Miltogramma soszynskii Szpila and Pape, 2024

Szpila, Krzysztof, Walczak, Kinga, Grzywacz, Andrzej, Akbarzadeh, Agnieszka Soszyńska Kamran, Bystrowski, Cezary & Pape, Thomas, 2024, Underexplored diversity in Palaearctic Miltogramma Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201, pp. 1-21 : 10-12

Miltogramma soszynskii Szpila and Pape , sp. nov.

( Figs 1D , 3C , 7A–K )

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:10CFA21A-69E2-4B99-B55A-885D774104BB .

Type material. Holotype: 1M, Iran, Kerman, Hinaman II, 16 May 2017, 30.5654 57.2952, leg. KEiB Iran Expedition IV . Paratypes: 2M, Iran, Kerman, Hinaman I, 9 May 2017, 30.5426 57.2818, leg. KEiB Iran Expedition IV (barcoded, KEIB _DIP_01221); 2M , Iran, Kerman, Hinaman II, 16 May 2017, 30.5654 57.2952, leg. KEiB Iran Expedition IV.

Male. Body length 9–10 mm (N = 5). Head. Parafacial plate greyish-yellow, broad, narrowed downward, with the width at level of vibrissal angles 0.5 of the width at the base of antenna. Frons narrow, almost parallel, 0.31 head width at the ocellar triangle and 0.27 head width at the base of antenna. Fronto-orbital plate greyish-yellow, including posteriormost part. Frontal viưa broad, 4.0× broader than fronto-orbital plate at vertex, almost parallel, width at lunule 0.95 width at anterior ocellus, yellow and without microtomentum in anterior part, yellowish-whitish/ grey and covered with microtomentum in posterior part. Scape, pedicel, and proximal part of first flagellomere reddish, central and distal parts of first flagellomere and arista black. Ocellar triangle with a pair of laterally directed setae not differentiated from additional ocellar setulae, and two to three pairs of postocellar setae. Inner vertical seta strong, curved, outer vertical seta also curved and 0.7× as long as inner vertical seta; 14–15 pairs of weak frontal setae, setae not crossed over frontal viưa. Frontal viưa and vertex bare, paravertical setae absent. One proclinate orbital seta and one reclinate orbital seta, both weak. Fronto-orbital

0.02

plate with a few small setulae distributed around orbital setae. Parafacial plate with sparse, short, whitish-yellow setulae. Lunule bare. Scape and pedicel with short setulae. Gena and postgena with yellow setulae. Postcranium with yellow setulae. Antenna inserted distinctly above level of middle of eye. Antenna short, first flagellomere 1.2× as long as pedicel and 0.34× as long as distance between tip of first flagellomere and lower margin of facial plate, tip reaching to about 0.7 of parafacial plate. Arista micropubescent, aristomeres 1 and 2 shorter than their greatest diameter, aristomere 3 widened in basal 0.3. Facial plate with low keel below antennal insertion. Vibrissa, supravibrissal and subvibrissal seta absent, vibrissal angles situated highly above lower margin of facial plate. Height of gena 0.7× length of first flagellomere and 0.1× eye height. Proboscis short, labellum 1.1× as long as prementum, palpus yellow.

Thorax. Black ground colour; covered with dense grey microtrichosity; scutum with three shiny median stripes, more or less visible depending on the coincidence of light.

Legs. Foreleg tarsomers 1–5 with length proportions 1–0.6– 0.5–0.4–0.6. Fore tarsus with claws shorter than tarsomere 5. All tarsomeres with elongated anterodorsal, dorsal, and posterodorsal setae. All setae very long, setae on the tarsomers 1–3 straight, curved only distally, setae on the tarsomers 4–5 distinctly, wavy curved. Mid-tibia with one strong and five weak anterodorsal setae. Legs otherwise without particular modifications.

Wing. Tegula brown-yellow, basicosta yellow, veins yellow; costal spine not developed; base of vein R 4 * 5 without setulae; distal part of vein M bent at right angle, M cell r 4 * 5 open.

Abdomen. Generally black, covered with yellow microtrichosity. Reddish area along lateral parts of syntergite 1 * 2 and tergite 3. Colour paưern on tergites 3–5 variable with direction of observation; all tergites with a brownish-black band across posterior margin in dorsal and lateral views. In posterodorsal view, tergites 3–4 with band is interrupted and median black spots are present at the posterior margin of tergites. Tergite 5 with median black spot, only.

