Grallipeza perezi, Marshall, S. A., 2013

Marshall, S. A., 2013, Grallipeza Rondani (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae) of the Caribbean and North America, Zootaxa 3682 (1), pp. 45-84 : 72-74

Grallipeza perezi new species

Figs. 54–58

Description: Size: Approximately 7 mm. Colour: Head orange except for the broad velvety black anterior part of the frontal vitta extending from anterior margin to behind ocelli ( Fig. 55 ); clypeus shining orange-brown, paler anteriorly. Fore femur pale brown at base, dark brown in distal 3/4. Tibia brown, fore tibia with a patch of white apicoventral setulae. Fore tarsomere 1 and basal half of tarsomere 2 white with white setulae; distal half of tarsomere 2 and tarsomeres 3–5 brown with dark setulae. Mid femur uniformly pale brown; hind femur brown with a contrasting distal yellow ring (on some specimens the contrast between the background colour and the ring is indistinct); hind tarsus all dark. Thorax almost entirely orange, katepisternal bristles black. Female abdomen with tergites 1–5 pale reddish brown, pollinose and setulose; tergite 6 sparsely setulose, pollinose on basal fifth, with a sharp line of demarcation between pollinose strip and shining distal 4/5; oviscape missing from only female type. Abdominal pleuron of female mostly white, with a black area extending up the middle of the pleuron from segment 1 to the end of segment 3. Male abdominal syntergite 1–5 brown, pollinose and setulose; tergite 6 darker, slightly less pollinose but with setulosity similar to tergites 1–5; sternite 8 bare, shining and unusually large relative to epandrium; epandrium shorter than sternite 8, densely microsetulose and setulose. Male abdomen with a distinct, large, dark black, microsetulose membranous dome on pleuron of segment 2, pleuron otherwise irregularly discoloured on all types; genital fork pale.

Head: Arista with sparse long hairs on basal 2/3, hairs almost as long as scape width. Pedicel with long ventroapical bristles, one as long as first flagellomere. Frontal vitta distinctly raised and expanded in front of ocelli but narrowed and depressed behind, lower orbital margins lower than vitta.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite strongly sexually dimorphic; female convex with dense covering of pits and pores, male without pores and with a broad transverse furrow. Fore femur with only small ventral setulae. Two distinct dorsocentral bristles, 4–5 very long suprahumeral bristles, dorsocentral setulae minute and irregular. Postpronotum microsetulose with 6–8 long black setulae. Wing: Anal cell entirely setulose. Membrane entirely, evenly and lightly infuscated.

Male abdomen: Genital fork strongly curved, with a single row of 4–5 widely spaced short stout mesal bristles; outer surface with long bristles ( Fig. 58 ). Distiphallus longer than epandrium, basal part relatively broad and parallel-sided with a sinuate duct; bulb broad and rounded ( Fig. 57 ).

Type material: Holotype (male, USNM) and two paratypes (males, USNM): Dominican Republic. RD-266 Las Abejas, P.N. Sierra de Bahoruco, Pedernales Prov., 1,310m, 18 09.011’N 71 37.342’W, 11.vii.2004, D. Perez. Paratypes. Dominican Republic. Las Abejas, 1300m, cloud forest, 19.i.1989, S.A. Marshall (2 3, DEBU); Las Abejas, Pedernales Prov., Sra. de Bahoruco, 17.i.1989, L. Masner (1 Ƥ, DEBU).

Etymology: This species is named for Daniel Perez-Gelabert in recognition of the importance of his collections of flies from the Dominican Republic.

Comments: Grallipeza abeja and G. p e re z i appear to be endemic to the remarkable Las Abejas intramontane forest in the Sierra de Bahoruco. Both species are characterized by a relatively dark hind femur with a pale band (the reverse of the usual pattern), but they differ widely in head colour and characters of the male terminalia. Female terminalia were not examined for G. p e re z i.

Figures

FIGURES 54 – 58. Grallipeza perezi. 54, male left lateral; 55, male head and thorax dorsal; 56, male abdomen left lateral; 57, epandrium and associated structures left lateral; 58, genital fork.