Protypusia raydahensis (El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016) Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 105-109

Protypusia raydahensis (El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016) gen. et comb. nov.

Fig. 55

Parageron raydahensis El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016: 1307 .

Etymology

After the locality “Garf Raydah” where the types were collected.

Type material

Holotype

KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA • ♂; “ Not seen but photographs studied. Asir.Abha. Raydah, 1811.884’ N, 4224.435’E, Alt. 2387 m asl, 8 June 2014, Sweep-net Leg. El-Hawagry”; KSMA.

Paratypes

KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA • 1 ♂; “not seen but photographs of EFC specimens studied Asir. Abha. Raydah, 1811.884’ N, 4224.435’E, Alt. 2387 m asl, 7 June 2014, Sweep-net Leg. El-Hawagry”; EFC • 2 ♀♀; “ Asir. Abha. Raydah, 1811.884’ N, 4224.435’E, Alt. 2387 m asl, 7 June 2014, Malaise Leg. Al Dhafer, H; Fadl, H; Abdel Dayem, M; El Torkey, A; El Gharbawy, A”; KSMA • 1 ♀; “same data”; EFC .

Other material examined

Metatypes

KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA • 1 ♂; “ Asir. Abha. Raydah, 18°11.749’ N, 42°23.345’E, Alt. 1614 m asl, 5 September 2015, M.T.9 [Malaise Trap 9] Leg. Al Dhafer, H; Fadl, H; Abdeldayem, M; El Torkey, A; El Gharbawy, A; Soliman,A/ Parageron raydahensis El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016 ♂ ”; PCDG • 1 ♀; “same data. Parageron raydahensis El-Hawagry & Al Dhafer, 2016 ♀ ”; PCDG (donated by KSMA) .

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.7–3.2 mm. Wing length: 3.6–4.0 mm.

Male

HEAD. Frons and gena densely silvery dusted entirely obscuring ground colour, longer erect hairs almost absent, can look more yellowish from some angles. Eye margin of frons sigmoid when viewed from directly above. Silvery dusted gena narrowing below antennae, at narrowest point narrower than the more shining, yellowish mouth margin, slightly protuberant. Occiput and ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour fairly densely covered with whitish dust, browner between ocelli, slightly thinner and more shining on elongate triangle behind ocelli. Ocellar tubercle with fine, pale yellow hairs about as long as width across hind ocelli, occiput with fine white, dorsally not over-topping ocellar tubercle, becoming longer ventrally but not particularly dense. All ocelli in contact with eye margin. Eyes confluent for slightly longer than the length of vertex (from photos about 1:1.1). Ommatidia conspicuously enlarged in the upper half to two fifths of the eyes, the transition to the smaller ones occupying the lower part distinct but not very abrupt. Antennae blackish, sparsely whitish dusted, scape approximately as long as broad, pedicel shorter, approximately one and a half times as broad as long. Postpedicel rather elongate, parallel-sided, roundly blunt-ended, with a small point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus, almost twice as long as scape and pedicel together and three times as long as deep. Sensilla in subapical sulcus whitish translucent so relatively conspicuous. Short, sparse whitish hairs on scape and pedicel, postpedicel with very short, sparse hairs dorsally, longer and more frequent before sub-apical sulcus. Palps small, slightly clavate, dark brown to black with a few short white hairs apically. Proboscis relatively long, approximately three to three and a half times the length of the head, longer than head, thorax and scutellum combined, dorsally entirely devoid of hairs, black, basoventral membrane brownish-yellow to dirty white.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by whitish-grey to brownish dust. Mesonotum with pronounced dark-brown to blackish, subshining paramedian and antehumeral vittae the latter widely divided at thoracic suture a very faint round dark spot between wing base and posterior antehumeral vittae. The grey acrostichal line is narrower than to about as wide as the paramedian vittae at their widest (about middle), anterior antehumeral vittae as broad or broader than the grey dusted area between paramedian and antehumeral vittae. Whole of mesonotum and scutellum covered with fine, whitish hairs, coarser and longer laterally. Paramedian and antehumeral vittae bare, acrostichal hairs bi- triserial, dorsocentrals in four to fine irregular lines. Scutellar hairs rather longer, especially laterally. Dusting of scutellum as mesonotum but thinner so shining cuticle visible centrally and in posterior view distinct paler grey dusting baso laterally. Pleura grey dusted as notopleuron, a little greyer and denser than on disc of mesonotum with similar hairs on pronotum, sparsely scattered across hind half of anepisternum and in antero-dorsal corner of katepisternum.

