Boreantrops challabamba, Kits, Joel H. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2015

Kits, Joel H. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2015, A revision of Boreantrops Kits & Marshall (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae: Archiborborinae), Zootaxa 3915 (3), pp. 301-355 : 337-338

Boreantrops challabamba sp. nov.

( Figs. 28 , 82, 83 , 123)

Diagnosis. Separable from other members of the emarginatus group by the following characters: Occiput black, prementum reddish brown. Frons with microtomentum around ocellar triangle and bristles. Anterior margin of anepisternum shiny below spiracle. Fore leg with distal two or three tarsomeres brown; posterior face of fore femur shiny. Mid tibia with row of anterodorsal bristles. Hind tibia without anteroventral bristle, with two ventroapical bristles. Wing without white spots. Postgonite with curved, apically rounded projection on posterior margin.

Description. Occiput black, frons, gena, face, antenna, and prementum reddish brown, maxillary palp yellow. Mostly covered with microtomentum, frons shiny medially, microtomentum medially reaching from postocellar bristles anteriorly through ocellar triangle to ocellar bristles, microtomentum on orbital plates reaching bases of interfrontal setae ( Fig. 28 ), face with microtomentum below lunule and in dense crescent below antenna. Ocellar bristles just anterior to median ocellus. Subvibrissal and anterior bristles about 0.5X length of vibrissa.

Thorax black, mostly covered with microtomentum. Proepisternum shiny, anepisternum mostly shiny with microtomentum covering dorsal margin and posterior quarter, katepisternum with a shiny spot behind fore coxa, meron shiny, metapleuron with a shiny spot in posteroventral corner. Halter white, brownish below knob.

Legs black, joints, trochanters, and tarsi yellow except distal 2 or 3 tarsomeres of fore and hind tarsi brown. Posterior face of fore femur shiny. Fore basotarsomere with a small spur (probably only in male). Mid tibia with row of anterodorsals, 1 anteroventral, 5 subapical bristles. Hind tibia with 2 ventroapical bristles.

Wing brown, veins dark brown, crossveins r-m and dm-cu paler.

Abdomen with tergites and sternites weakly sclerotized. Syntergite 1+2 with posterolateral corners and a thin band between them strongly sclerotized, tergites 3–4 with a thin posterior band moderately sclerotized.

Male postabdomen: Sternite 5 with sides slightly curved, posterior margin shallowly notched, anterior apodeme pointed, about as long as external portion, not keeled. Epandrium fused between anal opening and cerci. Surstylus with anterior margin straight, posterior margin rounded ( Fig. 83 ). Pregonite fused with postgonite. Postgonite with a long posterior extension dorsally, boundary between lobes indistinct, posterior lobe longer, pointed. Basiphallus expanded medially, without distinct epiphallus, preepiphallus short and transparent. Distiphallus with spinose dorsal tube not touching medial sclerite distally, with a single spike-like sclerite laterally, dorsal distal corner produced, long ventral sac apically ( Fig. 82 ).

Female unknown.

Type material. Holotype ♂: PERU: Cusco: Puente Pilco, ~ 5.3 km NNW Challabamba , along creek, 13°10'53"S 71°40'08"W, ~ 2800 m, yellow pans, 13–16 May 2007, Marshall & Kits, debu00303619 ( MUSM).

Distribution. Southern Peru (Fig. 123).

Etymology. The species name is an arbitrary combination of letters derived from the type locality.

Comments. The holotype specimen was collected only 7 km from Wayqecha Biological Station, a site at a similar elevation where we collected numerous archiborborines but no specimens of this species. The type locality is much drier than the cloud forests at Wayqecha , which may indicate a difference in habitat preference in this species.

Figures

FIGURES 26 – 29. Boreantrops heads, dorsal (anterior at top). 26) B. inbio; 27) B. boliviensis; 28) B. challabamba; 29) B. emarginatus. Some setae omitted.

FIGURES 78 – 85. Boreantrops male terminalia. B. auranticeps: 78) phallus, postgonite, and phallapodeme, lateral view, 79) sternite 5, 80) right surstylus, interior view; B. boliviensis: 81) phallus, postgonite, and phallapodeme, lateral view; B. challabamba: 82) phallus, postgonite, and phallapodeme, lateral view, 83) right surstylus, interior view; B. emarginatus: 84) phallus, postgonite, and phallapodeme, lateral view, 85) sternite 5. prj: projection of the postgonite.