Poecilobothrus innotabilis Kazerani, Pollet & Khaghaninia

Kazerani, Farzaneh, Khaghaninia, Samad, Talebi, Ali Asghar, Persson, Magnus & Pollet, Marc, 2017, Eight new species of Dolichopodinae (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) from northern Iran, Zootaxa 4242 (1), pp. 111-141 : 136-139

Poecilobothrus innotabilis Kazerani, Pollet & Khaghaninia sp. nov.

( Figs 37–39 )

Poecilobothrus bigoti Kazerani et al. 2015: 25 , not Mik, 1883: 88.

Diagnosis. Moderate-sized, rather robust species with brilliantly bronze body. Uppermost postoculars black, lower yellow. Antenna black, only scape with brownish yellow apicoventral corner. Legs mainly yellow with coxa I brownish on lateral face, femur III slightly and tibia III distinctly infuscate at apex; tarsi I–II black with metatarsus partly yellow, and tarsus III entirely dark. Male. Face silvery white. Wing slightly infuscate with apical ½ of wing strongly infuscate anteriorly. Femur III with a irregular vt row of peculiar short erect bristles between basal 2/5 and apical 1/6 (MSSC). Hypopygium: apv epandrial lobe pale reddish yellow, rather quadrate; cercus moderate-sized, elongate triangular, 1.3x as long as wide at basis, blackish brown, with basal 1/3 reddish yellow; with tubercles along all margins bearing strongly curved black bristles.

Description. Male. Body length: 4.7–5.1 mm; wing length: 4.4–4.5 mm (n=2). Head. Face silvery white with small central bronze spot below antennae, narrowing until middle, then slightly widening towards clypeus, at narrowest width 0.8 x as wide as postpedicel (length), bare. Frons bronze, dusted silvery white laterally. Occiput greenish bronze, convex. Palpus very small, less than 1/10 of eye, yellow, with black pubescence and 1 strong black apical bristle. Proboscis brown. Eyes red, with short dense white pubescence. Postocular bristles with about uppermost 1/4 black, and lower ¾ yellow. Two-three pairs of black postocellar bristles. Antenna nearly entirely black, with only scape blackish brown with apex brownish yellow ventrally; postpedicel subcircular with blunt apex, 1.1 x as as long as deep, and 0.9 x as long as scape and pedicel combined; stylus dorsal, inserted at middle, about 2.1 x as long as first three antennal segments combined, with 1st aristal segment nearly bare, and 2nd aristal segment distinctly pubescent. Thorax. Entirely bronze, brilliant, with distinct violet spot between sut ial, anterior spal and posterior npl bristles; pleura and metapleura with slight greyish dusting; scutellum with 2 strong median and 2 minute lateral bristles, a few black setae on disk and fringe of short white setae on lower posterior margin. Thoracic bristles black. Six dc; 12 ac, biserial, reaching between 5th dc, 2 x as long as distance between rows; 1 large and 2 minute ant pprn, 1 internal and 1 external bas pprn, 1 psut ial, 1 sut ial, 2 npl, 2 spal, and 1 pal bristles; with additional short pubescence on anterior part of thorax. Upper proepisternum with rather long white setae, lower proepisternum with 1 strong black bristle and similar setae. Wing. Strongly infuscate in apical ½ between anterior wing margin and vein R4+5, along apical section of M1+2 and along dm-cu, wing otherwise slightly infuscate. Veins R4+5 very slightly curved, and M1+2 slightly sinuous, slightly converging towards wing apex.

