Megaselia kozlovi, Disney, R. H. L., 2013

Disney, R. H. L., 2013, An unusually rich scuttle fly fauna (Diptera, Phoridae) from north of the Arctic Circle in the Kola Peninsula, N. W. Russia, ZooKeys 342, pp. 45-74 : 49-53

Megaselia kozlovi sp. n. Figs 3-7

Diagnosis.

In the key to the males of the species of the British Isles ( Disney 1989) the males will run to couplet 245, Lead 1, where one is directed to return to couplet 241. It runs out there to Lead 1, but the species of this lead is covered by a revision of a group of species ( Buck and Disney 2001) from which the new species is immediately excluded by having 3, not 2, bristles on the notopleuron. Furthermore, the small anterior pair of hairs on the scutellum contrast with the bristle like anterior scutellars of the species it most resembles in this complex.

Etymology.

Named for its collector Mikhail Kozlov.

Description.

Male. Frons brown, clearly broader than long, with 30-42 hairs and very dense but very fine microtrichia. Supra-antennal bristles (SAs) unequal, the lower pair being about as long as the longest (apical) bristle of the palp but less robust than it. The antials lower on frons than anterolaterals, and more than twice as far from upper SAs as either is from an AL bristle. Pre-ocellars slightly closer together than either is from a mediolateral bristle, which is very slightly higher on frons. Cheek with 2-3 short bristles and jowl with one long and one short bristle. The subglobose postpedicels brown, without SPS vesicles. Palps yellow, at most a third as broad as postpedicel but about 1.4 times as long as breadth of latter, with 5-8 bristles, 3-4 being long and the rest short, and 1-3 hairs. Labrum pale yellow and about 0.8 times as wide as a postpedicel. Labella a little paler than palps, with only a few short spinules below but with several pale teeth along their inner edges.. Thorax brown. Three notopleural bristles and no cleft in front of these. Mesopleuron bare. Scutellum with an anterior pair of small hairs and a posterior pair of bristles. Abdominal tergites brown with T6 being longest and with longer hairs at its rear margin than on the rest of the tergites. Venter grey, and with fine hairs on segments 3-6. Hypopygium brown, with a light brown anal tube, and as Figs 2-3. Legs with yellowish brown hind femora and otherwise dusky yellow (apart from the largely brown mid coxae). Fore tarsus with segments 1-3 somewhat stout and with at least one row of hairs below each reduced to short pale spinules. A posterodorsal hair palisade on segments 1-4 and 5 about as long or slightly shorter than 4. Dorsal hair palisade of mid tibia extends about two thirds its length. Hairs below basal half of hind femur longer than those of anteroventral row of outer half. Hind tibia with 11-12 differentiated posterodorsal hairs and spinules of apical combs simple. Wings 1.3-1.4 mm long. Costal index 0.48-0.50. Costal ratios 3.0-3.6: 2.0-2.4: 1. Costal cilia (of section 3) 0.07-0.08 mm long. No hair at base of vein 3. With 2 axillary bristles, the outer being a little longer than costal cilia. Sc not reaching R1. Thick veins and vein 7 yellowish grey, thin veins 4-6 grey. Membrane tinged grey (evident to naked eye when viewed against a white background). Haltere knob yellow.

Female. Head similar to male except palps with 7-8 bristles, the longer ones being a little shorter than those of male, and with 3-7 hairs. Thorax as male. Abdominal tergites brown. T3-T7 as Fig. 4. Venter grey, and with hairs below segments 3-6. Sternite 7 an isosceles triangle tapering to an anterior point and with 4 longer hairs at its straight hind margin and at least as many smaller hairs further forward. The single lobe at rear of sternum 8 as Fig. 6. Cerci and epiproct as Fig. 5. With 4 rectal papillae. Furca not evident. Dufour’s crop mechanism as Fig. 7. Legs similar to male except the front tarsus has segment 1-3 as slender as the rest, segment 5 is a little longer than 4 and 5 may or may not have a posterodorsal hair palisade. Wing as male except 1.4-1.6 mm long. Costal index 0.47-0.49. Costal ratios 2.8-3.9: 1.5-2.5: 1. Costal cilia 0.08-0.09 mm long. Otherwise it and haltere as male. Two females were gravid, one with 5 eggs and the other with 6. These eggs measured 0.3-0.4 mm long and 0.16-0.17 mm wide.

Type material.

Holotype ♂, RUSSIA, Kola Peninsula, near Monchegorsk, at dead mouse, 18-25.vii 2009, M. Kozlov (UCMZ, 17-40). Paratypes, 2F the same except (17-48 & 72), 1 F, 25. vii– 1.viii.2009 (UCMZ, 17-44), 1 male, in yellow trap, 6-16.vii.2010 (UCMZ, 17-83).

