Zodion hauseri, Stuke, Jens-Hermann, 2014

Stuke, Jens-Hermann, 2014, Some remarks on rare and new Palaearctic species of the genus Zodion Latreille (Diptera: Conopidae), Zootaxa 3860 (3), pp. 235-252 : 240-243

Zodion hauseri spec. nov.

(figs 12–21)

Type material: Holotype ♂: (1) " KAZAKHSTAN 29.–31.V.2001 / Charyn Valley W Chundza / 650 m 43°37'N 79°21'E / leg. M. Hauser"; (2) " Holotypus / Zodion hauseri / spec. nov. ♂ / det. Stuke, 2014". Paratype: 1♀ with the same data.

Abdomen of the holotype is dissected, macerated and deposited in glycerine in a microvial pinned beneath the specimen. The male holotype is deposited in the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt- Universität, Germany, Berlin ( ZMHB), the female paratype is deposited in the private collection of Stuke, Germany, Leer ( PJHS).

Description of MALE. Body length 5.6 mm; wing-length 4.4 mm; head-height 1.7 mm. Head: Antenna (fig. 14) completely orange, only the basal flagellomere black apically; arista dark brown. Arista with 1 aristomere situated dorsally on the basal flagellomere. A second aristomere might be present but is not visible in the holotype. Apical aristomere long, broad basally, becoming abruptly narrower in the apical half. Scape broader than long, apically with bristles which are longer than the scape. Pedicel about as long as its maximum width, completely covered with black bristles (with the exception of the inner surface) which are hardly longer dorsally. Basal flagellomere slightly longer than high, and about as long as the pedicel, rounded dorsally, without a membranous area. Lunule completely invaginated between bases of antennae and ptilinal suture. Eyes brown, without ommatrichia, facets all of about the same size. Posterior margin of eye convex, without indentation. Height of gena: height of eye = 0.42. Ocellar tubercle (fig. 13) brown, with three distinct orange-brown ocelli. Ocellar triangle evident, short, in front of the ocellar tubercle about as long as the ocellar tubercle itself. Frons uniformly orangebrown with two obscure lateral brown spots at the base. Frons (fig. 13) longer than broad, not projecting above the eyes, silvery dusted all over, narrowly with denser silver dusting laterally. Only about nine black hairs basally. Face unicolourous orange-brown, distinctly silver dusted. Gena with scattered black hairs. Postcranium black dorsally and orange-brown ventrally. Adjacent to the ventral posterior margin of the eye there is a stripe of silver dusting, the remaining postcranium obviously silver dusted. Postcranium with black hairs only. Proboscis dark brown to black. No brown spot between frontoclypeal membrane and mouth edge. Frontoclypeal membrane narrow, broadened basally, light yellow and obviously seperated from the black to dark brown clypeus. Palp distinct, black, not widened distally, and covered with long black hairs of which the longest are obviously longer than the palp. Labium and labrum about twice as long as the head-length, projecting out of the mouth opening, not thickened basally, anterior section not fused into a tube. Labrum distinctly shorter than the labium. Labellum short, completely divided, slightly broader than the adjacent haustellum, and covered with short hairs. Ocellar setae, postocellar setae, medial vertical setae and lateral vertical setae distinct. Thorax: Thorax black, densely grey dusted all over (fig. 12). One indistinct pair of sublateral brown stripes only. Presternum a small elongated sclerotised strip only. Basisternum small, narrowed to a tip, with one black bristle medially but none ventrally. Proepisternum with five black bristles ventrally. Mediotergite hardly convex, hairless, and about as long as the scutellum. Subscutellum inconspicuous. Scutellum hairless but with five pairs of scutellar bristles. Scutum with long black hairs which are distinctly longer than the diameter of the tibiae. Setae cannot be distinguished between the long hairs. Seven black posterodorsal katepisternal setae. No metakatepisternal setae. Anepisternum and anepimeron hairless and without setae. Wing hyaline, venation as fig. 15. Veins light yellow basally and dark brown apically. Wing completely covered with microtrichia. Subcostal-radial crossvein sc-r present. Radialmedial-crossvein r-m complete. Basal-medial-cubital-crossvein bm-cu incomplete. Radius R1 terminates in costa about midway between subcosta and radius R2. Radius R4+5 with a shallow and even curve in the distal section which is directed to the wing tip. Radial cell r4+5 closed but there is no development of vein R4+5+M. Basal radial cell br with an indistinct widening in the basal third (about at the separation of R4+5 and R2+3). Cubital cell cup elongate (distinctly longer than vein A1+CuA2) and pointed distally (cubitus CuA2 and anal vein A1 meet at an acute angle). Vein A1+CuA2 reaches hind margin of wing only indistinctly. Cubital vein CuA1 and crossvein bm-cu distinctly separated. Upper and lower calypters white, upper calypter with long white hairs on the