Thinophilus argyropalpis Becker, 1910

Fig. 1

Thinophilus argyropalpis Becker, 1910: 139 .

Type locality: Egypt, Port Said.

Material examined

SENEGAL • ♂ (with apparently washed pruinosity); “ M’Bour; St. ORSTOM; [14°24′ N, 16°57′ W]; Piège de Malaise [Malaise trap]; 11 Dec. 1980; B. Sigwalt leg.”; MNHP.

Diagnosis

Thinophilus argyropalpis Becker, 1910 keys to T. subpalpatus sp. nov. and T. medvedevi sp. nov., differing from the latter in entirely black tarsi and black apices of tibiae; surstylus straight, slightly narrowed distally. Thinophilus subpalpatus sp. nov. and T. medvedevi sp. nov. have entirely yellow tibiae and mostly yellow tarsi; surstylus different. The male from Senegal is conspecific with the material collected from Central Asia and south-eastern Europe (see Negrobov 1979; Grichanov 2022). They have some minor differences in colouration mainly; therefore, I describe the species based on the Senegalese specimen.

Description

Male (Fig. 1A)

MEASUREMENTS. Body length 3.2 mm; antenna length 0.7 mm; wing length 3.2 mm; wing width 1.1 mm.

HEAD (Fig. 1B). Postcranium black; frons bluish black; face and clypeus black, pollinose; face under antennae 2 × as wide as height of postpedicel; clypeus 0.4 × as long as epistoma, 2 × as wide as long; palp yellow, bearing white bristly hairs; proboscis black; 2 diverging ocellars; 1 vertical, 1 postvertical, much stronger and longer than, and not in row with upper postoculars; upper postoculars uniseriate, black; middle and lower postoculars multiseriate, white, long; antennal scape, pedicel and postpedicel blackish dorsally, orange-yellow ventrally (Fig. 1C); scape with scale-like inner projection; pedicel simple, convex on inner side; postpedicel apically browned, rounded, with short pubescence, slightly higher than long (13/10); arista-like stylus dorsal, black and thick basally, white and thin distally, shortly pubescent; length ratio of scape to pedicel to postpedicel to stylus, 0.07/0.05/0.10/0.53.

THORAX. Bluish black; no acrostichals; 6 dorsocentrals decreasing in length anteriorly; scutellum with 2 strong marginals and 2 minute laterals; 2–3 upper and 5–6 lower, white propleural bristles of different length.

LEGS. Coxae black, yellow at apex; femora yellow; tibiae yellow, black at distal apices; tarsi entirely black.

FORE LEG. Coxa with white setae and bristles; femur simple, with rather short fine white ventral setae; tibia and tarsus simple, without remarkable setae; segment 5 weakly thickened; length of femur, tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 1.04/0.94/0.47/0.17/0.17/0.14/0.18.

MID LEG. Coxa with white setae and bristle; femur with rather short fine white ventral setae; 1 preapical anterior and 1 preapical posteroventral short setae; tibia bearing 3 anterodorsal; 3 posterodorsal, 4 apical short bristles; tarsal segment 5 inconspicuously thickened; length of femur, tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 1.11/1.23/0.71/0.27/0.27/0.17/0.18.

HIND LEG. Coxa with 1 white exterior bristle; femur with rather short fine white ventral setae, ⅓ as long as femur height; 1 preapical anterior and 1 preapical posteroventral short setae; tibia bearing 4 anterodorsal, 5 posterodorsal bristles, 4 apicals; segment 5 inconspicuously thickened; length of femur, tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 1.37/1.48/0.45/0.28/0.23/ 0.18/0.18.

WING (Fig. 1D). Hyaline, without darker shades; veins yellow-brown, more yellowish at base; distal part of M 1+2 convex; tip of R 4+5 parallel with M 1+2; ratio of part of costa between R 2+3 and R 4+5 to that between R 4+5 and M 1+2 (in mm), 0.67/0.22; crossvein dm-m straight; ratio of dm-m to distal part of M 4, 0.32/0.32; anal vein distinct; halter yellow; lower calypter yellow, with white cilia.

ABDOMEN. Black; setae and hind-marginal bristles on tergites black dorsally and white laterally, short; sternites with short setae. Hypopygium (Fig. 1E) black, cercus yellow; epandrial lobe narrow, fingerlike, with strong apical bristle; hypandrium short, apically concave; phallosoma narrow, almost reaching apex of surstyli; phallus coiled, long and simple; surstylus straight, thin with long thick bristle and long process at tip, with long dorsal preapical bristle and few short setae at apex; cerci dorsally fused at base, free and narrow distally, with long marginal bristles (Fig. 1F).

Distribution

Palaearctic: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia (Volgograd), Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine (Odessa), Uzbekistan. First record from Senegal and Afrotropical Region.