Empis (Coptophlebia) lyra Smith, 1967b

Esa, C. Daugeron, 2001, Cladistics and taxonomy of the Afrotropical Empis (Coptophlebia) chrysocera-group (Diptera, Empididae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 583-616 : 598-600

Empis (Coptophlebia) lyra Smith, 1967b

(®gures 26±32)

Empis (Coptophlebia) lyra Smith, 1967b: 11 .

Type material

HOLOTYPE:, Kenya, Kwali Forest , 20 miles W. of Mombasa, 1 June 1948, M. Steele ; PARATYPES: 2 m, same data , 1 m, Zimbabwe, Livingstone , 16± 20 November 1958, Lindner leg. ( NHM) , 2, 3 m, same data than preceding ( SMNS) .

Description

Male: length of wing 4.8 mm.

Head with occiput dusted greyish. Ocellar triangle prominent, dusted greyish, with pair of distinct short bristles. Face broad, dusted greyish to blackish, shining in lower part. Scape and pedicel rather brownish to yellowish, ®rst ¯agellomere yellowish, second and third ¯agellomeres brown. Proboscis long (2.5 times the head height), labrum brown to yellowish, labium brownish to blackish, strongly sclerotized, with distinct annulations, labella slender, bare, palpus brown. Eyes holoptic, upper ommatidia enlarged.

Thorax brown to dusted greyish. Antepronotum with distinct lateral bristles. Postpronotal lobes shining dark brown, with one rather strong, long basal bristle. Proepisternum bare. Prosternum with a few lateral bristles. Scutum extensively dusted greyish, with three dark brown stripes, the ®rst under acrostichals, the two lyre-shaped others under dorsocentrals. Acrostichals uniserial, ®ne, short. Dorsocentrals uniserial, rather ®ne, short, with one strong, long prescutellar bristle. One distinct, not very long presutural supraalar. One strong, long postsutural. Three strong, more or less long notopleurals. One strong, long postalar. Scutellum with two strong, long apicals, two ®ner, shorter subapicals. Laterotergite with fan of strong, long bristles. Anterior and posterior spiracles respectively black and dark brown.

Legs brown. Fore femur with a few distinct basoventral bristles. Fore tibia with one row of strong, rather long posterodorsal bristles, numerous ®ne ventrals. First tarsomere of fore tarsus with strong, rather short dorsal bristles. Mid femur pennate posteroventrally on apical half, with ®ne, long antero- and posteroventral bristles at basal tip. Mid tibia with one row of posteroventral and posterodorsal strong bristles, pennate dorsally and ventrally, ventrals shorter and only at basal onequarter. Hind femur with only short dorsal bristles, almost pennate apically, distinct rather ®ne ventrals, pennate antero- and posteroventrally at apical one-quarter. Hind tibia pennate like mid tibia. First tarsomere of mid and hind tarsi with numerous strong, not very long bristles, especially dorsally.

Wing (®gure 26) dark brown. Sc abbreviated. R 41 5 branched at right-angle. M1, M2 abbreviated. A1 complete, faintly sclerotized towards the wing margin. Anal lobe well developed, anal angle acute. Halter with yellowish base and stem, black knob.

Abdomen (®gures 27, 28) with ®rst three segments yellowish, otherwise dark brown. A few distinct bristles at base. Tergite 6 with rather long, strongly sclerotized, rounded medioposterior expansion (®gure 27). Tergite 7 divided into somewhat desclerotized median part and two strongly sclerotized lateral ones (®gure 27). Tergite 8 distinctly divided in a median sclerite, expanded anteroventrally, and two strongly sclerotized wing-shaped lateral ones (®gure 28). Sternite 8 developed posteriorly with rounded shape.

Hypopygium (®gures 30±32) with cercus made up of not very developed almost bare anterior lobe and well-bristled posterior lobe (®gure 30). Epandrial lamellae connected anteriorly, halter-shaped (elongated, enlarged at tip), with distinct bristles at apical tip (®gure 31), a group of strong, not very long bristles on inner face (®gure 32). Hypandrium and phallus similar to E. brazzavillensis .

Female (®gure 26) similar to male except for the following characters: scape, pedicel distinctly yellowish. Frons as broad as face, shining blackish in upper part, dusted greyish in lower part. Eyes dichoptic, lower ommatidia a little enlarged. Fore femur short, long pennate on basal half dorsally and ventrally. Fore tibia long pennate dorsally, with short, ®ne ventral subpennate bristles. First tarsomere of fore tarsus long pennate dorsally, next two tarsomeres with a few dorsal pennate bristles. Mid femur with very short pennate dorsobasal bristles, a little longer on dorsoapical half, long pennate ventrally. Mid tibia pennate dorsally except at basal tip, ventrally on basal half. Hind femur pennate dorsally except at apical tip, long pennate anteroventrally except at basal tip, pennate posteroventrally at apical half. First three tarsomeres of mid and hind tarsi similar to these of fore tarsus. First six segments of abdomen brown to yellowish, other segments brown to blackish, without distinct bristles except at base. Tergite 7 with circular-shaped anterior and posterior margins (®gure 29). Cercus longer than broad, with ®ne, short bristly hairs.

Variation

In the type series, two groups of specimens can be distinguished. There are two main variations between the ®rst group, collected in Kenya, and the second group, collected in Zimbabwe: ®rst, the female abdomen of specimens from Kenya is entirely brown, not shining, whereas the abdomen of specimens from Zimbabwe is lighter to subshining yellowish at base; second, the apical tip of epandrial lamella of male holotype (from Kenya) is a little longer than this of specimens from Zimbabwe. Unfortunately the male genitalia of the holotype are damaged and cercus not easily visible. Nevertheless there are no diOEerences in the shape of pregenital sclerites. Thus until the discovery of new male specimens from Kenya, I consider all males and females of type series conspeci®c .

Discussion E. lyra belongs to the E. (C.) lyra -complex. See discussion in E. brazzavillensis .

Distribution East and southern Africa: Kenya, Zimbabwe.