Terminalia ( Fig. 7I–K ). Cuticule black, with dense light microtrichosity. Cercus (c) brown-black, slightly curved (lateral view) and gradually tapering into a pointed tip (lateral and posterior view). Cercus with scaưered setae and short setulae in basal half, almost bare in distal half. Gonostylus (gst) black, straight, slightly longer than cercus, evenly rounded apically and with setulae along whole length. Pregonite (prg) broad, slightly curved anteriorly with rounded tip; postgonite (pog) almost straight, broad with rounded tip and strong anterior seta. Basiphallus (bp), ventral plate (vp) and dorsal plate (dp) strongly sclerotized; dorsal plate shallowly bifid apically (posterior view); ventral plate much shorter than dorsal plate. Membranous part of phallus with numerous denticles, acrophallus (ac) widened at tip.

Female. Unknown.

Biology. Specimens were collected around noon, perching on stones along dry stream beds and on gravel roads.

Barcoding. Barcoded specimen was grouped as sister to all other species of Miltogramma sg. Miltogrammidium ( Table 2 ; Fig. 4 ).

Etymology. Species is named in honour of recently deceased, eminent Polish dipterist, Dr Bogusław Soszyński, honorary member of Polish Entomological Society.

Remarks. Identifying specimens of M. soszynskii sp. nov. using the keys provided by Rohdendorf (1930, 1935), Verves (1994), and Povolný and Verves (1997) leads to species belonging to their subgenus Miltogrammidium or Myochromum Rohdendorf (narrow, parallel frons and abdomen with dark band along posterior margin of tergites). The fore tarsus chaetotaxy with numerous very long anterodorsal, dorsal, and posterodorsal setae on each tarsomere, and the absence of vibrissa, supravibrissal, and subvibrissal setae are not observed in any species of Miltogrammidium or Myochromum .

Figures

Figure 1. Male fore tarsus of Miltogramma spp. A, M.vervesi sp. nov., right tarsus, tarsomeres 2–5, anterior view. B, M.mikolajczyki sp. nov., right tarsus, tarsomeres 4 and 5, dorsal view.C, M.manouchehrii sp. nov., less tarsus, tarsomeres 4 and 5, dorsal view.D, M.soszynskii sp.nov., right tarsus, tarsomeres 1–5, anterior lateral view.E, M. rognesi sp. nov., right tarsus, tarsomeres 1–5, anterior lateral view.

Figure 3. Male fore tarsus of Miltogramma spp.A, M.vervesi sp. nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view. B, M.mikolajczyki sp. nov., right tarsus, dorsal view. C, M. soszynskii sp. nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view. D, M.thompsoni sp. nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view. E, M.rognesi sp.nov., right tarsus, anterior lateral view.F, M.vera, right tarsus, anterior lateral view. G, M. manouchehrii sp. nov., right tarsus, dorsal view. Scale bars:0.2 mm.

Figure 4. Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on COI gene sequences of Miltogramma species.Numbers at branch nodes represent bootstrap support values as a percentage of 1000 replicates. The scale bar, measured in 0.2 substitutions per nucleotide position, indicates the genetic distance between the species. The asterisk (*) in Miltogramma efflatouni indicates a specimen that was misidentified as Miltogramma nuda in Kuưy et al. (2010).

Figure 7. Miltogramma soszonskii sp. nov. (male paratype: Iran, Kerman, Hinaman I, 9 May 2017, 30.5426 57.2818, leg. KEiB Iran Expedition IV, KEIB_DIP_01221, NHMD; male genital apparatus:paratype Iran, Kerman, Hinaman II, 16 May 2017, 30.5654 57.2952, leg. KEiB Iran Expedition IV, NHMD). A, habitus, lateral view. B, habitus, dorsal view.C, abdomen, dorsal view.D, head, lateral view. E, head, frontal view. F, head, dorsal view.G, right fore tarsus, anterior lateral view.H, wing, dorsal view. I, epandrial complex, dorsal view.J, epandrial complex, lateral, view. K, phallus, pre- and postgonites, ejaculatory sclerite, hypandrium.