Claraeola bousynterga Motamedinia & Skevington

Motamedinia, Behnam, Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Kelso, Scott, 2019, Revision of Claraeola (Diptera, Pipunculidae) in the Middle East based on morphology and DNA barcodes, ZooKeys 873, pp. 85-111 : 85

Claraeola bousynterga Motamedinia & Skevington sp. nov. Figs 1 , 8A , 9A

Examined material.

Holotype. IRAN • ♂; Sistan & Balochestan, Saravan; 27°25'N, 62°17'E; 8 Nov. 2016; F. Hamzavi leg.; pan trap; JSS51920; GB: MN182733; CNC. Paratypes. IRAN • 1 ♂; same data as holotype; JSS51829; GB: MN182745; CNC • 1 ♀; same data as holotype; 2 Sep. 2015; sweep net; JSS52173; GB: MN182734; CNC.

Diagnosis.

Due to the shape of the surstyli, phallus and phallic guide, this species is related to the clavata species group: C. discors (Hardy, 1966), known from Nepal and partly illustrated by Kehlmaier (2005b), C. clavata (Becker, 1897), known from Europe and re-described by Kehlmaier (2005a), C. conjuncta (Collin, 1949), C. khorshidae Motamedinia & Kehlmaier, 2017 and C. thekkadiensis (Kapoor, Grewal & Sharma, 1987) comb. nov. It differs from these species by the shape of surstyli in lateral view being weakly bent, broad syntergosternite 8 and a large membranous area.

Description.

Male. Body length (excluding antennae): 4.2-4.3 mm (n = 2). Head. Scape, pedicel and arista dark brown, pedicel with a pair of short plus long upper and lower bristles, lower bristles longer than upper bristles, flagellum tapering and light brown pruinose (LF:WF = 2.2); arista with thickened base. Eyes meeting for a distance of 16 facets. Frons dark silver-gray pruinose. Vertex black, bearing an elevated slightly ocellar triangle. Occiput dark and gray pruinose with a row of long setae along posterior margin. Thorax. Postpronotal lobe dark, gray pruinose. Prescutum and scutum black with scattered long setae at anterior supra-alar area. Scutellum black with ca. 12 thin short setae along posterior margin (up to 0.05 mm). Subscutellum black, gray pruinose. Pleura dark brown Wing. Length: 3.5-3.8 mm. LW:MWW = 3.0. Wing almost entirely covered with microtrichia. Pterostigma dark-brown and complete. LS:LTC = 1.0. LTC:LFC = 1.5. Cross-vein r-m reaches dm shortly after one third of the cell’s length. M1 strongly undulating in middle. Halter length: 0.7 mm, base and knob dark, stem narrowly white or dark. Legs. Coxae dark, gray pruinose. Mid coxa with two or three black anterior bristles. Trochanters partly gray pruinose, mid trochanter with two or three black anterior bristles, hind trochanter partly yellow with 4-6 brown anterior bristles. Femora dark with pale apices, gray pruinose with two or three wrinkled indentations at base. Mid and hind femora bearing two rows of dark anteroventral small spines in apical half. Tibiae gray pruinose, with two rows of short setae on anterior side and three rows on posterior. Hind tibia with two or three wrinkled indentations in middle without erect anteromedial setae. Tarsi yellowish at posterior margin but darkened with scattered dark setae at anterior margin. Pulvilli yellow. Claws brown with black tips. Abdomen. Ground color dark, tergite 1 silver-gray pruinose, with three or four dark lateral bristles (up to 0.1 mm). Tergites 2-5 posterolaterally gray pruinose, slightly extending onto dorsal surface along posterior margin, largest on tergite 5 where they extend onto dorsal surface, otherwise brown pruinose. Tergite 5 slightly longer than tergite 4 and almost symmetrical in dorsal view (LT35:WT5 = 1.1, WT5:LT5 = 0.6, T5R:T5L = 1.0). Sternites white-yellow laterally and brown with dark mid-line centrally, gray pruinose. Syntergosternite 8 enlarged, dark brown and gray pruinose without dorsal depression on side of right surstylus. LT35:WS8 = 2.5. Viewed laterally, longer than high (LS8:HS8 = 1.8). Membranous area large and roundish, more than one third of the width of syntergosternite 8. Genitalia. Genital capsule in dorsal view: epandrium and surstyli dark brown, inner side of both surstyli yellow, gray pruinose. Epandrium wider than long (MLE:MWE = 0.53). Surstyli rather symmetrical. Left surstylus slightly smaller than right one, right surstylus with slightly broadened tip ( Fig. 1A ). Genital capsule in ventral view: subepandrial sclerite wide with scattered setae, gonopod medium sized with two projections in its middle, inner gonopod slightly higher than outer one ( Fig. 1B ). Genital capsule in lateral view: phallus straight, strong and long, with three short ejaculatory ducts, two of them bearing small teeth along their sides; both surstyli slightly narrowed in middle, right surstylus slightly larger than left surstylus ( Fig. 1C, D ). Phallic guide small, reaching base of surstyli. Epandrium without projecting lobe on either side. Genital capsule in dorsal view: surstyli rather rectangular, base and tips broadened ( Fig. 1A ).

Female. Body length (excluding antennae): 3.6mm (n = 1). Eyes separated. Frons gray pruinose. Occiput gray pruinose. Postpronotal lobe dark, yellow in upper margin, gray pruinose. Scutum black, gray pruinose with scattered setae at anterior supra-alar area. Wing length: 3.7 mm. LW:MWW = 2.4. Pterostigma light-brown and slightly complete (LS:LTC = 0.98, LTC:LFC = 0.9). Mid coxa with 3-5 black anterior bristles. Femora bearing two small ventral rows of dark peg-like spines in the apical third. Hind tibia without distinctly stronger bristly setae. Tergites 1-2 gray pruinose, tergites 3-5 posterolaterally gray pruinose, slightly extending onto dorsal surface along posterior margin, otherwise brown pruinose. Ovipositor. Viewed laterally: piercer long (LP = 0.7 mm), strongly curved upward and reaching sternite 2 ( Fig. 8A ). LP:LB=2.3. LDP:LPP = 1.8.

Etymology.

From prefix bou meaning large in Greek and synterg (syntergosternite 8), referring to a large syntergosternite 8.

Distribution.

Iran ( Fig. 10 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Male genitalia of holotype Claraeola bousynterga Motamedinia & Skevington, sp. nov. A in dorsal view B in ventral view C, D in lateral view.

Figure 8. Ovipositor in lateral view A Claraeola bousynterga Motamedinia & Skevington, sp. nov. B Claraeola khuzestanensis Motamedinia & Skevington, sp. nov. C Claraeola parnianae Motamedinia & Kehlmaier. Scale bar: 0.1 mm (A-C).

Figure 9. Male of Claraeola species A paratype of Claraeola bousynterga Motamedinia & Skevington, sp. nov. in dorsal view B holotype of Claraeola mantisphalliga Motamedinia & Skevington, sp. nov. in lateral view C-D Claraeola halterata (Meigen) C abdominal tergites in dorsal view D habitus in lateral view E-F paratype of Claraeola khuzestanensis Motamedinia & Skevington, sp. nov. E legs in lateral view F habitus in dorsal view. Scale bar: 0.5 mm (A-F).

Figure 10. Claraeola species distribution in the Middle East.