Sobarocephala doryphoros, Lonsdale, Owen, 2014

Lonsdale, Owen, 2014, Revision of the Old World Sobarocephala (Diptera: Clusiidae), Zootaxa 3760 (2), pp. 211-240 : 218

Sobarocephala doryphoros spec. nov.

Fig. 11

Description (Fig. 11). Male. Unknown.

Female. Body length 4.5mm. Arista densely plumose with apical hairs more sparsely arranged; first flagellomere relatively large and slightly truncated apically. Setae brown. Ocellar seta short and thin. Presutural intra-alar seta absent. Two dorsocentral setae. Acrostichal seta absent. One lateral scutellar seta. Head yellow with frons (excluding anterior margin) yellowish-orange, ocellar tubercle brown, parafacial light yellow and first flagellomere light yellow with strong dorsal stripe; face concave; gena shining. Thorax dark brown with central yellow stripe with one pair of curved anterolateral processes presuturally. Scutellum and metanotum dark brown with yellowish apical spot on scutellum. Pleuron light yellow with anepisternum and anepimeron brown. Legs yellow with coxae white, fore tibia dark brown, fore tarsi black, and mid and hind tibiae brown (mid tibia paler). Halter light brown. Wing dusky with darker anterodistal cloud. M1+2 ratio 4.0. Abdomen dark brown with tergite 10 and lateral margin of tergites 4–6 broadly yellow.

Variation. Females from Madagascar differ as follows: setae dark brown to black; first flagellomere small and rounded; small additional seta in front of anterior dorsocentral (enlarged to nearly half length of anterior dorsocentral in one female); one female with presutural intra-alar; notum entirely dark or light brown; lateral face of katepisternum white and anterior face dark brown on dorsal ¾; face with orange tint; abdomen brown with terminalia yellow and apex of cercus brown. M1+2 ratio 3.3.

Etymology. The specific name is Greek for “spear-bearing”, referring to the shape of the notal stripe of the holotype.

Holotype: SEYCHELLES. Mahe-Victoria Botan. Gard ., 4.iv.1986, W.N. Mathis (1♀, USNM).

Additional material examined: MADAGASCAR. Prov. Fianarantosa, 7km W Ranomafana , 1100m, 1– 7.xi.1988, W.E. Steiner, Malaise trap on island in stream, montane rain forest (2♀, USNM) .

Comments. Sobarocephala doryphoros is a boldly striped species from Madagascar with the lateral 1/3 of the notum dark brown with one pair of yellow presutural emarginations, a yellow-tipped scutellum, a relatively large, subquadrate first flagellomere and light brown halters. This unusual combination of characters justifies description of this species on the basis of a single female.

The two females from Madagascar are here only tentatively included in this species and not included in the key, differing significantly enough in morphology and colouration to suggest that they may not be conspecific. Like the holotype, the females have a brown halter and similar chaetotaxy, but have an almost uniformly dark notum, a darker pleuron with white patches, and similarly coloured tibiae. Other species with a dark halter include S. laticrinis ( Tanzania) , S. megastylis ( Thailand) and S. fuscifacies ( Philippines) . The African S. laticrinis differs in being slightly smaller (3.1–3.6mm), it has a presutural intra-alar (also found in one Madagascar female) and acrostichal, the postsutural scutum is brown or with one pair of basally joined dorsocentral stripes, and the pleuron is yellow with the posterodorsal margin of the anaepisternum brown. Of the Oriental species, S. fuscifacies has a trivittate scutum, a yellow katepisternum with a brown dorsum, yellow mid and hind legs, a carinate face and three dorsocentrals (also found in one Madagascar female); S. megastylis has the first flagellomere only pigmented at the base of the arista, the postsutural scutum is brown with a medial yellow line, the legs are yellow the setae are black and the wing is only clouded apically on R2+3.