Zodion hispanicum, 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 : 244-251

Zodion hispanicum spec. nov.

(figs 22–33)

Type material: Holotype ♂: (1) "E - 20km SW Murcia / Sierra de Españula [sic!] / 11.v.2003 / J. Halada leg."; (2) " Holotypus / Zodion hispanicum / spec. nov. ♂ / det. Stuke, 2014".

Abdomen of the holotype is dissected, macerated and deposited in glycerine in a microvial pinned beneath the specimen, together with one wing. The holotype is deposited in the collection of the Czech University of Life Sciences, Czech Republic, Prague ( CULSP).

Description of MALE. Body length 9.3 mm, wing-length 6.7 mm, head-height 2.2 mm. Head: Antenna (fig. 23) completely orange; arista black apically. 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 apically. Scape broader than long, apically with bristles which may be slightly 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 short, about as long as 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 the eye convex, without indentation. Height of gena: height of eye = 0.63. Ocellar tubercle brown, with three distinct orange-brown ocelli. Ocellar triangle distinct but short, in front of the ocellar tubercle about as long as the ocellar tubercle. Frons uniformly orange-brown. Frons (fig. 24) longer than broad, not projecting above the eyes, not dusted, with narrow dense silver dusting laterally. Only a few very short and hardly visible black hairs on frons. Face unicolourous orange-brown, distinctly silver dusted. Gena without 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 slightly silver dusted. Postcranium with black hairs only. Proboscis orange-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 which are slightly longer than the palp. Labium and labrum about 1.5 times as long as head-length, projecting out of the mouth opening, not thickened basally, anterior section not fused into a tube. Labrum distinctly shorter than labium. Labellum short, completely divided, slightly broader than the adjacent haustellum, and covered with short hairs. Setae on the head reduced: Ocellar setae hardly visible, obvious postocellar setae, a distinct medial vertical seta, lateral vertical setae cannot be distinguished between the hairs dorsally on the postcranium. Thorax: Thorax black, dense grey dusted all over. Only the mediotergite is shining ventrally. One distinct pair of black stripes and several small black spots on the scutum (fig. 26). A pair of obvious black spots on the scutellum (fig. 26). Presternum only a narrow elongated sclerotised strip. Basisternum narrowed to a tip, with one black bristle medially but none ventrally. Proepisternum with seven black bristles ventrally. Mediotergite hardly convex, hairless, and about as long as the scutellum. Subscutellum inconspicious. Scutellum hairless, with 3–5 pairs of scutellar bristles. Scutum hairless but with several short black setae. No postpronotal, 2 notopleural, 2 supraalar, 3–4 postalar, and 1 praescutellar dorsocentral setae. Less distinct rows of very small acostichal, dorsocentral, and infra-alar setae. Additional setae which cannot be interpreted also occur. Seven black posterodorsal katepisternal setae. No metakatepisternal setae. Anepisternum and anepimeron hairless and without setae. Wing hyaline (fig. 27). Veins light yellow basally and dark brown apically. Wing completely covered with microtrichia. Subcostal-radial crossvein sc-r present. Radial-medialcrossvein 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 towards the wing tip. Radial cell r4+5 open. 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 elongated (distinctly longer than vein A1+CuA2) and pointed distally (cubitus CuA2 and anal vein A1 meet at an acute angle). Vein A1+CuA2 reaching hind margin of the wing only indistinctly. Cubital vein CuA1 and crossvein bm-cu distinctly separated. Upper and lower calypters FIGURES 25–28. Zodion hispanicum spec. nov. (♂ holotype). 25. Dorsal view of thorax. 26. Tip of the wing with open radial cell r4+5. 27. Wing. 28. Dorsal view of abdomen.

