Empis (Coptophlebia) juxtaripa, Esa, 2001

Esa, C. Daugeron, 2001, Cladistics and taxonomy of the Afrotropical Empis (Coptophlebia) chrysocera-group (Diptera, Empididae), Journal of Natural History 35, pp. 583-616 : 596-598

Empis (Coptophlebia) juxtaripa sp. n.

(®gures 21±25)

Type material

H OLOTYPE:, Nigeria, NW State, Kontagora river , 3 miles from Niger, 13 August 1970, P. H. Ward ( NHM) .

Description

Male: length of wing 3.2 mm.

Head with occiput dark brown. Ocellar triangle prominent, without distinct bristles. Face dark brown, shining in lower part. Antenna blackish, scape and pedicel a little lighter than ¯agellum, ¯agellum rather short. Proboscis long (twice the head height), labrum brown, labium blackish, strongly sclerotized, with distinct annulations, labella slender, bare, palpus brown. Eyes holoptic, upper ommatidia enlarged.

Thorax yellowish to brown. Antepronotum yellowish with a few ®ne, short lateral bristles. Postpronotal lobes yellow, with one distinct basal bristle. Proepisternum bare. Prosternum with a few ®ne, short lateral bristles. Scutum yellowish to brownish, with broad darker stripes between acrostichals and dorsocentrals, and dorsocentrals and notopleuron. Acrostichals uniserial, ®ne, short. Dorsocentrals uni- to biserial, rather ®ne, short, with one strong, long prescutellar bristle. One strong, long postsutural supraalar, a few ®ner, shorter others. Three strong, long notopleurals. One strong, long postalar. Scutellum with the insertion of pair of strong apicals. Laterotergite with fan of strong, long bristles. Anterior and posterior spiracles brown.

Legs with coxa yellowish, femur, tibia and tarsus dark brown. Fore femur with only a few ®ne bristles. Fore tibia with one row of strong, long dorsals, with one or two ®ne pennate bristles at apical tip. First tarsomere of fore tarsus somewhat dilated, with ®ve or six ®ne dorsal pennate bristles. Mid femur with ®ne, rather long dorsal and ventral bristles. Mid tibia with one row of strong, long posterodorsals, two rows, respectively antero- and posterodorsal, of pennate bristles. First tarsomere of mid tarsus with distinct bristles, especially ventrally. Hind femur with ®ne dorsals, two rows, respectively antero- and posteroventral, of ®ne bristles. Hind tibia covered with numerous strong, long dorsals, shorter ventrals. First tarsomere of hind tarsus with rather long dorsals, shorter distinct ventrals.

Wing brown. Sc abbreviated. R 41 5 branched at right-angle. Discal cell rather short, truncate. M1, M2 abbreviated. A1 complete, faintly sclerotized towards the wing margin. Anal lobe well developed, anal angle acute. Halter with yellow base and stem, brown knob.

Abdomen (®gures 21±23) dark brown, lighter at base, with a few distinct brownish bristles at base. Tergite 6 unmodi®ed. Tergite 7 made up of two lateral well-sclerotized parts bearing a small dorsal process, and a central part, less sclerotized anteriorly (®gure 22). Tergite 8 divided into median part expanded anteroventrally (®gure 23) and wing-shaped lateral parts. Sternite 8 developed posteriorly, with triangular shape and distinct anterodorsal process (®gure 21).

Hypopygium (®gures 24, 25) with cercus made up of two rounded lobes: a broad, almost bare anterior one, a narrower bristled posterior one (®gure 24). Epandrial lamellae connected anteriorly, developed dorsally in rounded lobe with at least six strong inner bristles (®gure 24). Hypandrium desclerotized in its median part. Phallus rather short, not very thick (®gure 25).

Female unknown.

Discussion

E. juxtaripa belongs to the E. (C.) lyra -complex. It resembles E. plumata in the triangular shape of sternite 8, the shape and the pilosity of epandrial lamella, and the presence of numerous long dorsal bristles on hind tibia. They can be distinguished by their size ( E. juxtaripa is smaller), the length of proboscis (longer in E. plumata ) and the colour of thorax (yellowish in E. juxtaripa , brownish in E. plumata ).

Distribution West Africa: Nigeria.

Etymology

Juxtaripa is a combination of the Latin words juxta, meaning near, and ripa, meaning river.