Styringomyia flagro 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 : 1601-1602

Styringomyia flagro THEISCHINGER & BILLINGHAM nov.sp. ( Figs 48-50 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l. Holotype ♂: Australia, Northern Territory, 22 km WSW of Borroloola , 16-iv-1976, at light, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) . Paratypes: Queensland: 1♂, 3♀♀, Annan River , 3 km W by S of Black Mt, 27-ix-1980, at light ; 3♂♂, 2♀♀, 1 sn, same locality 28-ix-1980, malaise trap, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) ; 1♂, 2♀♀, Annan R 3 km W by S of Black Mt, 26-iv- 1981, at light, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) ; 1♂, Palm Ck , 12 mi. S of Miriam Vale, 6-v-1970, Z. Liepa ( ANIC) ; 1♂, 13 m. W of Ravenshoe, Mt Garnet Rd, 2-v-1967, D.H. Colless ( ANIC). Northern Territory: 1♂, Batten Creek 31 km WSW of Borroloola, 15-iv-1976, D.H. Colless ( ANIC) ; 3♂♂, 1♀, same data as holotype ( ANIC). Western Australia: 3♂♂, 7♀♀, Drysdale Survey 1975 – Site B1, 14.49°S / 126.49°E, Carson escarpment, 9-15-viii-1975, I.F.B. Common & M.S. Upton ( ANIC) .

D e s c r i p t i o n

Male ( Figs 48, 49 )

Head. Largely brown and yellow; rostrum, palps, scape and pedicel dark brown, antennal flagellum greyish yellow.

Thorax. Nota, pleura and sterna largely grey and medium brown to blackish brown; top faces of postsutural portion of scutum paler grey and top of scutellum 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 be absent in metatibia); tarsal segments dull yellow with apex darkened, only last segment and claws greyish brown.

Wings. A2 performing a distinct, almost right, angle before entering wing margin, a stump arising from the angle and a more or less dark spot around this stump. Membrane very slightly infumed with yellowish grey; spotted also distinctly grey at the cross-veins. Halters dull to greyish yellow.

Abdomen. Largely greyish to brownish yellow; tergites 2-8 somewhat darker along apical margin, sometimes also broadly darker along midline.

Hypopygium. Tergite 9/10 long and massive, apically narrowly rounded. Sternite 9 with apical half very narrowly triangular, the apex rounded with two short setae close to each other. Gonocoxites with basal two thirds moderately wide and apical one third moderately wide, almost conical with rather short thin apical spine. Gonostyli comprising three elements, one short and sausage-shaped, one massive and distinctly longer, the surface somewhat convoluted, the apical margin denticulate with the denticles inclined and appearing rather small, to erect and appearing larger, and one whip-like element with basal and apical half parallel sided, the apical half not much thinner than the basal half, and with a thin subapical seta. What can be detected in ventral view of the aedeagus rather wide.

Dimensions. Wing length 3.8-4.4 mm.

Female ( Fig. 50 )

Head. Much as in male.

Thorax. Similar to male, but pleura and sterna brownish yellow.

Abdomen. Yellowish to greyish brown, often appearing almost black (containing eggs).

Terminalia. Cerci apparently bifurcate with each lobe bearing an apical spine, and not reaching backward as far as the tips of the slim, very slightly dorsally curved 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 4 ).

E t y m o l o g y. Flagro (= Latin, ablative singular of flagrum) meaning with a whip, referring to the most prominent element of the gonostyli being whip-like.

D i s c u s s i o n.InAustralia Styringomyia flagro nov.sp. is apparently the only species of the genus with A2 distinctly angled and with arising stump at the angle. It shares these characters and the narrow sternite 9 and the prominent whip-shaped element of the gonostyli of the male at least with several Oriental species, in particular S. ceylonica EDWARDS, 1911 ( Fig. 51 ) from Ceylon. The whip-shaped element of the gonostyli is slightly wider in basal half, narrower in apical half, but parallel sided in both halves in S. flagro versus more conical as a whole in the Asian species.

Figures

Map 4: Distribution of the ungrouped Styringomyia species: S. rose, S. flagro, S. naso, S. danbulla, S. kimberley.

Figs 48-51: Styringomyia sp., terminalia: (48-50) S. flagro nov.sp.: (48, 49) male: (48) ventral; (49) dorsal; (50) female, lateral; (51) S. ceylonica EDWARDS, male, ventral, modified from EDWARDS (1911).