Aptilotella gladia Luk & Marshall, 2014

Luk, Stephen P. L. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A revision of the New World genus Aptilotella Duda (Sphaeroceridae: Limosininae), Zootaxa 3761 (1), pp. 1-156 : 23

Aptilotella gladia Luk & Marshall , sp. n.

Figures 111–118

Description. Habitus as in Aptilotella gracilis ( Figs. 15, 16 ). Body length 1.3 mm. Head ground color orange, darkening posteriorly. Frons with polished interfrontal plate and a silvery stripe on orbital plate along interfrontal suture; ocular emargination with a silvery spot. Ocellar tubercle raised; ocelli present; ocellar bristle approximately two-thirds the length of frons. Orbital bristle present; orbital setulae minute, in four pairs. Interfrontal setae in two pairs. Face and gena shining; lower corners of facial excavation diffuse brown. Antenna orange. Scutum reddishbrown, shining; uniformly setose. Scutellum black, lightly microtrichose, finely rugose; twice wider than long, 0.7 times the width of scutum. Apical scutellar bristles twice as long as outer, 0.8 times the length of scutum. Pleuron dull orange; katepisternum and meron dark brown. Legs yellow ochre; mid and hind coxae dark brown; fore tibia and first segment of fore tarsus dark brown; fore tarsus off-white; mid tibia with three anterodorsal and one distal posterodorsal bristle. Wing ( Fig. 118 ) club-shaped in male; reduced and spearhead-shaped in female. Abdomen black, shining; tergites finely rugose, uniformly densely microtrichose, each with two rows of setae; sternites setose and finely microtrichose.

Male terminalia. Sternite 5 ( Fig. 114 ) in posteromedial third shallowly convex and emarginate, flanked on each side by 6–8 long setae. Synsternite 6+7 as in Figure 113 . Tab-like piece articulating with sternite 5 emargination; posterior corners pointed and folded inward. Cercus ( Figs. 111, 112 ) 2.5 times as long as wide, distal third bilobed; the outer lobe half the length of the inner, swollen and laterally with a long seta; the inner lobe compressed, apically truncate and with a lateral tooth. Surstylus ( Figs. 111, 112 ) extremely long and sinuate, 1.5 times the length of cercus, basally with several long setae, apically rounded; base with asymmetrical flaps that project outward, enormous on the right surstylus and descending beyond the cercus, much smaller on the left surstylus and not descending. Postgonite ( Fig. 116 ) broad; descending arm short, slightly curved forward and tapering; articulatory process for pregonite rounded; articulatory process for basiphallus knobbed. Hypandrium ( Fig. 117 ) broad; medial rod apically rounded, slightly slanting to the right; posteromedial fork divergent and webbed; hypandrial arms curved, the left arm more triangular; pregonite short, irregularly triangular. Aedeagus as in Figure 115 . Basiphallus compressed, squared, with prominent epiphallus; anterior margin weakly arched; articulatory process for postgonite apically dilated, directed anteriorly. Ejaculatory apodeme indistinct, with four sensory pores. Ventrobasal sclerite divided. Lateral flanking sclerite not fused ventrobasally; dorsal margin rolled in basal third, then widely separated and tapering. Ventral flanking sclerites dark; the basal article originating along ventral margin of lateral flanking sclerite, the distal portion very narrow and apically spatulate, apicodorsally densely clothed in suspended minute denticles; the medial article originating inner to lateral flanking sclerite, rising sinuously alongside the basal article and similarly dilated; the depressed distal article originating from below medial article, lobed inward and with a dark knob on inner margin. Medial paired sclerites originating inside of the medial article, projecting slightly beyond the distal article. An additional pair of slender club-tipped sclerites originates between medial and distal articles, curving upward and apicodorsally clothed in suspended minute denticles.

Female terminalia. Not dissected; described from the single female specimen. Epiproct light brown, triangular; apically finely hairy. Each half of tergite 8 weakly convex, pentagonal; setaceous. Cercus 2.5 times as long as wide; with one long apical seta and several preapical setae. Sternite 8 retracted from view and not examined.

Variation. The pleuron is sometimes reddish-brown as the scutum.

Etymology. The species epithet refers to the sword-shaped surstyli.

Type material. Holotype ♂, UNAM. MEXICO: Oaxaca, 5.1 km S Suchixtepec , 2150 m, 25.vii.1992, oak/ alder/pine forest, R.S. Anderson.

Paratypes. MEXICO: Oaxaca, same label as holotype (2♂, ♀, DEBU); same label as holotype but dated 24.vii.1992 (♂, DEBU) .

Comments. Aptilotella gladia is readily distinguished from A. gracilis by the paired silvery stripes on the frons and reddish-brown thorax. The bizarre surstyli with apically rounded asymmetrical lateral flaps are apomorphic for A. gladia .

Figures

FIGURES 111–114. Aptilotella gladia Luk & Marshall, sp. n.: 111—male terminalia, posterior; 112—male terminalia, left lateral; 113—male synsternite 6+7; 114—male sternite 5.

FIGURES 115–118. Aptilotella gladia Luk & Marshall, sp. n.: 115—aedeagus with postgonites removed; 116—left postgonite; 117—hypandrium; 118—male left wing. Abbreviations: BP = basiphallus, CDS = curved-dorsal sclerites, LFS = lateral flanking sclerite, MPS = medial paired sclerites, VBA = basal article of ventral flanking sclerite, VBS = ventrobasal sclerite, VDA = distal article of ventral flanking sclerite, VMA = medial article of ventral flanking sclerite.

FIGURES 15–17. Aptilotella gracilis Luk & Marshall, sp. n., male: 15—habitus, left lateral; 16—habitus, dorsal; 17—left wing.