Megaselia ledzona, Khameneh & Khaghaninia & Disney & Maleki-Ravasan, 2019

Khameneh, Roya Namaki, Khaghaninia, Samad, Disney, R. Henry L. & Maleki-Ravasan, Naseh, 2019, Twenty one new species of Megaselia Rondani (Diptera: Phoridae) from Iran, Zootaxa 4711 (1), pp. 1-50 : 31-34

Megaselia ledzona n. sp.

( Figs 190–200)

Material examined. Holotype male, West Azerbaijan province, Khoy city, Evogli region, 38°42.436’N, 45°12.246’ E, 968 m, Malaise trap, 26.IV.2013, S. Khaghaninia (19, CUMZ—13-92) . Paratypes: 48 males, locality data as the holotype (1 UCZM, 47 ICHMM) .

Description. Male. Whole fly as Fig. 190. Frons as Fig. 191 largely lacking fine microtrichia ( Fig. 192). Cheek with 2 bristles and jowl with 2 that are longer and more robust. Postpedicels, which lack SPS vesicles, palps and proboscis as Fig. 193, the labella with only a few short spinules below. Thorax brown, with 3 notopleural bristles and no cleft in front of these and mesopleuron bare ( Fig. 194). Scutellum with an anterior pair of small hairs and a posterior pair of bristles. Abdominal tergites brown with hairs a little longer at rear of T6, and venter grayish brown, with numerous long hairs on segments 3–6 ( Fig. 195). Hypopygium as Figs 195–198. The tapered left hypandrium lobe ( Fig. 197) has microtrichia ( Fig. 197). Legs dusky yellow to yellow. Fore tarsus ( Fig. 199) with posterodorsal hair palisade on segments 1–4 and 5 longer than 4. Dorsal hair palisade of mid tibia extends about 0.57 times its length. Hairs below basal half of hind femur clearly longer than those of anteroventral row of outer half ( Fig. 200). Hind tibia with a dozen moderately differentiated posterodorsal hairs, without anterodorsals, and spinules of apical combs simple. Wings 1.48 mm long. Costal index 0.36. Costal ratios 3.51: 1.37: 1. Costal cilia (of section 3) 0.08 mm long. Vein 3 hair 0.02 mm long. With 2 unequal axillary bristles, the outermost being 0.07 mm long. Sc not reaching R1. Haltere knob pale yellowish.

Recognition. In the key to the Megaselia males of the British Isles ( Disney 1989) it runs to couplet 175 lead 2 M. subfuscipes Schmitz. In a revision of this complex ( Disney 2014) this was synonymised with M. ledburiensis (Brues) , a replacement name for M. minutissima (Wood) whose name was preoccupied by a species from New Guinea. In this revision it runs to couplet 178 lead 2 M. halterata (Wood) on the basis of its pale haltere knobs. However, its costal cilia and outer axillary bristles are at least 0.10 mm long, its left hypandrial lobe is upcurved, strongly tapered and devoid of microtrichia ( Figs 201 & 202) and the right hypandrial lobe is absent ( Fig. 203). If at couplet 178 one ignores the haltere knob being not yellow, but brown, one proceeds to couplet 180. Taking lead 1 one then proceeds to couplet 181 lead 1 M. ledburyensis, which is immediately distinguished by the fewer and smaller hairs on the abdominal venter ( Fig. 204). Lead 2 of couplet 180 is the Canary Islands species M. apozona Schmitz , whose left hypandrial lobe is similar to that of M. halterata and M. ledburyensis . Otherwise the species fails to run down in the rest of the world literature.

Etymology. Named after it being intermediate between M. ledburyensis and M. apozona .