Megaselia limburgensis (Schmitz): YT - 1 male.

Megaselia nudiventris (Wood): YT - 1 male. This species has recently been rescued from synonymy ( Disney 2011a).

Megaselia parnassia Disney: BT - 1 male, 10 females. YT - 2 males. A gravid female had 4 eggs (HF = 0.8-0.9 mm long). Some females had amorphous detrital material in the gut, which in two cases included several fungus spores. This is mainly a boreo-alpine species of northern Europe and Canada.

Megaselia petraea Schmitz: BT - 2 males, 12 females. One female was gravid.

Megaselia sordida (Zeterstedt): BT - 744 females, which is 56.3% of the phorids obtained in the traps baited with dead mice. This was the commonest species in the traps. YT - 12 males, 74 females. Thus the males were 3.4% of the phorids obtained in yellow traps and the females were 20.8%. Only a few had amorphous detrital material in the gut. Only a few were gravid. Of these one had 19 eggs, which measured 0.67 mm long and 0.25 mm wide (HF = 1.02 mm long). One had 32 half developed eggs (HF = 0.99 mm long).

The following species are only known in the female sex and are given code numbers only until they can be linked to their males. The sequence of numbers is incomplete as some females were subsequently linked to their males.

Megaselia species 3: BT - 25 females. YT - 3 females. None were gravid but more than 40 immature eggs were recorded. There was no evidence of feeding on carrion fluids.

Megaselia species 4: YT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 5: BT - 30 females. These were 2.2% of phorids caught at dead mice. YT - 94 females, which was 27.3% of the phorids in the yellow traps. None were gravid and one had amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 6: BT - 6 females. One with 2 relatively large eggs, that were 0.74 mm long and 0.28 mm wide (HF = 0.91 mm long). There was no evidence of feeding on carrion fluids.

Megaselia species 7: BT - 2 females. None was gravid and there was no evidence of feeding on carrion fluids.

Megaselia species 8: BT - 11 females. YT - 8 females. None were gravid and there was no evidence of feeding on carrion fluids.

Megaselia species 10: BT - 7 females. YT - 1 female. None were gravid but one had fungus spores in the crop.

Megaselia species 11: BT - 1 female. With amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 12: BT - 1 female. With amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 13: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 16: BT - 29 females. YT - 7 females. Most had amorphous detrital material in the gut and in one case this included short, thick walled, fungus bodies. One had 2 mature eggs remaining, the rest of the batch evidently having been deposited.

Megaselia species 17: BT - 2 females.

Megaselia species 18: BT - 5 females. Three with amorphous detrital material in the gut, one of which included a few spindle-shaped fungus spores.

Megaselia species 19: BT - 20 females. Three with amorphous detrital material plus fungus spores in the gut, the spores being round in one case and spindle shaped in two. A few pollen grains were present in guts of two specimens. One with 24 half developed eggs.

Megaselia species 20: BT - 3 females.

Megaselia species 21: BT - 2 females.

Megaselia species 24: BT - 1 female, with dark amorphous material in the gut.

Megaselia species 25: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 26: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 27: BT - 1 female. With amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 28: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 29: BT - 1 female. With amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 30: BT - 1 female. With pollen grains in gut.

Megaselia species 31: BT - 2 females. One was gravid, with 8 eggs which measured 0.51 long and 0. 25-0.26 mm wide (HF = 0.90 mm long). The other with amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 33: BT - 2 females. One had a single egg remaining. It measured 0.32 mm long and 0.12 mm wide (HF = 0.49 mm long).

Megaselia species 34: BT - 3 females. One had two eggs remaining, they measured 0.51-0.54 mm long and 0.21-0.23 mm wide (HF = 0.73 mm long). Another had granular material in the gut.

Megaselia species 36: BT - 1 female. With a little amorphous detrital material in the gut.

Megaselia species 37: BT - 1 female. YT - 10 females.

Megaselia species 38: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 39: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 40: BT - 1 female. The gut had fine amorphous debris. Fungus mycelium was present in the abdomen.

Megaselia species 42: BT - 2 females. Both had fungus spores in the gut. One was gravid. The eggs are 0.99-1.00 mm long and 0.32 mm wide and have a plastron running the length of the dorsal face. There were 14 eggs (HF = 1.21 mm long).

Megaselia species 46: BT - 1 female.

Megaselia species 47: BT - 1 female. There was a single relatively large egg measuring 0.66 mm long and 0.29 mm wide; this egg being longer than the length of the hind femur (at 0.47 mm).

Microselia forsiusi (Schmitz): BT - 1 female. This species was previously only known from Finland.