Crossopalpus salensis, Grootaert & Velde, 2019

Grootaert, Patrick & Velde, Isabella Van De, 2019, Empidoid flies from Cabo Verde (Diptera, Empidoidea, Dolichopodidae and Hybotidae) are not only composed of Old World tropical species, European Journal of Taxonomy 528, pp. 1-17 : 8-11

Crossopalpus salensis sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:6671B1A2-3E5D-403F-B67F-879714AB230D

Figs 4–6

Diagnosis

Antenna entirely black. Femora and tibia black except for knees and tips. Hind tibia with long black dorsal bristles at least twice as long as width of tibia, ventrally with a row of black bristles a little longer than width of tibia.

Etymology

The species is named after the type locality, the island of Sal. The name Sal refers to the salt that was found on the island and also alludes to the saline conditions in which the species was found ( Fig. 6 ).

Type material

Holotype CAPE VERDE • ♂; Sal, Santa Maria, Ponta Preta; 16°35′52.35″ N, 22°55′35.67″ W; 3 Feb. 2019; P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde leg.; sebkha; RBINS.

Paratypes

CAPE VERDE • 6 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀; same collecting data as for holotype • 5 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀; Santa Maria; 16°36′39.30″ N, 22°55′0.80″ W; 5 Feb. 2019; P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde leg.; sebkha with open water near resorts; RBINS ( Fig. 6 ) .

Description

Male ( Figs 4–5 )

MEASUREMENTS. Body: 2.24 mm; wing: 1.6 mm

HEAD. Black. Frons parallel-sided, as wide as scape, subshining. Eyes not touching on face, but face parallel-sided, as wide as scape, widening below. A pair of long black ocellars and a pair of long crossing black verticals. Postoculars very short, white. Antenna black, scape very short, pedicel as long as wide, with a black ventral bristle twice as long as pedicel; postpedicel a little longer than wide; stylus subapical, 2.5 times as long as all antennal segments together or 4 times as long as postpedicel. Ratio of scape, pedicel, postpedicel and stylus in mm: 0.019:0.052:0.078:0.325.

Palpus ellipsoid, covered with pale brown hairs and one long, black apical bristle as long as palpus. Proboscis strong, shining black, nearly as long as eye.

THORAX. Shining black. Scutum seen from above triangular, narrow at the neck and there lacking the humeri (postpronotal lobe), very wide at scutellum, covered with short pale hairs and a few long bristles. The origin of the bristles is not clear due to the distortion of the triangular scutum: tentatively there are three long dorsocentrals, one long pre-sutural, one long post-sutural, one notopleural, one supra-alar and one postalar. A pair of long crossing scutellars with a minute hair at each side.

LEGS. Black except for knees of all legs yellowish brown. Tarsomere 1 of all legs yellowish-brown while following tarsomeres become gradually darker, apical most black. Apex of hind tibia with the large posteroventral spur contrastingly yellowish.

FORE LEG. Coxa covered with short pale hairs and set with a few fine black anterior bristles on apex. Femur much thickened in basal two thirds, bearing a black dorsal bristle on apical third. Ventrally with short pale hairs and a long fine black bristle as long as width of femur at base. Tibia with two strong black preapical bristles, longer than width of tibia; anteroventrally on apical half covered with short

pale, rather flattened hairs, anterodorsally on apical half with longer hairs. Tarsomeres 4 and 5 widened, tarsomere 5 largest.

MID LEG. Mid femur narrower than fore femur, with a long preapical anterior seta, ventrally set with white hairs; a row of dorsal setae pale on basal half, black on apical half. Tibia ventrally with short black spinules. Tarsomere 1 ventrally with pale brown spinules as long as width of tarsomere.

HIND LEG. Hind femur with an anterodorsal row of long black setae as long as width of femur. Ventrally with short pale hairs. Tibia ventrally densely set with fine brown hairs as long as width of tibia; at apex a long yellow posteroventral spur reaching over the base of tarsomere 1. Tibia with three anterodorsal setae, two posterodorsal setae twice as long as width of tibia and two short black preapical setae. Tarsomere 1 widened at base posterodorsally over the entire length, with a dense tuft of yellowish squamiform setae; four black ventral setae as long as width of tarsomere and a strong but short posterior seta near middle.

WING. Clear with yellowish brown veins. A long costal seta present. Veins R4+5 and M diverging near middle, converging before tip of wing and ending parallel in costa. Vein M undulating after the crossvein r-m. Cross-vein r-m ending in cell M beyond middle of cell M. Squama with numerous long white cilia. Haltere white.

ABDOMEN. Black, terminalia not wider than abdomen. Tergite 1 not sclerotized. Tergite 3 twice as wide as tergite 2. Tergites covered with short pale hairs, some flattened setae at sides.

TERMINALIA ( Fig. 5 ). Cerci not fused at apex. Right cercus narrow, left cercus very wide, with a few long bristles at right side and minute bristles at left side ( Fig 5B ). Apex of right epandrial lamella pointed ( Fig. 5A ), at the inside near middle with 2 short black setae. Right surstylus large, ovoid ( Fig. 5A ), with two small and two long brown setae at inside ( Fig 5C ). Left surstylus consisting of 2 lobes, left lobe longest and covered with long setae ( Fig. 5D ).

Remarks

The new species does not belong to the Crossopalpus aenescens group as defined by Collin (1960) and Smith (1967), since the right surstylus is a single lobe, while in the aenescens group the right surstylus is composed of at least two or three lobes ( Fig. 8 ).

It is not clear whether the long bristles on the scutum represent the dorsocentrals and the acrostichal bristles or other bristles, since their position does not correspond exactly to the usual position.

Figures

Fig. 4. Crossopalpus salensis sp. nov., male holotype, habitus (leg. P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde, RBINS).

Fig. 5. Crossopalpus salensis sp. nov., male paratype, terminalia (leg. P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde, RBINS). A. Right epandrial lamella with right surstylus. B. Dorsal view of epandrium. C. Tip of right surstylus, with left surstyli below. D. Left surstyli, lateral view. Scales: 0.1 mm.

Fig. 6. View of the sebkha to the northwest of Santa Maria (Sal), where Crossopalpus salensis sp. nov. was recorded.

Fig. 8. Crossopalpus complicatus sp. nov., male holotype, terminalia (leg. P. Grootaert and I. Van de Velde, RBINS). A. Right surstyli. B. Lateral view of right epandrial lamella. C. Dorsal view of epandrium, with detail of left surstyli. D. Tip of right surstylus from inside. Scales: 0.1 mm.