Grallipeza pleuritica (Johnson)

Marshall, S. A., 2013, Grallipeza Rondani (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae) of the Caribbean and North America, Zootaxa 3682 (1), pp. 45-84 : 77-78

Grallipeza pleuritica (Johnson)

Calobata pleuritica Johnson, 1894:279 .

Grallipeza pleuritica, Steyskal, 1968 :48.8.

Description (from type photographs and original description): Colour: Head, including frontal vitta and palpus, almost entirely orange, only ocellar triangle black; clypeus shining dark brown, darker laterally. Fore femur yellowish brown, darker distally; fore tibia black, basal fore tarsomeres white, distal tarsomeres brown (not seen; from original description). Hind tarsomeres uniformly brown. Thorax with notum blue-black, shining; pleuron reddish. Katepisternal bristles golden. Abdomen black.

Head: Arista conspicuously long haired at least over basal half. Frontal vitta broadest in front of ocelli, slightly tapered anteriorly, slightly narrowed behind ocelli and and slightly expanded at posterior margin.

Thorax: Fore femur with only small ventral setulae. One dorsocentral bristle.

Wing: Anal cell setulose, wing membrane with a diffuse discal band extending from M to C.

Male abdomen: Epandrium small, narrow, about 2.5 times as long as broad, shorter than T6.

Type material: Johnson indicates a type series of “upwards of thirty specimens” including males and females. Photographs on the Museum of Comparative Zoology web site illustrate one of the male syntypes (http:// insects.oeb.harvard.edu/mcz).

This specimen, bearing the labels “ Type 13324” “ JAMAICA ”, Type C.W. Johnson” and “ pleuritica ”, is here designated lectotype of Calobata pleuritica Johnson.

Comments: Johnson describes this species on the basis of “upwards of thirty specimens” from Port Antonio, Jamaica. Grallipeza pleuritica is distinctive in colour and the type photographs posted by MCZ are excellent, so there seems to be no problem with either diagnosing or defining this species. Only four Jamaican Grallipeza specimens were available for study, and none correspond to G. pleuritica . These specimens represent two species that differ widely from one another, and from G. pleuritica , in head colour, chaetotaxy, abdominal tergites and other features; they are described as new here as G. cliffi and G. marleyi .