Urytalpa juliae, Chandler, 2009

Chandler, Peter J., 2009, The fungus gnats (Diptera: Bolitophilidae, Keroplatidae, Mycetophilidae) of Sardinia, with description of six new species *, Zootaxa 2318 : -

12. Urytalpa juliae sp. nov.

( Figs 6–8)

Type material. Holotype ♂: I-Sardegna (Carbonia-Iglesias), Domusnovas, sa Duchessa, 371 m, UTM WGS84 32 S 0464990 4358384, 4-18.IV.2006, Malaise trap S2, G. Chessa legit, Progetto Sardegna – CNBF ( CNBFVR).

Paratypes: 1 ♂: I-Sardegna (Cagliari), Iglesias Marganai, 700 m, Plot Conecofor SAR1, UTM 32 S 462853 4355582, 29.IV-20.V.2005 , Malaise trap, G. Chessa legit, Conecofor Programme CNBFVR ; 10 ♂♂: I- Sardegna (Carbonia-Iglesias), Iglesias, near Colonia Beneck , 636 m, UTMWGS84 32 S 0462391 4355441, 21.III-4.IV.2006 , Malaise trap S1, G. Chessa legit, Progetto Sardegna – CNBF ; 7 ♂♂ 1 ♀: same data as previous except 4-18.IV.2006 ; 20 ♂♂ 1 ♀: same data as previous except 18.IV-2.V.2006 ; 1 ♂: same data as previous except 30.V-13.VI.2006 ; 6 ♂♂: same data as holotype except 21.III-4.IV.2006 ; 3 ♂♂: same data as holotype ; 2 ♂: same data as holotype except 18.IV-2.V.2006 ; 5 ♂♂ 1 ♀: I-Sardegna (Carbonia-Iglesias), Domusnovas, Valle Oridda , 592 m, UTMWGS84 32 S 0466973 4362228, 4-18.IV.2006 , Malaise trap S3, G. Chessa legit, Progetto Sardegna – CNBF ; 1 ♀: same data as previous except 18.IV-2.V.2006 (paratypes deposited at CNBFVR, BMNH and PJCM) .

Other material. 1 ♂: I-Sardegna (Cagliari), Iglesias Marganai , 700 m, Plot Conecofor SAR1, UTM 32 S 462853 4355582, 29.IV-20.V.2005, Malaise trap, G. Chessa legit, Conecofor Programme CNBFVR ; 7 ♂♂ 7 ♀: Sardegna (Carbonia-Iglesias), Iglesias, near Colonia Beneck , 636 m, UTMWGS84 32 S 0462391 4355441, 2-16.V.2006, Malaise trap S1, G. Chessa legit, Progetto Sardegna – CNBF , 1 ♂: I-Sardegna (Carbonia-Iglesias), Domusnovas, Valle Oridda , 592 m, UTMWGS84 32 S 0466973 4362228, 21.III-4.IV.06, Malaise trap S3, G. Chessa legit, Progetto Sardegna – CNBF (all deposited at CNBFVR) .

Diagnosis. A slender-bodied mainly brownish species with the mesonotum yellow with brown stripes and abdominal tergites with yellow apical markings, belonging to a group of the genus with the gonocoxites broadly separated ventrally and connected only by a membrane and with the gonostylus slender and outwardly curved apically, differing from the other species of this group in the gonocoxites not being tapered on the apical half and with their lateral margins not extending beyond the tips of the gonostyli, also in that tergite 9 is not constricted medially or produced laterally.

Description. Male. Head dark brown with short dark bristling. Antenna dark brown, about twice as long as head and thorax, with 2 + 14 segments; flagellomeres about 5 times as long as broad. Proboscis a little longer than typical for the genus, about a quarter head height in length. Palpus dark brown, slender.