WING. Membrane hyaline, faintly brown tinted, the veins brown, paler on subcosta and basally. Crossvein r-m within or at basal third of the discal cell just a little beyond m-cu.Anal lobe broad with conspicuously convex margin, clearly broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. White to pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated, in some a clear brown infuscation on base of knob dorsally. In other examples with base of knob more or less infuscated with brown.

LEGS. Largely black with a coating of thin white dust, denser, similar to pleura, on coxae. Femora with the tips narrowly clear yellowish, a little redder on hind femora. Hind tibia narrowly yellow at extreme base, other tibia more extensively yellow, especially mid tibia dorsally. Adpressed fine whitish hairs clothe legs, rather longer, hairs on four anterior femora posteroventrally, on hind pair anteroventrally and on coxae. Hind tibia with a fairly regular uniserial row of darker setae dorsally on apical half.

ABDOMEN. Tergites dark brown to black, tending to be blacker basally, browner close to pale apical margins, thinly brownish-grey dusted, subshining, laterally and on reflexed margins much more densely yellow-grey dusted, denser than that on pleura and almost obscuring ground colour. Tergite one with dusting on reflexed lateral margins not strongly delimited, merging into dusting of disc which is a little more densely dusted than tergite two. Each tergite with sharply demarcated pale yellowish apical margins, mostly narrower than the thickness of a tibia. Sternites densely grey dusted as reflexed margins of tergites with pale apical margins paler and narrower than those on respective tergites. Tergites and sternites all covered with sparse, fine, silky whitish hairs, longest on lateral margins of tergites, tergite one hairless on disc except pale apical margin which has relatively short, adpressed hairs. Tergites two and three also bare basally, much of disc only sparsely haired.

GENITALIA. Relatively large when compared to other holoptic species. Gonocoxites black to dark brown, apices reddish brown, yellowish grey dusted, subshining, paler tips shining, undusted, with whitish hairs similar to those on lateral margins of tergites. Epandrium rectangular when viewed laterally, blackish brown basally with broad yellow apical margin, especially the triangularly pointed apical corners, covered with short, adpressed whitish hairs similar to those on tibia. Gonostyli and epiphallic complex essentially identical to Pro. negevi gen. et comb. nov. as far as can be seen in undissected specimen.

Female

Differs from the male in its broadly separated eyes, the frons dark in ground colour, except anteriorly between antenna where brownish yellow, densely grey-brown dusted, any hairs minute and confined to anterior third and lateral margins, a small dark shining spot centrally. Hind ocelli separated from eye-margin by about twice the diameter of that ocellus. Frons about a quarter to two-fifths head width. Mesonotum darker markings can be less conspicuous, the antehumeral vittae very obscure, or as male. Hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen shorter, significantly so on the abdomen. In dried specimen apical sternite strongly convex, sharply ridged apically, fairly thinly yellow-grey dusted, subshining.

Remarks

In the key provided by Engel (1932) this taxon runs to Pro. inornata ; and to Usia grisea Efflatoun with the key in Efflatoun (1945). It has not been possible to study male specimens of either species, but from Efflatoun’s (1945) descriptions, Pro. raydahensis gen. et comb. nov. is significantly smaller than Pro. inornata and larger than Usia grisea , and from both by more extensive pale bases to the four anterior tibia and more thinly dusted mesonotum with shining paramedian and antehumeral vittae. Also, it seems likely that Usia grisea in fact belongs in Apolysis based on its very small size and Efflatoun’s (1945: pl. 20 fig. 319) illustration of the antennae but is currently retained in unplaced Usia .

Protypusia raydahensis gen. et comb. nov. is very closely allied to Pro. negevi gen. et comb. nov., the male and female genitalia being exceedingly similar. Protypusia negevi is a much paler, densely dovegrey dusted species with very inconspicuous, vaguely darker paramedian and antehumeral vittae.

Distribution

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mountains of the Asir province in the southwest of the country.

Figures

Fig. 55. Protypusiaraydahensis (El-Hawagry &Al Dhafer, 2016) gen.etcomb.nov. a. Epiphalliccomplex ventral. b. Epiphallic complex lateral. c. Gonocoxite ventral. d. Gonocoxite lateral. e. Epandrium dorsal. f. Female genitalia ventral. g. Female genitalia lateral. h. Female sternite 8 ventral.