Platypalpus shamshevi Zouhair & Grootaert, 2024

Zouhair, Laila, Grootaert, Patrick & Kettani, Kawtar, 2024, Twelve new species of Platypalpus Macquart (Diptera: Hybotidae) from Morocco, with additional new records, European Journal of Taxonomy 951 (1), pp. 1-53 : 36-39

Platypalpus shamshevi Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:8C1BEA1C-BDBD-4C76-89E3-6613D4028B8A

Figs 23–24 , 25B

Diagnosis

Small black species (2.5 mm long) of the pallidiventris-cursitans group, with one pair of long black verticals. Antennae black with postpedicel broader, conical, slightly elongate, about 2.5× as long as wide at base, stylus about 2 × as long as postpedicel. Thorax with mesoscutum including postpronotal lobe densely greyish dusted, pleura densely greyish dusted, leaving a polished small spot on katepisternum. Legs yellow with hind coxae, knees of mid and hind legs, hind femora and hind tibia at tip, and all tarsi blackish brown. Mid tibia with a sharp, pointed, black spur, as long as tibia is deep. Wings faintly brown infuscate with vein M 1+2 conspicuously bowed before meeting wing margin, vein R 4+5 rather straight.

Etymology

This species is dedicated to Dr Igor Shamshev, an expert on Hybotidae who has described and published many new species in the superfamily Empidoidea .

Material examined

Holotype

MOROCCO – Rif • ♂; Chamaa ; 17 Apr. 2021; sweep net; L. Zouhair leg.; RBINS.

Paratypes

MOROCCO – Rif • 1 ♂; Jbel Zemzem ; 17 Apr. 2014; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 1 ♂; Chellal Akchour ; 6 Apr. 2016; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 1 ♂; Oued Sifalaou ; 17 Apr. 2016; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 2 ♂♂; Merja Sidi Lhaj Merzouk ; 30 Apr. 2016; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; RBINS • 3 ♂♂; same collection data as for preceding; LESCB • 1 ♂; Oued Machekralla ; 8 May 2018; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 2 ♂♂; Kharrouba ; 8 May 2018; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; Oued El Koub ; 23Apr. 2018; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 3 ♀♀; Triwa ; 27Apr. 2019; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB • 1 ♂; Chamaa ; 17 Apr. 2021; sweep net; L. Zouhair leg.; LESCB • 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; Tafoughalt ; 5 May 2021; sweep net; M. Doukale; LESCB • 2 ♂♂; Ametrasse ; 20 May 2022; sweep; L. Zouhair leg.; LESCB • 2 ♂♂; forest of Kourt ( Oued Lmalha ); 22 May 2022; sweep net; L. Zouhair leg.; LESCB .– Middle Atlas • 1 ♂; Ain Leuh ; 5May2019; sweep net; S.Fekrani leg.; LESCB .– High Atlas • 6 ♂♂, 1 ♀; Ourika ; 9 Apr. 2022; sweep net; L. Zouhair leg.; LESCB .

Description

Male

LENGTH. Body: 2.5 mm; wing: 2.0 mm.

HEAD. Black in ground colour, occiput densely greyish pollinose with short black setae, one pair of long black verticals. Gena densely greyish pollinose with long black setae. Ocellar tubercle greyish pollinose, with 2 long black anterior and 2 very short yellow posterior setae. Frons densely greyish dusted, broader than pedicel and parallel-sided. Face greyish dusted, slightly broader than pedicel. Clypeus polished and short. Antennae black, with pedicel as long as deep, postpedicel broader, conical, slightly elongate, about 2.5× as long as wide at base, stylus black, about 2× as long as postpedicel. Proboscis blackish, shorter than head is high. Palpus yellow, elongate ovate, with scattered pale setulae and one long, yellow subapical seta.

THORAX. Black. Mesoscutum including postpronotal lobe densely greyish dusted, pleura densely greyish dusted, leaving a polished small spot on katepisternum. Postpronotal lobe with 1 long yellow seta and 2 minute yellow setulae. Mesoscutum with 2 notopleurals, 1 long black postalar, 1 pair of long black prescutellars, 4 yellow scutellars (apical pair long and cruciate, lateral pair very short), acrostichals yellow, biserial, dorsocentrals yellow, uniserial, as long as acrostichals.

