Paramimegralla zinzala, Marshall, Stephen A., 2017

Marshall, Stephen A., 2017, Micropezidae (Insecta, Diptera, Acalyptratae) of Madagascar and a revision of the genus Paramimegralla Hennig, Zootaxa 4290 (2), pp. 244-280 : 278-280

Paramimegralla zinzala new species

Figs 106 ̄112

Description. Length 16 mm. Ground colour mostly black, legs and lower head mostly yellow as detailed below.

Head with frons broad, ridged longitudinally; epicephalon shining; frontal vitta velvety black pruinose, strongly tapering anteriorly, broad and gently tapered posteriorly to a rounded apex ringed by a silvery pollinose area. Back of head strikingly depressed; occipital suture shining brown, expanded posteriorly, back of head dark, ventral third of head, including face, clypeus, palpus, gena, and lower third of postocciput, yellow to reddish. Head chaetotaxy complete, with 2 frontal setae. Parafacial silvery dorsally and ventrally, black at middle. Palpus broad. Clypeus bare, shorter than face, with a prominent peak at middle of upper margin. Length of first flagellomere subequal to width.

Thorax with scutellum silvery, scutum mostly densely silver microsetulose, central and lateral strips golden microsetulose. Proepisternum with short, inconspicuous yellow ventral setae. Posterior anepimeron and anterior anepisternum bare and shining with shining area continuing behind procoxae, pleuron otherwise silvery microsetulose. Legs mostly yellow, mid femur with a long but incomplete distal black ring, apex of mid femur and base of mid tibia black. Fore femur with anterior surface black on basal half. Fore tibia and basal half of fore tarsomere one dark brown to black, fore tarsomeres 1̄3 otherwise bright white, tarsomeres 4̄5 black. Hind tarsomere one white. Hind femur slightly flattened, hind tibia not sulcate.

Wing uniformly darkly infuscated except for a transverse preapical pale band. Anal cell bare, CuA2 sinuate and distinctly proximal to dm̄cu, distal angle about 45 °.

Abdominal syntergite 1+2 slightly humped, T1 entirely silvery, T2 and T3 extensively silvery around margins; pleural membrane damaged on unique type, but apparently dark at base only. Male genital fork (S5) with very short distally tapered arms with inner distal margins densely packed with short, stout setae. Unlike all congeners except P. madagascariensis , the phallic plate extends far beyond the apex of the phallapodeme, with the basal part of the phallus forked and correspondingly extended posteriorly beyond the point of entry of the ejaculatory duct; extended part of phallic plate about one tenth as long as distiphallus beyond the phallapodeme. Distiphallus with basal part only slightly wider than distal part, ending in a simple phallic bulb with a spherical proximal part and a broad dorsal distal band; distal part of distiphallus separated from phallic bulb by a dorsal notch, straight, ending in a weakly differentiated but apically cupped glans. Blade of ejaculatory apodeme smaller than epandrium but much larger than sperm pump, ejaculatory apodeme including sperm pump subequal in length to epandrium.

Type material. Holotype (♂, CAS, sequence MYCRO195̄15) Ranomafana National Park, Sahamalaotra, 21°14.44’ 47°23.67’, 16.x. 2014, 650m, S.A. Marshall.

Comments. Paramimegralla zinzala is similar to, and obviously closely related to, P. madagascariensis . The dark wing with a distal clear band, the unusually short genital fork, tubular distiphallus apex, extended phallic plate and several other characters are unique to this group of two species, which differ in details of the distal distiphallus, length of phallic plate, leg colour, head colour and wing venation.

Etymology. The species name is from the Latin for a kind of gnat or fly.

Figures

FIGURES 106 – 112. Paramimegralla zinzala sp. nov., Male. 106. 107. Living fly along trail at Ranomafana; 108. Head, dorsal; 109. Head, lateral; 110. Epandrium and associated structures; left lateral 111. Abdominal segments 5 ‾ 8, lateral; 112. Phallus detail, lateral.