Diplonevra nigricorpus, Disney, 2011

Disney, R. H. L., 2011, Three new species and a new key to the Diplonevra Lioy (Diptera: Phoridae) from Australia, Zootaxa 2792 (1), pp. 41-50 : 45-47

Diplonevra nigricorpus sp. nov.

( Figs 9–10 )

In the Museum Koenig (Bonn) I found a specimen labelled Diplonevra nigricorpus paratype, Beyer 1964. The implication was that there was another specimen labelled as the Holotype. Chris Manchester found this specimen in the Australian National Insect Collection ( CSIRO, Canberra). Beyer never published a description of this species. I have adopted the name proposed by E. M. Beyer. It refers to the dark thorax and abdomen.

Male. Frons brown, clearly wider than long, with 18–22 hairs and no microtrichia. The bristles are a little variable in their positions, but the antials are about twice as far from each other as they are from the anterolaterals which are level with or slightly higher on the frons. The pre-ocellars are further apart than either is from a mediolateral and level with or slightly lower on the frons than the MLs. A pair of strong supra-antennal bristles. Postpedicels brown and subglobose. Palps yellowish brown to brown, about half as wide or less than diameter of postpedicel, and with 5 bristles. Thorax dark brown. Notopleuron with 4 bristles. Propleuron with 2 ventral bristles, 2 at hind margin in upper half, and with 7–14 hairs. Scutellum witn 4 bristles, the anterior pair being about 0.8–0.9 times as long as posterior pair. Abdominal tergites dark brown, T6 being clearly longer than the rest, with hairs that are longest at hind margins. Venter dark greyish brown and with hairs below segments 2–5. Hypopygium brown, apart from pale yellow lobes of hypandrium, and as Fig. 9 . Legs vary from being largely brown to being largely dusky yellow. Front tibiae lack pre-apical bristles and small spines. Front tarsus with a posterodorsal palisade on segments 1–5 and segment 5 a little broader than 4. Mid tibiae with a near-dorsal and a posterodorsal hair palisade, but without pre-apical bristles apart from the usual basal pair, but the longest of these is at most only 1.2–1.3 times as long as the width of the tibia at the point of insertion. Hind femur with hairs below basal half not differentiated from those of the anterior face and shorter than those of the anteroventral row in the distal half, and base as Fig. 10 . Hind tibia lacks pre-apical bristles. Wings 2.3–2.5 mm long. Costal index 0.50–0.59. Costal ratios 2.1–3.2: 0.7–0.9: 1. Costal cilia 0.06–0.07 mm long. Sc obscure and rapidly fading away distally. No hair at base of vein 3. Axillary ridge with 5–6 bristles, the outermost being about 0.15 mm long. Thick veins greyish brown or a little paler. Veins 2 and 3 closely approximated so that the two branches of the fork are almost parallel. Thin veins 4–6 grey and 7 very faint. Veins 4 and 5 obscure in their basal portions and the tip of 4 slightly deflected to the rear but the tip of 5 slightly deflected forwards. Membrane only lightly tinged grey (not evident to the naked eye when viewed against a pale background). Halteres brown.

Material. Holotype male, Australia, New South Wales, Kangaroo Valley , 23 March 1961, D. H. Colless (Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra) . Paratype male, NSW, Brown Mtn , Bega District, 8 March 1963, D. H. Colless (Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra) .

Figures

FIGURES 9–10. Diplonevra nigricorpus male: (9) left face of hypopygium; (10) posterior face of base of hind femur. Scale bars = 0.1 mm.