid coxa). Femur (figure 103) slightly thickened, without any bristle, except two small, thin preapical av. Tibia longer than femur, with three short brownish yellow pd; apical crown with three somewhat longer bristles. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.78:0.14:0.2: 0.1:0.08: 0.09.

Wing. Wing (figure 104) hyaline, with yellow veins. Costa not thickened. r4+5 and m1+2 apically diverging. Halters yellow. Squamae yellow with darkened border and yellow cilia.

Abdomen. Abdomen brown; venter more yellowish. Hairs and bristles very short, brownish. Hypopygium (figure 105) brown; cerci pale yellow.

Female Unknown.

Discussion

This species has the strongly lengthened third antennal segment in common with T. gladiator sp. nov. and T. ensicornis sp. nov., but differs from them by the remarkable shortness of the arista, the larger hypopygium, the broader face, the yellow bristling, the long exterior bristle on mid coxa, and the length of tp.