Empis (Coptophlebia) machipandensis Smith, 1969

Esa, C. Daugeron, 2001, Cladistics and taxonomy of the Afrotropical Empis (Coptophlebia) chrysocera-group (Diptera, Empididae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 583-616 : 602-603

Empis (Coptophlebia) machipandensis Smith, 1969

(®gures 33±35) Empis (Coptophlebia) machipandensis Smith, 1969: 145 .

Type material

HOLOTYPE:, Mozambique, near Machipanda , 19 January 1955, B. R. Stuckenberg & P. Graham ( NATAL).

Description

Male: length of wing 4.2 mm.

Head with occiput black. Ocellar triangle prominent with pair of distinct bristles. Face blackish, subshining in lower part. Antenna dark brown to blackish. Proboscis not very long (1.6 times the head height), labrum yellowish to brownish, labium blackish, strongly sclerotized, with distinct annulations, labella slender, bare. Eyes holoptic, upper ommatidia enlarged.

Thorax with antepronotum brown, without distinct bristles. Proepisternum bare. Prosternum with a few short bristles. Postpronotal lobes brownish to yellowish with one ®ne, not very long basal bristle. Scutum shining blackish to strongly dusted greyish in prescutellar depression. Acrostichals and dorsocentrals apparently uniserial, very ®ne, short, latter with one strong, long prescutellar bristle. One strong, long postsutural supraalar. One strong, long notopleural. Postalar calli yellowish with insertion of one strong bristle. Scutellum dark brown with pair of rather strong, long apical bristle, one pair of ®ner, shorter subapicals. Laterotergite with fan of strong, long bristles. Anterior and posterior spiracles dark brown.

Legs brown. Fore femur with only a few ®ne, rather long ventral bristles at base. Fore tibia with rather strong, not very long dorsals. Mid femur with one row of rather strong, long posteroventrals. Mid tibia with rather strong, not very long ventral and longer posterodorsals. Hind femur with one row of distinct rather long ventral bristles. Hind tibia with two rows of strong, rather long dorsals, only very short ventrals. Bristles of all tarsi not very strong, short, a little longer, stronger on ®rst tarsomere of hind tarsus.

Wing clear. Veins yellowish at base. Sc abbreviated. R 41 5 branched at rightangle. Discal cell strongly truncate. M1, M2 abbreviated. A1 complete. Anal lobe well developed, anal angle acute. Halter with yellow base and stem, black knob.

Abdomen (®gure 33) with ®rst two tergites yellow with distinct basal and lateral bristles, otherwise brown to blackish with ®ne, short bristles. Sternite 6 damaged, according to the original description: somewhat voluminous with posterior margin with a single median process. Sternite 7 divided into three membranous parts. Sternite 8 with dorso- and ventroanterior processes on each side. Width of tergite 8 reduced laterally.

Hypopygium (®gures 34, 35) with cercus made up of a broad almost bare anteroinner lobe, strongly sclerotized, well visible in dorsal view (®gure 35), and rounded well-bristled posterior lobe (®gures 34, 35). Epandrial lamella somewhat rounded at tip with distinct apical bristles (®gure 34). Hypandrium well sclerotized, high-placed. Phallus not very long, pointed at tip.

Female unknown.

Discussion

E. machipandensis belongs to the E. (C.) chrysocera -complex. Unfortunately the male sternite 6 is damaged on its posterior margin but according to the original description ( Smith, 1969), this sclerite, although less voluminous than in E. cuthbertsoni , is developed in a distinct median process. Nevertheless E. machipandensis can be distinguished from E. cuthbertsoni by the longer dorsal bristles on hind tibia and the pointed phallus.

Distribution Southern east Africa: Mozambique.