margin. Alula broad (about two times longer than wide), with several white hairs on the posterior margin. Vena spuria pronounced in cubital cell cup and indistinctly in discal medial cell dm. Haltere yellow to light brown with a slightly darker brown base. Base and stem of haltere each with areas of sensillae. Knob of haltere with isolated indistinct light brown hairs. Base of haltere without black bristles. Legs orange-brown, the tarsomeres becoming darker brown apically. Legs with distinct grey dusting all over. Posterior surfaces of fore and middle tibiae without obvious dusted fields distally. Legs with long adpressed or erected black bristles, several of which are longer than the tibia diameter. Areas with dense brown hairs ventrally at the tip of the fore tibia, and ventrally and posteriorly at the tip of the hind tibia. Middle femur posteriorly with a few black setae that are slightly longer than the tibia diameter. Hind femur dorsally with a few barely outstanding long hairs. Praeapical bristles dorsally on the tibiae. All tibiae basally with one distinct line of small thick adpressed black bristles on the ventral surface. All femora lacking black bristles. Fore coxa with short black hairs but no strong bristles. Middle and hind coxae with several strong black bristles. Pulvilli yellow-whitish to brown. Claws yellow to brown, with a black tip. Empodium yellow to brown and about as long as pulvilli. Abdomen: Colouration of abdomen not visible under the very dense golden dusting (fig. 16). Shining epandrium orange-brown. Abdomen covered with long black hairs. No black spots at the bases of the hairs (fig. 16). Tergite 1 without a lateral bulbous projection and without obvious hairs. Tergite 2 not elongate, shorter than broad, and with obvious long lateral hairs. Tergite 3 not widened posteriorly. Sternites 1–5 present, sternites 1 and 2 fused and only distinguishable by the bristles. Tergite 5 and sternite 5 distinctly seperated. Sternite 4 small, slightly broader than long, about half the width of sternite 5, with 1 pair of bristles and a single black hair only. Sternite 5 apically with a field of thick black bristles. Protandrium not projecting over epandrium. Sternite 8 hardly delimited from protandrium. Ventrally the lateral edges of the protandrium are fused by a narrow sclerotised strip which is medially hardly widened. Paired cerci distinct, completely sclerotised and covered with hairs. Epandrium as shown in fig. 17, not fused behind cerci and distinctly separated. Hypoproct obviously elongated, hardly sclerotised, covered with microtrichia and projecting out of the epandrium. Posterior and anterior surstyli distinctly developed (fig. 18). Posterior surstylus straight and widened at base, with a small inconspicuous dorsal membranous appendage (fig. 18: mpsu). No strong short black bristles at the bases of the surstyli, but posterior surstylus with some long black hairs basally and anterior surstylus with dense hairs apically. Subepandrial plate sclerotised and therefore distinct. Dorsal hypandrial bridge developed (fig. 19: hyb). No hypandrial lobe evident. Hypandrial bars not fused distally; no hypandrial arm developed. Hypandrial membrane without microtrichia. Phallus sheath lightly sclerotised and therefore hardly evident, not fused dorsally; apically without obvious evagination, and without any teeth or bristles. Postgonite distinct (fig. 19: po). Postgonite evagination small, not sclerotised, not projecting above distiphallus and without distinct microtrichia (fig. 21: poe). No sclerozisation at the inner side of the postgonite evagination. Ring sclerite not developed. Epiphallus distinct (fig. 19: epp), covered with microtrichia. Distiphallus about as long as epandrium, with more-or-less obvious microtrichia. Distiphallus with an elongated medial sclerotisation and two small, less distinct lateral sclerotisations, and with shallow and hardly evident lateral evaginations (fig. 20). Phallus apodeme longer than hypandrium. Ejaculatory apodeme relatively large, about as long as the distiphallus and as broad as the phallus apodeme (fig. 19: ea); elongated, lightly sclerotised, and with a distinct attachment to the sperm sac. FEMALE. The female accords almost completely with the description of the male with the exception of the postabdomen. Vein R4+5+M is developed. Postabdomen black. Theca distinctly narrower than segment 5 and about as wide at base as the length of the projecting part. Apically it bears six lines of regularly arranged black spicules.

Etymology. This species is named in honour of Martin Hauser (Sacramento), who has collected the only specimens known so far.

Diagnosis. Zodion hauseri belongs in the same species-group as Z. andersoni (see above) and may be distinguished from the other species of this group using the characters given in the key below. Zodion hauseri resembles Z. andersoni in having long and dense pile on the scutum and abdomen.

Distribution. Zodion hauseri is only known from the locus typicus in Kazakhstan (Almaty Province).