Prochyliza georgekaplani Martín-Vega, 2014

Martín-Vega, Daniel, 2014, On the identity of Prochyliza nigrimana (Meigen) and Prochyliza nigricornis (Meigen) (Diptera: Piophilidae), with a synopsis of Prochyliza Walker and description of a new species, Zootaxa 3893 (2), pp. 277-292 : 285-287

Prochyliza georgekaplani Martín-Vega , sp. nov.

Prochyliza nigricornis auct. nec. ( Meigen 1826: 397)

Type material. Holotype: 1 ♂ ( MNCN _Ent 113319): Spain, Madrid, Lozoya; UTM 30T 436780, 4533579; 1121 m a.s.l.; 13–20.ii.2007. Paratypes: 1 ♂ ( MNCN _Ent 113320): same data as holotype; 1 ♀ ( MNCN _Ent 113321): Spain, Madrid, Lozoya; UTM 30T 436732, 4533732; 1295 m a.s.l.; 13–20.ii.2007. Holotype ♂ and paratypes (1 ♂ and 1 ♀) are deposited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales ( MNCN), type number 2540.

Description. Male. Length 4.2–4.4 mm. Body shining black to brown. Head higher than long; gena deep in height; vibrissa strong ( Fig. 4 C). Gena and frons, from lunula beyond anterior ocellus, entirely dark orange to brownish black ( Fig. 6 A). Palpus dark yellow to brown. Frontal setae very weak, fronto-orbitals absent. Inner and outer vertical setae moderately strong; ocellars and post-ocellars much weaker.

Mesonotum uniformly and densely setulose. Notopleural, pre-alar, supra-alar, post-alar, post-sutural intra-alar and scutellar setae conspicuous; postpronotal and presutural intra-alars absent. Anepisternum setulose, anepimeron bare. Katepisternal seta moderately strong. Propleuron and meropleuron almost completely pruinose. Wing whitish hyaline, veins dark brown. Calypters and halteres white. Coxae wholly dark brown ( Fig. 4 C; 6B). Femora and anterior tibia also darkened except in the base and the apex ( Fig. 6 ). Anterior femur with 6–7 conspicuous posteroventral setae on apical third. Middle and hind tibiae and anterior and middle tarsi more or less partially darkened, hind tarsi yellow ( Fig. 6 ).

Abdomen shining brown. Tergites showing conspicuous setulae, especially long at the margins ( Fig. 2 D). Sternites 1 to 5 quadrangular, only sternite 2 with anterior margin emarginated ( Fig. 6 B). Sternites also with conspicuous setulae. Sternite 7 showing a distinct peg-like process elongated and progressively bent; the margin of sternite 7 is thickened beside the peg-like process ( Fig. 2 E). Male genitalia as showed in Fig. 2 F, with a thornshaped ejaculatory apodeme. Phallus long, hairy and moderately thick.

Female. Similar to male, including the quadrangular shape of the abdominal sternites ( Fig. 3 A, B). The setulae of tergites are more disperse and less conspicuous than in males, but nevertheless more conspicuous than in P. nigrimana .

Immature stages. Unknown.

Etymology. The specific epithet georgekaplani (“of George Kaplan”) is a personal name in the genitive case. It makes reference to George Kaplan, the nonexistent spy from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film ‘North by Northwest’ for whom the main character is mistaken. Like in that celebrated film, P. georgekaplani had been misidentified as a “nonexistent” species (i.e. an unvalid name), at least in central Spain ( Martín-Vega & Baz 2010, 2013).

Diagnosis. Both P. georgekaplani and P. nigrimana are the only species of the genus showing an uniform colouration on the frons from lunule beyond anterior ocellus. Prochyliza georgekaplani differs externally from P. nigrimana in the quadrangular shape of the sternites ( Fig. 2 ; Fig. 3 ). Moreover, males of P. georgekaplani can be externally distinguished by the distinctive shape of the margin of male sternite 7 and its peg-like process ( Fig. 2 D, E).

Remarks. As mentioned, this species had been misidentified as Prochyliza nigricornis ( Martín-Vega & Baz 2010, 2013), actually a junior synoym of P. nigrimana . Special caution must thus be taken as P. georgekaplani may be misidentified as P. nigricornis using previous identification keys to Piophilidae species.

Biology. The adults were collected using carrion-baited traps ( Martín-Vega & Baz 2013); hence, the larvae are very likely necrophagous as in the other species of the genus Prochyliza . Prochyliza georgekaplani was collected during a study of the sarcosaprophagous insect fauna throughout the different natural habitats of central Spain, where the species appears to be restricted to supramediterranean holm-oak and oakwoods ( Martín-Vega & Baz 2013). Despite those localities were sampled throughout one year, P. georgekaplani was collected only during February. It may indicate a winter phenology, which would be interesting as it is the phenology showed by piophilids of the subtribe Thyreophorina (Martín-Vega 2011; Martín-Vega & Baz 2014).

Distribution. Palaearctic; only recorded from central Spain. It is possible, however, that specimens of P. georgekaplani have been misidentified with specimens of P. nigricornis in other localities.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Male abdomen and genitalia of Prochyliza nigrimana (Meigen), Prochyliza georgekaplani sp. nov., and Prochyliza nigricoxa (Melander & Spuler): (A) P. nigrimana, male abdomen, ventral view; (B) P. nigrimana, male sternites 5 – 8, ventral view; (C) P. nigrimana, male genitalia, lateral view; (D) P. georgekaplani, male abdomen, ventral view; (E) P. georgekaplani, male sternites 5 – 8; (F) P. georgekaplani, male genitalia, lateral view; (G) P. nigricoxa, male sternites 5 – 8 after Steyskal (1968). Abbreviations: ej apod = ejaculatory apodeme; ep = epandrium; ha = hypandrial arms; hypd = hypandrium; peg = peg-like process; ph = phallus; prgt = pregonite; s 5 – s 8 = sternites 5 to 8.

FIGURE 3. Female abdomen of Prochyliza georgekaplani sp. nov. and Prochyliza nigrimana (Meigen): (A) P. georgekaplani, female abdomen, ventral view; (B) P. georgekaplani, female sternites 4 – 6, ventral view; (C) P. nigrimana, female abdomen, ventral view; (D) P. nigrimana, female sternites 4 – 6, ventral view. Abbreviations: s 4 – s 6 = sternites 4 to 6.

FIGURE 4. Head of Prochyliza xanthostoma Walker, Prochyliza georgekaplani sp. nov. and Prochyliza nigrimana (Meigen). (A) P. xanthostoma, male head, lateral view; (B) P. xanthostoma, female head, lateral view; (C) P. georgekaplani, male head, lateral view; (D) P. nigrimana, female head, lateral view.

FIGURE 6. Habitus of Prochyliza georgekaplani sp. nov., male holotype (MNCN _ Ent 113319): (A) dorsal view; (B) ventral view.