Thorax brownish yellow with three dark brown stripes on mesonotum, the median reaching from fore margin but fading before prescutellar area, the laterals rounded in front leaving broad yellow humeral areas; short black bristling in a narrow median acrostichal row, irregular dorsocentrals between the brown stripes, becoming longer posteriorly, and irregular longer black setae laterally. Scutellum yellow, slightly darker on disc, with 6–8 fine setae on apical margin, medials as long as scutellum. Pleura brownish, bare except laterotergite with short dark bristling on disc. Mediotergite a little darker, bare. Wing yellowish with yellow veins. Vein Sc long, ending in costa just beyond level of base of Rs. Vein R 4 diagonal, ending in costa a little more than its length beyond tip of R 1. Costa thickened from just before tip of R 1, narrowing again before tip of R 5 and extending 0.25 distance from R 5 to M 1; the dense costal setulae in 3–4 rows on the thickened portion. Basal part of M not developed; r-m fusion short, nearly half as long as stem of median fork. Vein A 1 weak on apical half but reaching costa. Fork veins and vein A 1 with short setulae. Haltere yellow with many short dark setulae on knob. Wing length 3.9–5.2 mm. Legs mainly yellow, but mid and hind coxae brown and trochanters dark brown; bearing short dark setulae irregularly distributed on tibiae but more regular on tarsi; femora with a row of short ventral setae and tibiae with irregular rows of weak setae little more than half tibial diameter in length. Fore metatarsus 0.9 length of its tibia. Tibial spurs brown: fore tibia with a single spur, 1.5 times as long as width of tibial apex; mid and hind tibiae with two spurs, each with the posterior spur about 3 times as long as width of tibial apex and the anterior spur about 0.75 times as long as the posterior spur.

Abdomen brown with tergites from 2 onwards yellow apically, narrowly on 2, apical third on 3, apical half on 4–5, more narrowly on shorter tergites 6–7, 8 all brownish; genitalia and sternites brownish yellow; all bristling dark. Genitalia ( Figs 6–8) with widely separated gonocoxites having only membranous connection; gonostylus simple, narrowed and outwardly pointed apically; aedeagus ( Fig. 7) broad and robust, longer than gonocoxites. Tergite 9 ( Fig. 8) broad but narrowed medially, small densely bristled cerci protruding from apical emargination.

Female. Similar to male in most respects but antennae markedly smaller and shorter than thorax with median flagellomeres only about 3 times as long as broad. Abdomen mainly brownish yellow, tergites only narrowly yellow on apical margins. Ovipositor short with simply rounded sternal lobes and short cerci. Wing length 3.4–4.0 mm.

Etymology. This species is named for my friend Julie Locke to acknowledge her help and encouragement during the preparation of this paper.

Chorotype. Type 6 [3.02 of Vigna Taglianti et al. (1999)]. Mediterranean.

Italian distribution. Sardinia only.

Notes. Evenhuis (2006) listed 12 species of Urytalpa Edwards worldwide. Bechev and Koç (2008) added a new species from Turkey and transferred Platyura maritima Becker, 1907 , described from Tunisia, to the genus. They provided a key to seven west Palaearctic species, in which U. juliae runs to U. nussbaumi Chandler, 1994 described from Israel. Kjaerandsen et al. (2009) described a new species from Sweden and transferred a Nearctic species to this genus, increasing the known world fauna to 16. They included a key to males of 14 species, compiled from the literature and principally using genital characters; U. juliae runs in this key to the Japanese species U. yoshidai Uesugi, 2004 .

Although Urytalpa is a relatively small genus, there is some variation in genital structure and Kjaerandsen et al. (2009) remarked on the need for a revision of this and allied genera. Chandler (1994) and Uesugi (2004) respectively commented on similarities in genital structure of U. nussbaumi and U. yoshidai to Asindulum Latreille. The latter genus, revised by Matile (1975), is typified by an elongate proboscis but has other characters close to Urytalpa and it is possible that this group of Urytalpa is more allied to that genus.

Urytalpa juliae resembles U. nussbaumi and U. yoshidai in having the gonocoxites broadly separated ventrally and connected only by a membrane and in the form of the gonostyli, which are slender and outwardly curved to a point apically. Other Palaearctic species of the genus have the gonocoxites narrowly to broadly fused basally. It differs from U. nussbaumi in the gonocoxites not being tapered on the apical half, the gonostyli relatively larger and tergite 9 broad medially where it is constricted in U. nussbaumi . In these respects it resembles U. yoshidai but that species differs in having a longer proboscis (at least half the height of head while it is only about a quarter of head height in U. juliae ), in the lateral margins of the gonocoxites extending beyond the tips of the gonostyli and in having tergite 9 extended by a digitiform process on each lateral margin.