Naglisia Quevedo, Capellari & Lamas, 2024

Quevedo, Lucas, Capellari, Renato S. & Lamas, Carlos José E., 2024, A new monotypic genus of Dactylomyiini (Diptera: Dolichopodidae: Neurigoninae) from the Brazilian Chaco, with a discussion on the evolution of the lateral epandrial lobe, Zootaxa 5403 (3), pp. 346-356 : 348

Naglisia Quevedo, Capellari & Lamas gen. nov.

Type-species: Naglisia gracilis Quevedo, Capellari & Lamas sp. nov., here designated.

Diagnosis. Body ( Fig. 1A, B ) mostly yellow. Antenna wholly yellow, inserted on apical 1/5 of head height, dorsal surface of scape bare, postpedicel triangular. Two longer dorsocentral setae posteriad (anterior setae indistinct from the surrounding setulae). Legs (all listed features are MSSC): last tarsomere I with a single, anterior claw; femur I with comb of short anteroventral setae on distal half; femur III with ventral cuticular projection around apical 1/6; tibia III with row of short spine-like ventral setulae at apical 1/3, 3–4 dorsal setae near apex and laterad to a posterior excavation, which is flanked by 2 hook-like cuticular projections ( Fig. 1E ); first tarsomere III with ventral callus at base, bearing 3 setae. Male abdomen relatively short (about as long as thorax length), tergite 6 setose, segments 6 and 7 forming a short peduncle for the genital capsule; hypopygium with ventral lobe of surstylus subrectangular and fused with lateral epandrial lobe almost along its entire length, which bears two apical setae. Female terminalia with sternite 10 covered by many setae similar in length (no conspicuous ventral setae).

Etymology. Named after our late colleague Dr. Stefan Naglis (Zurich, Switzerland), in acknowledgment of his contribution to the taxonomy of the Neotropical fauna of Neurigoninae flies. The gender is feminine.

Remarks. Diagnosing a species in a monotypic genus is challenging, due to the lack of information about possible additional species and how to distinguish characters of “generic” value from “specific” ones. For the time being we have kept the generic and specific diagnoses identical. However, we observed that thoracic and abdominal (non-genitalic) features seldom vary within Dactylomyiini , while leg MSSCs tend to be diagnostic for species (along with hypopygial features). This may prove to be true for Naglisia gen. nov. if additional species of the genus are discovered. The phylogenetic affinities of the new genus with Dactylomyia plus Macrodactylomyia are briefly addressed below in the Discussion, but Naglisia gen. nov. can be differentiated from the other two by possessing only two strong posterior dorsocentral setae (three in Dactylomyia plus Macrodactylomyia ); plain and unmodified male tarsus I (tarsus I with modified shape, setation and/or color in Dactylomyia plus Macrodactylomyia ), abdomen and thorax mostly yellow (with greenish to purple reflections in Dactylomyia plus Macrodactylomyia ) and lack of conspicuously longer pair of setae on female sternite 10 (with two longer setae in Dactylomyia plus Macrodactylomyia ).

It is noteworthy that Naglisia gen. nov. is the third new genus to be described in the past nine years from the same samples collected by the SISBIOTA-Diptera project team ( Lamas et al. 2023) The other two new genera were proposed for Mythicomyiidae ( Lamas et al. 2015) and Chloropidae ( Riccardi et al. 2018) . These samples were from three different Malaise traps installed in Porto Murtinho (Mato Grosso do Sul state) ( Fig. 4A–C ), which is the only municipality in Brazil with the presence of extensive areas with remnants of the Chaco domain in Brazil ( Souza-Lima et al. 2017). The discovery of an unknown and unusual Chaquean fauna in Brazil points to a clear need for government efforts to preserve this domain, which is threatened mainly by expanding agricultural and livestock management practices.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Naglisia gracilis gen. et sp. nov., male holotype (A, D–E) and female paratype (B–C). A. Male, lateral habitus. B. Female, lateral habitus. C. Wing. D. Left lateral view of postabdomen. E. Cuticular projections of tibia III. Abbreviations: bm+dm = basal medial cell + discal medial cell; CuA+CuP = anterior branch of cubital vein + posterior branch of cubital vein; dm-m = discal medial crossvein; h = humeral crossvein; M 1 = first branch of media; M 4 = fourth branch of media; R 1 = anterior branch of radius; R 2+3 = second branch of radius; R = third branch of radius; Sc = subcosta. Scale bar: 1.0 mm (A–B), 0.5 mm 4+5 (C–D) and 0.2 mm (E).

FIGURE 4. Location of Malaise traps in the municipality of Porto Murtinho (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil). A. Overview of Chaco biome. B. Malaise 31, installed in dry location. C. Malaise 33, in denser woodland, at same location as Malaise 32.