Ctenodontina pectinatipes Enderlein, 1914

(Figs 4–8)

Ctenodontina pectinatipes Enderlein, 1914: 260, 261, figs. 6, 7; Carrera & d’Andretta, 1953: 77, 78 (comments); Hull, 1962 (2): 480, figs. 2508, 2514 (synopsis of world fauna); Martin & Papavero, 1970: 71 (catalogue); Lamas, 1973: 275, 276 (key); Artigas & Papavero, 1995: 36 ( Lecania -group catalogue); Papavero, 2009: 30 (catalogue); Vieira, 2012: 2, fig. 1 (key); Vieira, 2014: 314 (comments); Vieira, Ayala-Landa & Rafael, 2017: 290, figs. 1, 5 (key); Sánchez & Camargo, 2021: 278 (key).

Diagnosis. Face greyish pale pruinose; mystacal macrosetae and setae pale whitish with five black macrosetae dorsolaterally; frons and vertex yellowish pruinose (Fig. 4C–D); postpedicel greyish pruinose; second article of stylus dark reddish brown to black slightly enlarged dorsally sub-apically (Fig. 5A–D); legs yellow (Figs 4A, 7A– B), hind femur intumesced with ventral projections bearing black teeth (Fig. 7A–E); hind tibia sigmoid (Fig.7A–B, F); terminalia dark reddish brown to black (Fig. 6); S8 Y-shaped (Fig. 6D, F).

Redescription. Paratype male (Figs 4–7). Head: eyes black; face pale greyish pruinose with a central dark brown line from antennal socket until beginning of facial gibbosity; mystacal macrosetae and setae pale whitish with five black macrosetae dorsolaterally (Fig. 4C–D); gena greyish pruinose; palpus reddish brown with white macrosetae and setae; proboscis black, labial setae yellowish, proboscial setae white; antennal socket yellowish pruinose; frons convergent, yellowish pruinose with a black central apruinose spot; orbital setae; ocellar tubercle black, brownish yellow pruinose with two dark brown proclinate setae; vertex deeply excavated, yellowish pruinose, greyish posteriorly with ocellar tubercle on concavity, ocellar tubercle almost not passing the frontal eye line; occiput greyish pruinose; 5–6 black postocular macrosetae (distal one pale); occipital and lower occipital setae white. Antenna (Fig. 5A–D): scape and pedicel reddish brown, brownish yellow pruinose with short dark brown to black setae; postpedicel dark brown, greyish pruinose with three very short yellow setae on dorsal margin basally; first and second article of stylus dark reddish brown to black; second article slightly enlarged sub-apically ending in a thin pointed tip (Fig. 5A, C).

Thorax (Figs 4A–B, 5F–G): brown; antepronotum and postpronotum greyish brown; scutum brown with a median stripe dark reddish brown with two paramedian stripes dark brown to black pruinose diminishing before scutellum; humeral spot and the stripes that follow the paramedian stripes and enter transverse suture brownish yellow pruinose; postpronotal lobe, pre and postsutural spots and postalar callus brown pruinose (Fig. 5G); lateral margin of scutum above wing insertion, posterior margin of scutum and postalar wall greyish pruinose, a small portion of scutum before scutellum dark reddish black, apruinose; scutellum brownish grey pruinose on disc and greyish pruinose marginally (Fig. 5F); anepisternum greyish brown pruinose on anterior and dorsal half; pleura grey pruinose. Chaetotaxy: antepronotal macrosetae and setae pale yellow; 2 notopleural; 1 supra alar; 1 postalar and 5 pairs of dorsocentral postsutural black macrosetae; scutum with short black acrostichal setae and thin pale setae on postpronotal lobe anteriorly, above wing insertion and on postalar wall anteriorly; scutellum with short sparse black discal scutellar setae (Fig. 5F); anepisternum with short, thin yellowish to brown setae dorsally; katatergite with white macrosetae and setae; remainder of pleura with very sparse and thin whitish setae.

Wings (Fig. 5E): translucent, apical third of wing yellowish translucent; veins dark brown; R 4 angulated in the junction with R 5; bifurcation of R 4 and R 5 beyond discal cell at a distance equivalent to the length of two crossvein r-m; crossvein r-m shortly after the middle of discal cell at a distance equivalent to the length of one crossvein m-m; cell sc with brown microtrichia, cells at apical third of wing with slightly brown microtrichia along veins; cells m 3 and cua closed before wing margin. Halteres: yellow, knob reddish brown, base of knob darker.