LEGS. Yellow with posterior four coxae, hind trochanters, knees of mid and hind legs, hind femora at tip, hind tibiae at tip and all tarsi blackish brown. Coxae and trochanters with ordinary yellowish setae of different lengths. Fore femur moderately thickened, with pale anteroventral and posteroventral setae. Fore tibia spindle-shaped, clothed with ordinary pale setulae. Mid femur slightly thicker than fore femur, with double row of black ventral spinules and row of long, yellow posteroventral setae. Mid tibia slender, with a row of ventral spinules and a short, black, blunt apical spur. Hind femur slender, clothed with ordinary short yellow setulae. Hind tibia slender, slightly shorter than femur, with ordinary short dark setulae.

WINGS. Faintly brown infuscate, with brown veins, paler in basal part of wing. Costa with one moderately long brown seta. Vein M 1+2 conspicuously bowed before meeting wing margin, vein R 4+5 rather straight. Crossveins m-cu and r-m separated, bm distinctly longer and larger than br. Vein Cu 2 slightly sinuate, recurrent in basal part. Vein Cu reaching wing border. Anal vein distinct in median part and evanscent in basal and apical parts. Squama blackish. Haltere whitish.

ABDOMEN. With brown tergites, subshining, covered with pale setae. Sternites brown, with similar setation. Male terminalia ( Fig. 23 ) with apex of left cercus long, pointed, bent to the inside ( Fig. 23B ).

Female

Resembling male.

Remarks

The key in Grootaert & Chvála (1992) leads to P. cothurnatus Macquart, 1827 (couplet 92). According to its description in Chvála (1975), P. cothurnatus resembles the new species by having one pair of verticals, the antennae black with the postpedicel about 2–2.5 × as long as deep, the stylus 2× as long as the pedicel, the acrostichals biserial and the dorsocentrals uniserial. However, there are some differences in the legs: in P. cothurnatus the legs are yellow with the two apical tarsal segments black, whereas in the new species the legs are also yellow, but the posterior four coxae, the hind trochanters, the knees of the mid and hind legs, the hind femora at the tip, the hind tibiae at the tip and all the tarsi are blackish brown. The genitalia of the two species are also similar, but they differ in the left cercus, which has a long, pointed apex ( Fig. 23B ), bent to the inside, in the new species, while in P. cothurnatus ( Chvála 1975: figs 416–418) the apeX is not long and not very pointed. The left epandrial lamella of the two species is very different.

At first sight the male terminalia of Platypalpus shamshevi sp. nov. and P. nigritellus sp. nov. are quite similar, and therefore the two species are compared here: they do not belong to the same group and it is easy to distinguish between them morphologically, especially since the legs are entirely blackish in P. nigritellus , while in P. shamshevi only the tarsi, the posterior four coxae and the hind femora and tibiae at the tip are blackish brown, with a row of ventral spinules on the mid tibia which is lacking in P. nigritellus . The genitalia of the two species are somewhat similar, but can be distinguished by the right surstylus, which is shorter in P. nigritellus ( Fig. 21A ) than in P. shamshevi ( Fig. 23A ), the left cercus is more elongate pointed in P. shamshevi than in P. nigritellus and the internal structures on the inside of the left epandrial lamella are also different (compared in Fig. 25A–B ).

Figures

Fig. 23. Platypalpus shamshevi Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., male terminalia (holotype, RBINS). A. Right epandrial lamella. B. Epandrium with cerci. C. Left epandrial lamella. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.

Fig. 24. Platypalpus shamshevi Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., ♂, habitus (holotype, RBINS).

Fig. 25. Comparison of left epandrial lamella with internal structures. A. Platypalpus nigritellus Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov. (holotype, RBINS).B. P. shamsheviZouhair & Grootaert sp. nov. (holotype, RBINS). Scale bar = 0.1 mm.

Fig. 21. Platypalpus nigritellus Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., male terminalia (holotype, RBINS). A. Right epandrial lamella. B. Epandrium with cerci. C. Left epandrial lamella. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.