Moruseodina Bravo & Cordeiro

Bravo, Freddy, Cordeiro, Danilo & Jocque, Merlijn, 2014, A new genus of Psychodinae (Diptera, Psychodidae) from phytotelmata in a Honduran cloud forest, Zootaxa 3841 (3), pp. 418-428 : 419-421

Moruseodina Bravo & Cordeiro gen. nov.

Type species. Moruseodina cusucoensis sp. nov.

Etymology. The prefix “Moru-“ comes from Tupi, an indigenous South American language, and means fly. The postfix “- seodina” indicates the close association with the genus of moth flies Lepiseodina Enderlein. The name is feminine.

Diagnosis. Scape short, less than 2X length of pedicel, apical flagellomere projecting in a long digit-like protuberance at apex, ascoids with one or two distal arms. Imaginary line passing through radial and medial forks of wing, ending at the same level or just basal to CuA2. Epandrium wide with one large foramen. Cercus short with 9–10 short tenacula on top. Aedeagus slender with dorsal sheath.

Description. Male. Head without cornicula, alveoli patch of frons undivided; eye bridge divided; interocular suture without spur; scape approximately as long as pedicel; antenna with 14 flagellomeres, nodiform with pair of digitiform, curved ascoids; last flagellomere with an elongate apiculus 0.5X length of segment; palpus segment 2–4 subequal in length, first small; last palpus segment striated. Wing ovate; R5 ending at wing apex or just after it; radial and medial forks on about the same level. Epandrium with one large foramen. Cercus short, conical in lateral view; 9–10 tenacula frazzled. Hypandrium narrow. Gonocoxite stout; gonostyle directed downward towards the midline; gonocoxal apodemes fused with medial Y-shaped furca linked to aedeagus; aedeagus slender with dorsal sheath, longer than wide.

Female: unkown from type species, described for M. superba (Banks) comb. nov. and Moruseodina conspicua (del Rosario) comb. nov. in del Rosario (1936) as having antennae shorter than in the male; ascoids simple, not elongated S-shaped, but projecting toward internode; subgenital plate broad, bilobed apical half about as long as wide, lobes becoming pointed ar their tips; ovipositor about twice the width of the ventral plate.

Immature stages. Pupae and larvae from the type species of Moruseodina are described in this paper, but a generic diagnosis is hard to establish as the immature stages of the other species of Moruseodina are unknown. Nonetheless, a comparative overview of diagnostic morphological characteristics in the immature stages of Clogmia albipunctata (Williston) , Lepiseodina tristis (Meigen) and Moruseodina cusucoensis sp. nov. is presented in Table 1 .

Distribution. This genus is currently known to occur in Central and eastern North America (ON and QC in Canada, MN, WI, MI, IL, MO, TX, LA, AL, NY, MA, PA, MD, DC, VA and SC in the United States) as well as Cusuco National Park in Honduras ( Fig. 1 ). The current distribution of Moruseodina, is restricted to the “new world”. Species of Lepiseodina are restricted to the Palearctic region.

Species included. Moruseodina cusucoensis ; M. superba (Banks) ; Moruseodina conspicua (del Rosario).

Comments. Moruseodina shows several similarities to Lepiseodina . Both genera have a short scape of almost the same length as pedicel, flagellomeres with paired, digitate ascoids, cercus short and a furca ventral to aedeagus (see Vaillant 1972; Ježek 1990, 2004). Moruseodina and Lepiseodina can be separated based on wing and aedeagal complex characters. In Moruseodina the aedeagus always has a medial slender branch (Figs. 7,9; Quate 1955:fig. 52a; Wagner et al. 2010: fig. 8) and is covered dorsally by a plate longer than wide, and the imaginary line passing through radial and medial forks ends at the same level or just basal to CuA2, while in Lepiseodina the aedeagus has one or two lateral branches with a short or rudimentary dorsal plate and the imaginary line passing through radial and medial forks ends apical to CuA2, sometimes reaching CuA1 ( Vaillant 1972:plate VI, figs. 1, 5; Ježek 1990:fig. 54).

Based on the diagnostic features of Moruseodina, mainly the long aedeagus covered dorsally by a plate and the relative position of forks at wing, Telmatoscopus superbus and Telmatoscopus conspicuus are placed in the new genus.

FIGURES 2–7. Moruseodina cusucoensis sp. nov., adult male. Fig. 2. Overview of head, palpus and antenna. Fig. 3. Head. Fig. 4. Antenna, base. Fig. 5. Antenna, apex. Fig. 6. Palpus. Fig. 7. Wing (en=enlargement of vein R2)

Figures

FIGURE 1. Location of the collecting area, the Cusuco National Park.

Tables

TABLE 1. Comparison of diagnostic morphological characteristics in the immature stages of Clogmia albipunctata (Williston), Lepiseodina tristis (Meigen) and Moruseodina cusucoensis sp. nov.

	Clogmia albipunctata	Lepiseodina tristis	Moruseodina cusucoensis sp. nov.
Length of respiratory horn Pupae	4,3X the width	3,4X the width	6X the width
Distribution of pits on Pupae respiratory horn	single row (base to apex), double row (apex)	Irregular row (middle to apex)	Small group (base), irregular double row (apex)
# setae on ocular plate Pupae	1 (“c” seta)	?	5 small and 2 long (not grouped)
Thoracic setae reduced Pupae	seta 11	?	setae 1, 11 and 14
Setae reduced on 1 st abd Pupae segment	Setae 8 and 11 (posterior tergite)	?	Setae 1 (anterior tergite); 2, 8 and 11 (posterior tergite)
Setae 3 and 4 on frons Larvae	Present	?	absent