Platypalpus pyreneensis, Bartak, Miroslav & Kubik, Stepan, 2015

Bartak, Miroslav & Kubik, Stepan, 2015, Three new species of European Platypalpus (Diptera, Hybotidae), ZooKeys 470, pp. 145-155 : 147-150

Taxon classification Animalia Diptera Hybotidae

Platypalpus pyreneensis sp. n. Figs 4-6, 8

Material examined.

Holotype: male, Andorra, Pto. de Envalira, subalpine meadow, 2200 m, 42°32'N, 1°43"E, 8.vii.1990, M. Barták. Paratypes: 3 males, 3 females, same data as holotype; 1 male, same locality, pine wood nr. brook, 1800 m, 42°33'N, 1°42'E, M. Barták. Holotype and paratypes are deposited in the collection of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.

Diagnosis.

The species from Platypalpus pallidiventris - cursitans group, small black, with 1 pair of vertical setae, black antennae with short postpedicel and much longer stylus; thorax microtrichose, dorsocentrals long and bristle like; katepisternum broadly lustrous; legs black, mid femur strongly thickened with pale posteroventrals; long and sharply pointed apical spur on mid tibia.

Description.

Male. Head black, rather light grey microtrichose. Frons rather thinly microtrichose, ≈ 0.06 mm broad just above antennae and ≈ 0.11 mm broad in the level of fore ocellus. Face ≈ 0.04 mm broad at middle. Clypeus microtrichose. Gena narrow and lustrous. Antenna black, postpedicel short, 1.6 –2.3× longer than broad, stylus 2.3 –3.1× longer than postpedicel. Palpus brown, ovoid, and short (less than 1/2 as long as proboscis), with several long white setae. Ocellar setae black and rather long (≈ 0.15 mm), posterior pair half as long. A single pair of long (≈ 0.17 mm) black vertical setae inserted wide apart (≈ 0.18 mm). Occiput sparsely and black setose dorsally and long white setose ventrally. Proboscis slightly more than half as long as head, brownish black.

Thorax black, rather thinly grey microtrichose in dorsal view, pleuron lighter grey microtrichose, katepisternum with large lustrous patch leaving only narrow hind margin microtrichose. Large thoracic setae including bristle like dorsocentrals black or at least very dark brown, hairs including smaller acrostichals paler, brown to whitish yellow. Chaetotaxy: postpronotal seta yellowish to black, long; acrostichals biserial and short (≈ 0.08 mm in middle of rows), about 5-8 setae in one row; dorsocentrals uniserial, strong, varying in length from ≈ 0.12 mm to ≈ 0.20 mm, 5-7 setae in one row, sometimes with additional paler and smaller hairs between them, last pair somewhat longer; notopleuron with 2-3 long setae (anterior seta present or absent) and with several additional much smaller and paler seta(e); 1 postalar and 1 pair of scutellar setae in addition to another much smaller and paler pair.

Wing very slightly brownish with brown veins. Veins R4+5 and M1 nearly straight and almost parallel. Crossveins narrowly separated. Vein Cu almost straight, anal vein depigmented but visible along its length. A single long black costal seta. Squama yellow with pale fringes. Halter pale yellow.

Legs black, only knees of fore leg yellowish brown. Tarsi somewhat paler in some specimens, without apparent annulations. Fore femur slightly thickened, with two ventral rows of white setae, those in posteroventral row up to as long as depth of femur. Fore tibia very slightly thickened, with two dorsal black setae and elongated ventral white hairs longer than depth of tibia. Mid femur thickened (≈ 0.22 mm broad at broadest point), with rather long white anteroventrals and usually with 2 strong black anterior setae, posteroventrals long and white. Mid tibia with long sharply pointed apical spur. Hind legs slender, without conspicuous setation, hind tibia in some specimens with several dorsal setae.

Abdomen blackish brown, lustrous, including dorsum of tergite 1, sides of first tergite entirely microtrichose, second tergite with narrow microtrichose stripe; sparsely covered with short pale setae somewhat longer on last 2-3 segments. Genitalia (Figs 4-6) with left epandrial lamella bearing some 50 long setae distributed along whole ventral margin, right epandrial lamella with strong setae both apically and ventrally and cerci small and simple, concealed within lamellae.

Female. Abdomen lustrous, microtrichosity on basal two tergites as in male, last two segments entirely microtrichose

Length. body 2.4-2.6 mm, wing 2.4-2.6 mm.

Etymology.

The specific epitheton is derived from mountain range name (Pyrenees).

Distribution.

Andorra.

Remarks.

The species described above may be arranged with difficulties in the key by Grootaert and Chvála (1992) because of confusion in section 99: several specimens of the newly described species have only two notopleural setae but several have three black and strong setae so this character must be considered variable. So we propose to modify section 99 of the key as follows: