Styringomyia remex THEISCHINGER & BILLINGHAM, 2018

Theischinger, Günther, D, Zacariah & Martin, John, 2018, The genus Styringomyia LOEW in Australia (Diptera: Tipuloidea: Limoniidae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (2), pp. 1587-1633 : 1592-1593

Styringomyia remex THEISCHINGER & BILLINGHAM nov.sp. ( Figs 20-22 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l. Holotype ♂: Australia, Western Australia, Millstream , 7-iv-1971, at light, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) . Paratypes: Queensland: 1♂, Annan River , 3 km W by S of Black Mt, 28-ix-1980, malaise trap, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) ; 1♂, 15.19°S / 145.03°E Station Ck 7km WSW of Hope Vale Mission, 10-v-1981, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) ; 2♂♂, Cape Tribulation, Daintree rainforest, Earthwatch Australia ( AM). Northern Territory: 1♂, Arnhem Land , Marningrida , 23.iii.1961, dusk to 8:00 am, malaise trap, J.L. Gressitt ( ANIC) ; 2♂♂, 1♀, 16 km E by N of Mt Cahill, 16-xi-1972, D.H. Colless ( ANIC). Western Australia: 3♂♂, 3♀♀, 14.49°S / 126.49°E, Carson escarpment, 9-15-viii-1975, I.F.B. Common & M.S. Upton ( ANIC). Millstream , at light, D.H. Colless ( ANIC): 1♂, 2♀♀, 25-x-1970 ; 10♀♀, 3 sn, 7-iv- 1971; 1♂, 1♀, 8-iv-1971; 1♂, 1♀, 11-iv-1971. 1♂, Australia, Millstream, Crossing Pool, 21- x-1970, D.H. Colless ( ANIC). West Kimberley , D.H. Colless ( ANIC): 1♂, 1♀, 4 km SSW of Cape Bertholet, 18-iv-1977 ; 1♂, 2♀♀, 1 sn, same locality, 19-iv-1977 ; 3♂♂, 1♀, 5 km SSW of Cape Bertholet , 21-iv-1977 ; 1♀, 8 km S of Cape Bertholet , 22-iv-1977 .

D e s c r i p t i o n

Male ( Figs 20, 21 )

Head. Largely yellowish brown; rostrum, palps, scape and pedicel greyish brown.

Thorax. Nota largely dull yellow to pale greyish brown. Pleura and sterna dull yellow. Legs: coxae and trochanters brownish yellow; femora yellow with two rather incomplete broad, ill-defined brownish grey rings, one slightly beyond midlength (pro- and mesofemur) or slightly before midlength (metafemur) and one well subapical; tibiae dull yellow with pale greyish brown apex and with rather narrow ill-defined and incomplete greyish brown ring just before midlength (this ring may even be absent in metatibia); tarsal segments dull yellow with apex somewhat darkened, only last segment and claws greyish brown.

Wings. Very slightly infumed with pale yellowish grey; spotted grey at the cross-veins. Halters dull to greyish yellow.

Abdomen. Largely yellow; tergite 1 greyish brown; tergites broadly greyish brown along apical margin, more or less broadly interrupted in midline, particularly posterior tergites often with broad greyish brown middorsal patch.

Hypopygium. Tergite 9/10 massive, subconical, apically narrowly rounded. Apical half of sternite 9 narrowly trapezoidal, the apex split by V-shaped notch into two digitate lobes, each with thin and moderately long apical seta. Gonocoxites subconical with low mesal parallelogram-shaped lobe for its third quarter from base and with moderately thick apical spine almost half as long as the whole gonocoxite. Gonostyli made up of at least three elements, one a curved wide-based narrow-tipped spherical triangle with a small spine on its distal margin, one a complex of several comb-like/denticulate structures of various length, width and shape and one, the most mesobasal, bowed and widely oar-shaped. What can be detected in ventral view of the aedeagus, appears rather wide and almost trilobed.

Dimensions. Wing length 3.5-4.0 mm.

Female ( Fig. 22 )

Head, Thorax and Abdomen. Coloration much as in in male. Dark leg rings slightly broader. Abdomen often appearing almost black (containing eggs).

Terminalia. The cerci including apical spine reach backward far short of the tips of the hypogynial valves.

Dimensions. Wing length 3.4-3.7 mm.

D i s t r i b u t i o n. Northern; known from Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland ( Map 1 ).

E t y m o l o g y. Remex (= Latin for oarsman), referring to the oar-shaped element of the gonostyli and used as a noun in apposition to the generic name.

D i s c u s s i o n.Themalesof Styringomyia remex nov.sp., S. bancrofti , S. baroalba nov.sp. and S. collessi nov.sp. share a bifid apex of sternite 9, a subapical mesal lobe of the subconical gonocoxites and complex gonostyli. The prominent element of the gonostyli in S. remex , S. baroalba and S. collessi does not bear long distinct setae along posterior margin as it does in S. bancrofti and it is only produced mesally as in S. bancrofti and S. collessi versus produced mesally and laterally (double-winged) in S. baroalba . In S. remex the mesal lobe of the prominent element of the gonostyli is sharply pointed versus broadly subtriangular in S. bancrofti and rounded to truncate in S. collessi .

Figures

Map 1: Distribution of the species of the Styringomyia bancrofti group: S. bancrofti, S. baroalba, S. collessi, S. remex, S. edwardsorum.

Figs 20-22: Styringomyia remex nov.sp., terminalia: (20, 21) male: (20) ventral; (21) dorsal; (22) female, lateral.