Alipumilio aureus, Parada-Marin & Mengual & Ramos-Pastrana, 2024

Parada-Marin, Henry Mauricio, Mengual, Ximo & Ramos-Pastrana, Yardany, 2024, A new species of Alipumilio Shannon, 1927 (Diptera: Syrphidae), with the description of the male of A. avispas Vockeroth, 1964 and A. femoratus Shannon, 1927, Zootaxa 5506 (3), pp. 350-368 : 352-355

Alipumilio aureus sp. nov.

( Figs 1−3 )

Type material. HOLOTYPE. Adult male, pinned, deposited at the LEUA collection. Original labels: “ COLOMBIA: Caquetá Dept., Belén de los // Andaquíes, Vda. [Vereda] Aletones, Fca. [Finca] // La Cabaña // 1°29’31.8”N, 75°52’20.8”W, 369 m [eters] 7/ 21-xii-2016 Y. Ramos ” “Captura con trampa Malaise en el // dosel de un bosque secundario” “ Alipumilio aureus // Parada-Marin, Mengual & // Ramos-Pastrana, 2024 // HOLOTIPO ♂ [red label]”. (1 ♂ LEUA-0063889, leg, wing and genitalia dissected).

Length (n=1). Body: 7 mm ( Fig. 2A ); Wing: 6 mm ( Fig. 2A ).

Differential diagnosis. Alipumilio aureus sp. nov. can be distinguished from the other known species of Alipumilio by having a scutum and a scutellum covered with thick golden yellow hairs and a wing membrane clearly divided into a basal hyaline half and an apical half strongly darkened.

Description. MALE. Head. Face bluish black, with golden hairs, concave without facial tubercle; parafacia bluish black, with yellow hairs. Gena bluish black, with golden hairs. Head holoptic; eyes with short and dense yellow hairs. Antennae light brown to orange; postpedicel twice as long as wide, a shade lighter in color than scape and pedicel; arista short, micropubescent (it looks bare at bare eye), yellow basally and darkening towards the apex. Frontal triangle bluish black, strongly punctate with dense, light brown to yellow hairs. Vertical triangle and vertex black, with golden hairs. Occiput narrow ( Fig. 2A–C ). Thorax. 2 times wider than long, bluish black, punctate, with short, adpressed golden hairs. Scutellum bluish black with short, adpressed golden hairs. Pleuron bluish black; anepisternum, anepimeron and katepisternum with golden hairs. Katepimeron bare. Calypters yellowish-white, with a brownish yellow edge. Halter white. Plumula black with apical 1/4 golden brown ( Figs 2A, C ). Legs. Fore and mid coxae black, yellow haired; hind coxa thickened, with long yellowish white hairs anterodorsally. Trochanters black, with reddish black apex, sparsely hairy, except hind trochanter densely yellow haired. Fore and mid femora black, except for the reddish black apex; hind femur extremely swollen, black in color, except for the reddish black apex, with ventral spines and yellow hairs, except golden hairs anteroventrally. Fore and mid tibiae black, except basally and apically reddish black, yellow haired; hind tibia black in the central half, reddish black in the basal and apical 1/4, yellow haired. Fore and mid tarsi brownish yellow; hind tarsus ventrally reddish and dorsally black; all tarsi yellow haired ( Figs 2A–B, D ). Wing. Entirely microtrichose, strongly infuscate in apical half, tapering before apex; spurious vein absent ( Fig. 2E ). Abdomen. Compact, tergites short and broad, black, with adpressed golden hairs. Tergites 1 and 2 black, entirely covered with golden hairs. Tergite 3 black, with golden hairs, except on the posterior margin ( Figs 2A, C ). Genitalia. Cercus elongate, wider at base than at middle and apical part, apices subcircular. Surstylus divided into two lobules: dorsal lobule thick basally and narrow apically, with sickle-shaped apex, in ventral view; ventral lobule elongate trapezoidal, base and apex nearly circular, slightly curved submedially, medially protruding, with sparse, short hairs, in lateral view. Epandrium subtriangular in lateral view. Hypandrium large, basally broad, with two expansions 1/4 as long as the hypandrium, Superior lobe (apex of hypandrium) subrounded, in ventral view ( Figs. 2G–H , 3A–D ).

FEMALE. Unknown.

Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin aureus meaning made of gold ( Brown 1954: 112), and it refers to the striking golden hairs that covers much of the body of this new species, a characteristic that distinguishes it from all other Alipumilio species. Species epithet is to be treated as adjective.

Geographical distribution. Only known from the type locality in the Colombian Amazon region (Caquetá, Belén de los Andaquíes) ( Fig. 1 ) .

Habitat. The specimen was collected in the canopy of the tropical rainforest, at an altitude of 12 meters, in the Andean-Amazonian region of Colombia.

Taxonomic notes. Alipumilio aureus sp. nov. and A. femoratus are the only two known Alipumilio species with thick (compared with the other abdominal hairs) golden hairs on abdominal tergites 2–4, while all other species have thinner black, white or even silver hairs. Our new species, A. aureus sp. nov., can be easily distinguished from A. femoratus by having the scutum and scutellum covered with thick golden hairs (with thin black and white hairs in A. femoratus ) and the wing membrane clearly divided into a basal hyaline half and an apical half strongly darkened (in A. femoratus the wing membrane is slightly and entirely infuscate and not contrasting). Moreover, both species differ in male genitalia (shape of cercus, surstylus and hypandrium) as illustrated in Figs 3 , 5 and 8 .

Description of Alipumilio males

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographical distribution of Alipumilio species. The red border on the record of A. femoratus refers to an approximation of the type locality, since the labels mention “Amazon”.

FIGURE 2. Alipumilio aureus sp. nov., male holotype LEUA-0063889. A. Habitus, lateral view; B. Head, frontal view; C. Habitus, dorsal view; D. Hind femur, lateral view; E. Wing; F. Labels; G–H. Epandrium and hypandrium, G. Lateral view; H. Ventral view.

FIGURE 3. Alipumilio aureus sp. nov., holotype LEUA-0063889, male genitalia. A–B. Epandrium, A. Lateral view; B. Ventral view; C–D. Hypandrium, C. Lateral view; D. Ventral view. Scale = 0.2 mm.

FIGURE 5. Alipumilio avispas Vockeroth, 1964, male genitalia. A. Epandrium, lateral view B. Hypandrium, lateral view. Scale = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 8. Alipumilio femoratus Shannon, 1927, ZFMK-DIP-00103716, male genitalia. A–B. Epandrium, A. Lateral view; B. Ventral view; C–D. Hypandrium, C. Lateral view; D. Ventral view. Scale = 0.5 mm.