Empis (Coptophlebia) cuthbertsoni Smith, 1971

Esa, C. Daugeron, 2001, Cladistics and taxonomy of the Afrotropical Empis (Coptophlebia) chrysocera-group (Diptera, Empididae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 583-616 : 593-596

Empis (Coptophlebia) cuthbertsoni Smith, 1971

(®gures 15±20)

Empis (Coptophlebia) cuthbertsoni Smith, 1971: 90 .

Type material

PARATYPES: 1, Zimbabwe, Wedza , 26 December 1938, A. Cuthbertson; 1 m, with the additional data`at ¯owers of Scabiosa’ ( NHM) .

Description

Male: length of wing 4.5 mm.

Head with occiput blackish. Ocellar triangle prominent with pair of ®ne, very short bristles. Face blackish, subshining in lower part. Scape and pedicel black, ¯agellum missing. Proboscis long (twice the head height). Labrum yellowish to brown, labium blackish, with distinct annulations, strongly sclerotized, labella slender, bare, palpus yellowish. Eyes holoptic, upper ommatidia enlarged.

Thorax subshining blackish to strongly dusted grey in prescutellar depression. Antepronotum with ®ne, short lateral bristles. Proepisternum bare. Prosternum with a few ®ne, short lateral bristles. Postpronotal lobes brownish with only a few ®ne, short bristles, apparently without distinct basal one. Acrostichals and dorsocentrals irregularly biserial, ®ne, very short, latter with one strong, long prescutellar bristle. One distinct postsutural supraalar. One strong, long notopleural. One strong, long postalar. Scutellum dark brown with two apical bristles, two ®ner, shorter subapicals. Laterotergite with fan of strong, long bristles. Anterior and posterior spiracles blackish.

Legs dark brown to blackish. Fore femur with only a few ®ne, rather long basoventral bristles. Fore tibia with short bristles, a little longer at apical tip. Mid femur with one row of distinct rather long ventral bristles. Mid tibia with distinct short ventral and dorsal bristles. Hind femur with distinct rather long posteroventra l bristles on basal half. Hind tibia with distinct rather short basal and ventral bristles. Tarsi with distinct short bristles especially on ®rst tarsomere.

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

Abdomen (®gures 15±17) with ®rst three segments yellowish, otherwise dark brown to blackish, distinct bristles at base. Sternite 6 voluminous (®gures 15, 16), modi®ed in two strongly sclerotized rounded medioposterior processes ventrally. Sternite 7 membranous (®gure 17). Sternite 8 with dorso- and ventroanterior processes on each side (®gure 17). Width of tergite 8 reduced laterally (®gure 17).

Hypopygium (®gures 19, 20) with cercus bent back anteriorly in dorsal view, made up of an anterodorsal bare lobe and posterior rounded well-bristled lobe (®gures 19, 20). Epandrial lamellae connected anteriorly (®gure 20), with distinct bristles only at tip. Hypandrium well sclerotized, with very short bristly hairs at tip (®gure 19). Phallus short, not pointed at tip (®gure 19).

Female similar to male except for the following characters: ¯agellum black, scape and pedicel lighter. Eyes dichoptic, lower ommatidia somewhat enlarged, frons broad, shining dark brown. Fore femur with one row of very short dorsal bristles, pennate ventrally except at basal tip. Fore tibia long pennate dorsally, with a few pennate ventral bristles at apical tip. First tarsomere of fore tarsus long pennate dorsally, short pennate ventrally. Second tarsomere of fore tarsus with a few pennate dorsal bristles. Mid femur long pennate ventrally. Mid tibia short pennate ventrally on basal half. Hind femur long pennate ventrally and dorsally except at basal tip. Hind tibia long pennate dorsally, and ventrally except at apical tip, with also a few short pennate dorsal and ventral bristles especially in the middle. Abdomen dark brown, tergite 7 with somewhat circular-shaped anterior margin, more or less desclerotized in the middle (®gure 18). Cercus longer than broad, with only bristly hairs.

Discussion

E. cuthbertson i belongs to the E. (C.) chrysocera -complex. The following combination of characters distinguishes this species from all others belonging to the E. (C.) chrysocera -group: ¯agellum black, presence of one strong notopleural, prescutellar depression strongly greyish dusted, hind tibiae with dorsal bristles shorter than tibiae width, male sternite 6 considerably voluminous, phallus not pointed at tip.

Distribution Southern Africa: Zimbabwe.