Drosophila (Sophophora) pseudoobscura Frolova, 1929

Grimaldi, David A., 2024, The Drosophila (Sophophora) obscura species group in the Americas (Diptera: Drosophilidae): review, revisions, and three new species, American Museum Novitates 2024 (4015), pp. 1-44 : 37

Drosophila (Sophophora) pseudoobscura Frolova

Figures 3C , 8E , 10E

Drosophila pseudoobscura Frolova , in Frolova and Astaurov, 1929: 212.

Drosophila pseudoobscura bogotana Ayala and Dobzhansky, 1974: 216 .

DIAGNOSIS: Facial carina broad, edge flat; acrostichal setae in 8 rows; sex comb with usually 6–7 teeth on ta1 (range of 5–8), usually 5 on ta2 (range of 4–7); tip of aedeagus extending slightly past tips of closed, folded postgonites ( Rizki, 1951) (which may not be a reliable feature). Spermatheca with sleeve extending 0.6× the height of bulb, with apical indentation.

TYPE: Frolova and Astaurov (1929) did not report any type specimens and no type is known to exist in any North American institution. Type holdings of Diptera in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg are provided online, but no Drosophila are listed ( ZIN, 2023). Perhaps types are in another Russian institution.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED: 1♂ ( ASG35 ) , 1F ( ASG34 ): Drosophila pseudoobscura culture 14011- 0121.0, DNA seq. publ. by V. Schawaroch, 2002 [specimens from voucher series]. ♀♀ .

DISTRIBUTION: This species has the broadest distribution of all New World species, except perhaps for D. athabasca , occurring in North America throughout the Rocky Mountains west to the Pacific coast, from northern British Columbia to western Texas, and throughout Mexico (including Baja California), to northern Honduras. An isolated population that is genetically but not morphologically distinct occurs in northern Colombia, named as subspecies D. pseudoobscura bogotana (type in the California Academy of Sciences). The species is very common in western North America; it does not occur in the Great Plains.

Figures

FIG. 3. Frontal view of heads of representative species in the D. pseudoobscura subgroup. A. D. lowei, male paratype (A19.2); B. D. maya, male holotype (44.12A). C. D. pseudoobscura, male. D. cuauhtemoci, male paratype (face and antennae only) (ASG 39).

FIG. 8. Oviscapts and spermathecae (lateral views) of species in the pseudoobscura subgroup, with a detail for D. persimilis. A. D. cuauhtemoci (ASG 39); B. D. lowei (ASG 26); C. D. maya (ASG 19); D. D. persimilis (ASG 37); E. D. pseudoobscura (ASG 34); F. D. zapoteca (ASG 21).

FIG. 10. Protarsal male sex combs of species in the D. pseudoobscura subgroup. A. D. cuauhtemoci; B. D. lowei (ASG 40); C. D. maya (ASG 41); D. D. persimilis (ASG 36); E. D. pseudoobscura (ASG 35); F. D. zapoteca (ASG 01). All to the same scale.