Legs (Figs 4A, 7): yellow; except extreme apex of mid and hind femora and extreme base of mid and hind tibiae dark reddish (extreme tip of hind femur black), the black teeth on hind femoral projections and last 4 tarsal segments of fore and mid tarsi and hind tarsus dark yellow; coxae grey pruinose; hind femur with 5 projections ending in black teeth (Fig. 7A–E); the first projection is divided in two, following three simple and last projection (with is similar to a foot in lateral view) has two teeth at base laterally and 10 teeth aggregated on top; (on right femur the third projection is atrophied and it was possible to count eight teeth on tip of last projection) hind femora intumesced from base until ventral projections narrowing after projections (Fig. 7A–B); hind tibia resembling an “S”, basal third resembling a hock, mid part of hind tibia projected ventrally (Fig. 7B, F). Chaetotaxy: coxae and trochanters with whitish macrosetae and setae; hind trochanter with 2 posterior yellow macrosetae; fore femur with 5–6 ventral black macrosetae (proximal one yellow); mid femur with 5–6 ventral (2 proximal yellow), 4 anteroventral, 3 anterior, 1 posterodorsal preapical black macrosetae; hind femur with 3 anterodorsal black macrosetae; short sparse setae on femora black, except ate base and posteriorly on hind femur pale yellow; tibiae and tarsi with black macrosetae and short black setae; brush setae yellow; pulvilli dark yellow; empodium dark reddish; claws black, reddish basally.

Abdomen (Figs 4A–B, 5H): brown pruinose, T1 and lateral and posterior margins of tergites grey pruinose; T1 with 3 black marginal lateral macrosetae and 10–12 pale yellow macrosetae and setae; T2–7 with whitish dorsal and marginal short thin setae, become dark brown to black on T4–7; sternites grey pruinose with very sparse thin whitish setae.

Terminalia (Fig. 6): dark reddish to black; epandrium anteriorly and on epandrial arms reddish internally (Fig. 6A); T8 with dark brown to black sparse setae (Fig. 6A); S8 expanded anteriorly, under S7, resembling an inverted chalice with a mid-posterior, thin, Y-shaped projection, dark reddish to black with setae of same colour, except on the arms of the Y projection with yellowish setae (Fig. 6B, D–G); epandrial arms sub-apically with an internal lobulate red projection (Fig. 6A, D, H), apex black more or less conic (Fig. 6A–D, H), epandrium ventrally with a small black conical projection, ventrally to the red lobulate internal projection (Fig. 6D, H); gonocoxite reddish anteriorly, expanded in the middle and ending in a blunt tip (Fig. 6D–E, G–H); gonostylus yellowish red with papilla externally and setae of same colour; hypandrium broad anteriorly, U-shaped at mid-posterior margin with a pair of finger-like conical projections (Fig. 6B, D–G); cercus rudder-like, yellow setose (Fig. 6C); apex of epandrium and epandrial arms internally whitish setose, remainder of terminalia with dark brown to black setae (Fig. 6A–H).

Length. Body: 22.5 mm; wing: 16 mm.

Paratype condition (Figs 4–5). Right hind tibia missing (Fig. 4B); abdomen broken dorsally on T1 anteriorly, but still attached to thorax (Fig. 5H) .

Female. Unknown.

Taxonomic discussion. This species can be easily recognized by a very distinctive feature, the hind femora intumesced with five huge ventral projections bearing black teeth (Fig. 7A–E). Other additional distinctive features are yellow legs (Fig. 4A); hind tibia sigmoid (Fig. 7A, F), and S8 with Y-shaped mid-posterior projection (Fig. 6F).

Enderlein (1914) based his description on two males collected by Ernst Pehlke in the locality of “Hacienda Pehlke” in Colombia. However, during a visit to the Museum and Institute of Zoology Polish Academy of Sciences (MIZ PAS) in Poland, only the paratype could be located.According to the curator Przemysław Dawid Szymroszczyk (in litt., 2019), the holotype of this species (including other Asilidae types which belong in this collection) seem to have been lent to the Natural History Museum (NHM) in the past. Unfortunately, the loan forms are lost, and apparently, the material has not been located in the NHM.

Distribution (Fig. 8). Colombia. Departamento Caldas, Victoria. The type locality “Hacienda Pehlke” is situated near Victoria, 900 m above sea level. This famous type locality was a farm owned by Ernst Pehlke. The farm was divided among colonists and few forested areas remain (Papavero 1973). This was corroborated in our visit to MIZ PAS in Poland where miscellaneous Asilidae specimens bearing the same collector label had been collected in nearby localities like Honda (Tolima, which borders Caldas), Rio Magdalena (Border between Tolima and Cundinamarca), and even Bogotá (Cundinamarca).

Material examined. Paratype. Columbien [COLOMBIA, Departamento Caldas, Victoria] (Hac.[ienda] Pehlke) [05°19′00″N, 74°54′43″W] E. Pehlke S. / Co = Typus. / Ctenodontina pectinatipes Type Enderl., ♁ Dr. Enderlein det 1913 (Fig. 4A [insert]) (1♁ MIZ PAS) .