Laneella patriciae (Wolff, 2013)

Whitworth, Terry L. & Yusseff-Vanegas, Sohath, 2019, A revision of the genera and species of the Neotropical family Mesembrinellidae (Diptera: Oestroidea), Zootaxa 4659 (1), pp. 1-146 : 40

Laneella patriciae (Wolff, 2013)

Mesembrinella patriciae Wolff, 2013: 121 . Holotype male (CEUA), not examined. Type locality: Filandia, Quindio, Colombia. [NB: originally placed under Mesembrinella , later moved to Laneella based on DNA analysis and the examination of spermathecae which revealed they are tuberform like other Laneella ( Marinho et al. 2017) .]

Laneella patriciae: Wolff & Kosmann (2016: 870) ; Marinho et al. (2017: tab. 1).

Mesembrinella patriciae: Cerretti et al. (2017 : tab. 2).

Diagnosis. A medium-sized fly averaging 9.4 mm (9–10/5) in length. Abdomen bluish to purple-green vs. shiny brown in L. fusconitida sp. nov.; mid and hind femora with apices dark brown in L. patriciae vs. entirely orange in L. fusconitida ; male with surstylus straight in L. patriciae vs. curved forward in L. fusconitida . This species is very similar to L. fusconitida , both sharing the distinctive tuberform spermathecae and brown spot around crossvein r-m.

Redescription. [Summarized from Wolff (2013).] Male. Head. Frons narrow (holoptic); fronto-orbital, parafacial and gena yellow with silvery tomentum; frontal vitta reddish-brown, obliterated above; postgena and occiput with white tomentum and fine long pale setae; antenna orange and palpus typical; postocular setae extending to gena. Dorsum of thorax reddish-brown with white tomentum and testaceous stripes; ppn and pleura orange with fine white tomentum; spiracles pale yellow. Coxae, trochanters and femora orange; mid and hind femora with dark reddish-brown apices; chaetotaxy: ac 2:3, dc 2:3, ia 1:2, kat 2:1, ppn 3x 3, meral setae in form of inverted L; ap scutellar setae 1:1. Wing hyaline with brown spot around crossvein r-m; subcosta bare; section IV about 0.30 of III (estimated from Wolff 2013: fig. 1); calypters with dark rims. Abdomen with dorsum bluish to greenish-purple except T1+2 yellow; T1+2 and T3 with lateral marginal setae; T4 and T5 with rows of marginal setae; disc of T5 without row of stout setae, whole segment with short fine setae. T6 partially fused with T7+8; pregonite apically truncated; tip of paraphallus with dorsal line of denticles; hypophallus shorter than paraphallus; epiphallus long and thin; cercus and surstylus slightly curved backward in lateral view (see Wolff 2013: fig. 2).

Female. Dichoptic, frons broad and reddish-brown.

Material examined. None (no specimens could be obtained for examination).

Distribution. Colombia.

Remarks. A single sequence of this species from GenBank ( KR820718 ) was added to our molecular analysis. It was distinct from other species and was recovered close to L. fusconitida sp. nov. ( Fig. 488) with a genetic divergence of 3.84%, which supports them as two separate species; this is supported also by the several morphological differences as listed above.