white, upper calypter with long white hairs on margin. Alula broad (about two times longer than wide), lacking hairs on 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, tarsomeres becoming darker brown apically. Legs with distinct white dusting all over. Posterior surfaces of the fore and middle tibiae without obvious dusted fields distally. Legs with short adpressed or semiadpressed black bristles, none of which are longer than tibia diameter. Areas with dense golden brown to black hairs ventrally at tip of fore tibia, and ventrally and posteriorly at tip of hind tibia. Middle femur posteriorly with a few black setae which are slightly longer than tibia diameter. Hind femur dorsally without outstanding long hairs. Praeapical bristles dorsally on tibiae. 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 black to brown, with a small brown base. Empodium yellow to brown, about as long as pulvilli. Abdomen: Abdomen orange, only tergite 1 with some obscure black markings (fig. 28). Abdomen covered with black hairs. Abdomen slightly grey dusted, only the epandrium (♂) shining. The bases of several black bristles with orange, hardly dusted, inconspicious spots. Tergite 1 without a lateral bulbous projection and with several lateral hairs which are denser, lighter and thinner than those on the remaining abdomen. Tergite 2 not elongate, shorter than broad, and with obvious lateral tufts of long hairs. Tergite 3 not widened posteriorly. Sternites 1–5 present, sternites 1 and 2 to some extent fused but still distinguishable. Tergite 5 and sternite 5 distinctly separated. Sternite 4 small, broader than long, about half the width of sternite 5, with 1 pair of bristles and a few smaller black hairs. Sternite 5 apically with a field of thick black bristles. Protandrium not projecting over the epandrium. Sternite 8 hardly delimited from the protandrium. Ventrally the lateral edges of the protandrium are fused by a narrow sclerotised strip which is hardly broadened medially. Paired cerci distinct, completely sclerotised and covered with hairs. Epandrium as shown in fig. 29, 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. 30). Posterior surstylus straight, without membranous appendage, obviously black. No strong short black bristles at the bases of the surstyli, but posterior surstylus with some long black hairs basally and anterior surstylus with a few brown hairs basally and dense hairs apically. Subepandrial plate sclerotised and therefore distinct. Dorsal hypandrial bridge developed. 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. Postgonite evagination small, not sclerotised, not projecting above the distiphallus and without distinct microtrichia. No sclerozisation at the inner side of the postgonite evagination. Ring sclerite not developed. Epiphallus distinct, covered with microtrichia. Distiphallus about as long as the epandrium, with more-or-less obvious microtrichia. Distiphallus with an elongated medial sclerotisation, two small, less distinct lateral sclerotisations, and with shallow and hardly evident lateral evaginations. Phallus apodeme longer than hypandrium. Ejaculatory apodeme comparatively large (about as long as the distiphallus and as broad as the phallus apodeme), elongate, lightly sclerotised, and with a distinct attachment to the sperm sac. FEMALE. Unknown.

Etymology. The name is derived from the Latin adjective "hispanicus" (“Spanish”) and describes the known distribution of the species.

Diagnosis. Zodion hispanicum is an obvious species which can easily be recognised by the light orange abdomen, the completely orange legs and the contrasting grey thorax (fig. 22). The species would run to Zodion kroeberi Szilàdy, 1926 , at couplet 1 of the key of Mei & Stuke (2008), on the basis of the following characters: Wing cell r4+5 open (fig. 27); antennae completely orange (fig. 23); legs orange except for the last dark tarsomere (fig. 22); and 6 bristles present on the katepisternum. But Z. hispanicum differs from Z. kroeberi in having the frons without black hairs; ocellar setae hardly visible; basal flagellomere about as short as pedicel; palps black; black spots on mesoscutum and scutellum; scutum with a few very short hairs only, and which are more-or-less distinctly arranged in lines; scutellum with only 3–5 pairs of scutellar bristles, and no additional hairs on the dorsal surface; scutum and scutellum with several black spots (fig. 25); posterior surstylus without membranous appendage (fig. 30). The species might also prove to be similar to Z. erythrurum , which can have a very light orange abdomen, almost completely orange antenna and legs, and a similar dusting pattern on the thorax. To date I have not seen any specimens of Z. erythrurum with an open radial cell r4+5, although these might occur. Such specimens will, however, be distinguishable in the male at least by the lack of a lamella on the surstylus and by the different form of the surstylus.

Distribution: Zodion hispanicum is to date only known from the locus typicus in the Sierra Espuña ( Spain, Región de Murcia).