Heteromeringia hypoleuca D.K. McAlpine, 1960

Lonsdale, Owen, 2009, The Heteromeringia (Diptera: Clusiidae: Clusiodinae) of Australia, Records of the Australian Museum 61 (3), pp. 229-262 : 246

Heteromeringia hypoleuca D.K. McAlpine, 1960

Figs 16 , 44–46 , 95

Heteromeringia hypoleuca D.K. McAlpine, 1960: 72 .

Type material. HOLOTYPE: Queensland: Lamington National Park , 29.x.1955, F.A. Perkins (1♂, QMBA). [not examined] . PARATYPES: Queensland: Laming N.P, 29.x.1955, F.A. Perkins (1♀, UQIC), Coolum, 20.ix.1938, F.A. Perkins (1♀, UQIC) .

Additional material examined. Queensland: Kirrama r.f., swept ex. foliage, 11.viii.1976, Bock & Parsons (1♀, ANIC) , 12.44S 143.14E, 3km ENE of Mt. Tozer , 28.vi–4.vii.1986, D.H. Colless (2♀♀, ANIC) , 12.43S 143.17E, 9km ENE of Mt.Tozer , 5–10.vii.1986, D.H. Colless (1♀, ANIC) , 15.50S 145.20E, Gap Ck., 5km ESE Mt. Finnigan, Malaise Trap, D.H. Colless , 15.v.1981 (1♀, ANIC) , 14.v.1981 (1♂, ANIC) , 15.47S 145.14E, Shiptons Flat , 18.v.1981, QLD, Malaise Trap, D.H. Colless (1♂, ANIC) , Natural Bridge National Park, Numinbah , 7.vii.1978, carrion trap, S.&J. Peck (1♀, ANIC) , Mt. Glorious , 1.ix–17.x.1990, Malaise, A. Hiller (1♂, ANIC) , Brisbane Forest Pk., 27°25'05"S 152°50'13"E, Malaise over creek, 13–19.vi.1998, N. Power (1♂ 1♀, DEBU) , N QLD, 10km S of Daintree , 25.iv.1967, D.H. Colless (1♂ 1♀, ANIC) , Whitfield Ra. Forest Reserve, Cairns, 19.iv.1967, D.H. Colless (2♂♂, ANIC; 1♀, USNM), Mossman Gorge , 24.iv.1967 (1♂, USNM) , Upp. Mulgrave R., 10 m, Goldsborough Rd. , 9.v.1967, D.H. Colless (1♀, USNM) , Mt. Edith Forest Road, 1.5 m off Danbulla Road , 6.v.1967, D.H.Colless (1♂, USNM) , SE QLD, Tamborinae Mts., Eagle Heights, Palm Grove , 26.x.2002, 27.56S / 153.12E, rainforest, Merz & Földvari (1♂, MHNG) , Brisbane, Griffith Uni., Nathan Campus , 23.x.2002, 27.33S / 153.04E, dry&wet sclrophyll forest, ferns, B. Merz (1♂, MHNG) , 17.28S 145.29E, BS1, Longlands Gap , 1.viii–1.ix.1995, L. Umback, 1150 m, F1 Trap JCU (1♀, AMS) , N QLD, Birthday Ck. , 7 mi W Paluma, 15.i.1970, G.A. Holloway (1♂, AMS) , 18.i.1967, D. McAlpine & G.A. Holloway (1♂, AMS) , N QLD, Summit Walter Hill Ra., Cardstone– Ravenshoe Rd. , 16.i.1967, D.K. McAlpine & G. Holloway (1♀, AMS) , Mulgrave R., 4 mi W of Gordonvale, 21.v.1966, D.K.McAlpine (1♂, AMS) .

