Aristobatina udzungwa, Marshall, 2014

Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A review of the Afrotropical genus Aristobatina Verbeke (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae), with descriptions of four new species from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, African Invertebrates 55 (1), pp. 143-143 : 153-155

Aristobatina udzungwa sp. n.

Fig. 27

Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the type locality.

Description:

Length (head to wing tip): 16 mm.

Colour: Chestnut brown to black, except for reddish postsutural area of notum and orange apices of mid and hind femora, orange area at apex of mid femur extensive, area at apex of hind femur small, not entirely encircling femur; fore and hind tibiae with small distomedial orange patch; basal 2.5 tarsomeres pale on fore and hind legs, white on fore tarsus; distal 2.5 tarsomeres black, mid tarsus entirely black; abdominal pleurae black on segments 5 and 6 and along upper portion of other segments, ventral portions contrastingly white, forming oval white ventral area on segments 2–4.

Head: Pedicel and scape with only uniformly short setae; frontal vitta dull, weakly differentiated from orbits, virtually parallel-sided throughout, slightly raised in front of ocelli, slightly depressed behind ocelli and in anterior ⅔; 2 equal pairs of fronto­orbital setae anterior to level of ocelli; postocellar, outer and inner vertical setae well­developed. Thorax: Cervical sclerite convex and dull, with lateral indentation and small anterolateral vertical carina; proepisternum with a few long, marginal ventral setae on posterior ½; katepisternum with double row of thin black setae, anterior row ½ as high as posterior row; scutellum with 1 pair of marginal setae and 2 small dorsal setae; no setae between postalar and dorsocentral setae; fore tarsus 1.3× length of remaining tarsomeres combined.

Wing: CuA 2 distal to bm­cu and meeting anal vein at distinct angle (ca 65°); wing membrane lightly and evenly infuscate; tegula and basicosta jet­black, contrasting with adjacent wing base.

Female abdomen: Oviscape black, pruinose, except at apex; spermathecae similar to those of A. rufithorax , 1.5× as long as wide, more or less parallel­sided, having transverse striations, base sinuate with very prominent lateral processes.

Male: unknown.

Holotype ♀: TANZANIA: Morogoro Region, Udzungwa Mts Nat. Park , 07°50'35''S 36°49'49''E, 11–13. xi.2009, 1000 m, T. Pape & S. A. Marshall ( DEBU#00318741 , deposited in ZMUC).

Paratype ♀: Same data as holotype, in 95% alcohol ( ZMUC) .

Other material examined: TANZANIA: “Tanganyika, W. Usambara Mts , 2100m, Magamba, iii.1962 ” (1 mouldy and psocid­damaged ♀, CNCI) .

Material remarks: The non-type material examined is probably the same species as the specimens from the Udzungwa Mountains, but not designated as a paratype because of the poor condition of the specimen and also the disjunct locality. New material is required to either confirm that the distribution of A. undzungwa extends to the Usambara Mountains, or whether it is part of a closely related but disjunct pair of Eastern Arc species, like A. melasma and A. metamelasma .

Comments: Despite the dark colour and the outer vertical setae, this species is similar to the previously described species of Aristobatina , and is probably more closely related to A. rufithorax and A. principalis than to the other species described here. The larger size, lack of longer setae on the pedicel, relatively strongly angled CuA 2 and the virtually identical spermathecae all suggest that these three species are closely related, although males are unknown for A. udzungwa sp. n. and no data are available on the spermathecae of A. principalis .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks go to Thomas Pape for making the Udzungwa Expedition possible, and for his excellent company in the field.Thanks also to Ashley Kirk­Spriggs for his substantive help in editing the manuscript.Specimens were collected under COSTECH permit 2012­357­NA­2012­147.

Figures

Figs 27–32. Aristobatina and Tanypomyia spp.: (27) A. udzungwa sp. n., female; (28, 29) T. elegans allotype; (30–32) T. venusta: (30) female; (31) male terminalia, Verbeke mount; (32) spermathecae, Verbeke mount.