Antocha (Antocha) spiralis Alexander, 1932

Lv, Hanhuiying, Sun, Juan, Wang, Ning, Yang, Ding & Zhang, Xiao, 2023, New species and records of the genus Antocha Osten Sacken (Diptera, Limoniidae) from Tibet, China with a key to species in Qinghai-Tibet region, ZooKeys 1156, pp. 53-69 : 53

Antocha (Antocha) spiralis Alexander

Figs 6 , 7

Antocha (Antocha) spiralis Alexander 1932: 389 (original description).

Material examined.

China • 9 ♂♂ 1 ♀; Tibet Autonomous Region, Bayi District, Pailong ; 30°01'25"N, 95°00'32"E; 2003 m a.s.l.; 20 June 2018; Liang Wang leg.; CAU .

Diagnosis.

Antocha (A.) spiralis can be recognized by thorax having no stripes, wing without stigma, basal section of M3 about one and half times as long as m-m, posterior margin of tergite 9 having shallow, median emargination and slightly curved, blackened in distal 2/3 of outer gonostylus. Aedeagal complex with interbase nearly U-shaped; paramere apically slender and twisted into a spiral; inner branch of paramere with bifid tip.

Description.

Male. Body length 4.5-5.5 mm, wing length 5.0-6.0 mm, antenna length 1.0-1.2 mm.

Head (Fig. 6b ). Black with brown setae. Antenna brown, with dark brown pedicel. Scape cylindrical; pedicel and flagellomeres oval; terminal two segments slender. Rostrum yellow; palpus light brown; setae on rostrum and palpus brown.

Thorax (Fig. 6c ). Pronotum brown. Prescutum and presutural scutum dark brown, without stripe. Postsutural scutum brownish yellow in middle; scutal lobes each with brown spot. Scutellum brown with middle of base brownish yellow. Mediotergite dark brown, with middle brownish yellow. Pleuron brown (Fig. 6a ). Legs with fore and mid coxae brown; hind coxa yellow; trochanters yellow with side edges brown; femora brownish yellow to brown; remaining segments dark brown. Wing light brown, without stigma; anal angle nearly right-angled (Fig. 6d ). Veins brown. Venation: Sc ending before fork of Rs, at about 5/6 of Rs; basal section of R5 about 1½ times as long as r-m; m-cu shortly before fork of M, distance approximately 1/4 its own length; basal section of M3 about 1½ as long as m-m; cell m1 longer than cell dm. Halter pale.

Abdomen. Tergites 1-6 brown, tergites 7 and 8 dark brown. Sternites 1-6 brownish yellow to light brown; sternites 7 and 8 dark brown.

Hypopygium (Figs 6e , 7 ). Posterior margin of tergite 9 with broad and shallow emargination (Fig. 7a ). Gonocoxite nearly cylindrical with brown setae (Figs 6e , 7 ). Outer gonostylus slightly curved; base yellowish brown; distal 2/3 blackened, narrowing towards obtuse apex. Interbase nearly U-shaped, distal part flattened and oval (Figs 6e , 7 ). Paramere with rod-shaped base; apical part slender and twisted into spiral; tip sharp. Inner branch of paramere with tip bifid; outer tooth longer than inner one (Figs 6e , 7 ). Aedeagus with two projections near tip (Figs 6e , 7 ).

Female. Body length 4.5-5.5 mm, wing length 5.0-6.0 mm. Generally similar to male by body coloration.

Ovipositor (Fig. 6f ). Tergite 10 brownish yellow, with brown base. Cercus yellowish brown, with base darker, slender, and curved; tip raised and tapering. Hypogynial valve yellow, reaching approximately middle of cercus.

Distribution.

China (Sichuan, Tibet), India.

Remarks.

In China, this species was previously only known in Sichuan and is now recorded in Tibet for the first time. For descriptions and illustrations of this species, also see Alexander (1932) and Markevičiūtė et al. (2019, 2021). Both A. (A.) spiralis and A. (A.) bella from China have the twisted structure of the hypopygium. In A. (A.) spiralis , the apical part of the paramere is slender and twisted into a spiral, and the tip of the inner branch of the paramere is bifid (Figs 6e , 7 ), while in A. (A.) bella , the tip of the inner branch of the paramere is twisted ( Markevičiūtė et al. 2019).

Figures

Figure 6. Antocha (Antocha) spiralis a habitus of male, lateral view b male head, lateral view c male thorax, dorsal view d male wing e aedeagus complex with gonocoxite and gonostyli, dorsal view f female ovipositor, lateral view. Scale bars: 1.0 mm (a); 0.3 mm (b); 0.4 mm (c); 0.6 mm (d); 0.2 mm (e, f).

Figure 7. Antocha (Antocha) spiralis a male hypopygium, dorsal view b male hypopygium, ventral view. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.