Redescription

Male. Body length 3.1–4.2 mm. Anepisternal disc present. First flagellomere orbicular. Bristles brown. Arista short plumose. Vibrissa relatively long and curved. Ocellar bristle as long as ocellar tubercle. Two long, widely spaced dorsocentral bristles with anterior dorsocentral near suture. Gena relatively vertical and small. Anteroventral margin of palpus sometimes lightly infuscated. Face and buccal cavity meeting at an angle and shiny. Head yellow with frons dark brown medially (excluding posterolateral corners and deep anteromedial emargination), and brownish around base of vertical bristles, first flagellomere light yellow with orange tint on inner-distal margin, back of head dark brown above foramen, occiput brown, and parafacial, face and gena (excluding dirty yellow ventral margin) light yellow; gena silvery tomentose on dorsal half; frons with small pilose anteromedial spot. Scutum with one pair of dorsocentral stripes (sometimes quite faded) connected to large spot on anterior margin. Scutellum yellow with lateral margin brown. Laterotergites brownish. Pleuron yellow with brown spot on proepisternum above fore coxa and with oblique orange to dark brown subnotal stripe. If postsutural stripes faded, anepisternum and anepimeron entirely dark brown. Legs yellow with fore tarsi white (basal two and a half tarsomeres dark brown), fore tibia brown laterally, mid and hind femora light yellow, and fore femur with brown outer-distal and inner-distal spots. Fore tarsi compressed laterally. Abdomen dark brown. M 1+2 ratio 6.0. Wing clouded along anterodistal margin and around cross veins (two clouds sometimes thinly connected). Halter white.

Female. Externally as described for male except as follows: colour sometimes slightly darker and markings more distinct; gena sometimes brown; anteroventral margin of palpus infuscated; third tarsomere of fore leg entirely white; abdomen sometimes with yellow anterolateral spots on middle segments.

Male terminalia ( Figs 44–46 ). Epandrium small, shallow, relatively wide and perianal region deeply excavated. Cerci long, thin, tapering and emarginate. Surstylus subtriangular, higher than wide, setulose on outer face, and with tuberclelike bristles along apical and posterodistal margins of inner face. Anterior margin of hypandrium produced, and hypandrium+pregonite with small bare medial process and large, wrinkled setose posterior process (widest distally). Ribs of distiphallus of equal length, with one rib flared apically, and thick and textured subapically; with thin, transverse, folded apical sclerite.

Female terminalia (Fig. 95). Ventral receptacle narrow at base with flagellum long, thin and straight. Spermatheca smooth and approximately as wide as long with apical margin produced on one side.

Comments. The most widespread and frequently collected of the pale Heteromeringia in Australia is H. hypoleuca , which is found along most of the eastern coast of Queensland. Other pale species are found near the periphery of H. hypoleuca ’s range to the south ( H. limacens ) and the north ( H. hypobrunnea and H. digitula ).

These other pale species can be separated from Heteromeringia hypoleuca by having apically to entirely brown (not white) fore tarsi. Heteromeringia limacens is further characterized by a single central notal stripe, an entirely (not centrally) yellow scutellum, yellow fore tibiae and black bristles—an unusual combination of characters that has allowed it to be described on the basis of females alone. The northern H. hypobrunnea and H. digitula are more similar to H. hypoleuca in having two notal stripes, but those of H. digitula are very thin and restricted to the postsutural scutum; the surstyli of H. digitula are also large and quadrate, making this an easily-recognized species. Heteromeringia hypobrunnea is almost identical in colouration to H. hypoleuca and may be easily confused; aside from the colour characters mentioned in the key (including entirely brown fore tarsi), H. hypobrunnea can be separated by having an anterior spine on the hypandrium+pregonite, a truncated surstylus and a recurved finger-like process on the phallus (the latter two are synapomorphies shared with its putative sister species, H. digitula ).

Figures

Figures 9–16.Eggs.(9) Heteromeringia trisetosa n.sp.; (10) H.hardyi McAlpine; (11) H. spinulosa McAlpine; (12) H.bisetosa n.sp.; (13) H. digitula n.sp.; (14) H. laticornis McAlpine; (15) H. australiae Malloch; and (16) H. hypoleuca McAlpine.

Figures 38–46. Figs 38–40: male terminalia, Heteromeringia hypobrunnea n.sp.; (38) external, left lateral; (39) external, posterior; (40) hypandrial complex, left lateral. Figs 41–42: male terminalia, H. digitula n.sp.; (41) external, left lateral; (42) external, posterior; (43) hypandrial complex, left lateral. Figs 44–46: male terminalia, H. hypoleuca McAlpine; (44) external, left lateral; (45) external, posterior; (46) hypandrial complex, left lateral. Scale bar = 0.25 mm.