Proximal section of M1+2 0.9 x as long as apical section. Proximal section of CuA1 1.8x as long as apical section. CuA x ratio: 1.8. Halter white, calypteral fringe black. Legs. Mainly yellow, with coxae I–III, tarsus I–II and leg III at least partly infuscate. Bristles black. Coxa I mainly yellow on anterior face and brownish on lateral face, with short yellow pubescence on about basal ½, and stronger black pubescence and black bristles on apical ½. Coxa II mainly dark, with anterior face partly yellowish in basal 2/3, and entirely yellow on apical 1/3. Coxa III entirely dark, with external bristle inserted at about middle. Trochanter I yellow, trochanters II–III brownish yellow. Femur I–II entirely yellow, femur III yellow with about apical 1/5 slightly infuscate; femur I with 1 small pv preapical bristle; femur II with 1 strong ad, 1 strong and 1 small pv preapical bristles and one vt row of short inclined black bristles on basal ½, decreasing in length towards apex; femur III with 1 strong ad and 1 small pv preapical bristles, with vt row of 4–5 inclined black bristles on about basal 1/5, about 0.3 x as long as femur is deep (MSSC); with an irregular vt row of peculiar short erect black bristles between basal 2/5 and apical 1/6 (MSSC); basodorsal bristles indistinct. Tibia I and II entirely yellow, tibia III yellow with apical 1/4 black. Tibia I with 2 ad and 2 pd bristles, nearly 4 x as long as tibia is deep, basalmost pair clearly smaller, and with ad serration of short bristles on apical 2/ 3; with 3 pv bristles, about 1.7 x as long as tibia is deep. Tibia II with 4 ad and 2 pd, about 3.5 x as long as tibia is deep, basalmost ad bristle shorter; with 3 av and 1 pv bristles, about 3 x as long as tibia is deep; with 5 strong ap bristles, about 3.5 x as long as tibia is deep. Tibia III with 4 ad and 5 pd bristles (incl. preapical ds bristle), about 2.5– 4 x as long as tibia is deep; with 5 vt bristles and 2 strong ap bristles, 2.5 x as long as tibia is deep; pd pubescence indistinct. Tarsus I black with taI1 yellow on basal ¾; tarsus II black with at most basal ½ of taII1 yellowish; tarsus III entirely black; taII– III1-4 with short vt bristles. Length ratios of femur/tibia/tarsomeres 1–5 in leg I: 10.8/11/4.8/2/1.6/1/1.3, in leg II: 9.5/10.9/4.2/2.3/1.6/1.1/1, and in leg III: 8/10/2.8/2.8/2/1.2/1. Abdomen. With 5 pubescent segments, T6 small but visible. Tergites entirely metallic green, with black short pubescence, and with strong bristles on posterior margins. Sternites metallic bluish green, S1 and anterior ½ of S2 with pale pubescence, longest and erect on S1, and posterior ½ of ST2 and ST3 with black pubescence, longest and erect on S3. Hypopygium with epandrium metallic green with basoventral part yellowish brown; hypandrium short, straight, dark brown; bv epandrial lobe very small, black, with 1 black apical bristle, apv epandrial lobe pale reddish yellow, rather quadrate, with 1 large pale bristle at basis and 2 pale bristles on apical margin; surstylar lobes dark brown; cercus moderate-sized, elongate triangular, 1.3 x as long as wide at basis, blackish brown, with basal 1/3 reddish yellow; with tubercles along all margins bearing strongly curved black bristles. Female. Body length: 4.8–5.0 mm; wing length: 4.5–4.7 mm (n=2). As male, except for the following features: face at narrowest width about 2 x as wide as postpedicel (length). Abdomen with T6 entirely covered by T5, S1 with short white pubescence, and S2-5 with short black pubescence. Wings slightly and evenly infuscate, with darker zone between veins C and R2+3. Femur II and III with regular short inclined black vt bristles. Length ratios of femur/tibia/tarsomeres 1–5 in leg I: 12.3/10.5/4.4/3.9/1.5/1.2/1, in leg II: 8.9/10.7/4.5/2.3/1.7/1.2/1, and in leg III: 8.7/11/3.4/3.1/2.3/1.3/1.

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂, IRAN: Ardabil, Meshginshahr, Geyneje (nr Sabalan Mountain : montane grassland), 38°20.370′N, 47°48.667′E, 2991 m, 25.vi.2014, SW, leg. Samad Khaghaninia ( ICHMM) . PARATYPES: IRAN: 6♂, same data as holotype ; 1♂, 1♀, same data ( MAPC) ; 3♂, East Azerbaijan, Arasbaran, Aynali (forest), 38°53.887′N, 46°46.955′E, 1271 m, 25.v.2013, SW, leg. S. Khaghaninia ( ICHMM) ; 1♂, Mazandaran, Gaznasara (sampling site: Mazandaran _6: beside a hill), 36˚16.968′N, 52°10.927′E, 2013 m, 3– 16.viii.2011, MT, leg. M. Khairandish & A. Nadimi ( TMUC) ; 3♂, 1♀, Mazandaran, Gaznasara (sampling site: Mazandaran _7), 36˚16.947′N, 52°10.975′E, 2032 m, 3–16.viii.2011, MT, leg. M. Khairandish & A. Nadimi ( TMUC) .

Distribution and ecology. Poecilobothrus innotabilis has thus far been collected in three provinces (Ardabil, East Azerbaijan, Mazandaran) in Iran. Although it seems to occur in different habitat types, the largest sample of this species was taken in an Ardabil montane grassland. Previously, P. innotabilis has erroneously been reported from Iran as P. bigoti Mik, 1883 by Kazerani et al. (2015).

Etymology. In contrast to e.g. Poecilobothrus nobilitatus (Linnaeus, 1767) , P. regalis (Meigen, 1824) and P. chrysozygos , which show a conspicuous coloration of the wing or the legs, P. innotabilis sp. nov. lacks these features, hence its name (= not noticeable).

Remarks. In the key by Parent (1938), the new species runs to P. basilicus (Loew, 1869) , but clearly differs from this species by not having the scape broadly yellowish brown nor the pedicel with a brown spot. Poecilobothrus basilicus is also considerably larger (holotype in ZMHB, examined). Neither the key by Stackelberg (1941) nor that by Khaghaninia et al. (2013a) provides a couplet for species with a silvery white face and a black antenne with the scape only brown at its apicoventral corner. In both keys, the character “antenna entirely black” leads to P. bigoti Mik, 1883 which is a totally different species featuring a cercus without a jagged margin (see Parent, 1938, fig. 184, p. 151; species also present in the reference collection of the last author). The species is neither conspecific with P. armeniorum (Stackelberg, 1934) for the following reasons:

1 Scape with brown apicoventral corner, antenna otherwise black. Coxa I mainly yellow on anterior face and brownish on lateral face. Cercus blackish brown, with basal 1/3 reddish yellow. Body length about 5 mm .................................................................................................... Poecilobothrus innotabilis sp. nov. ( Iran)

- Antenna entirely black. Coxa I entirely yellow. Cercus entirely blackish brown. Body length about 4 mm ........................................................ Poecilobothrus armeniorum ( Stackelberg, 1941) ( Armenia, southern Russia)

Figures

FIGURES 37 – 39. Poecilobothrus innotabilis sp. nov., male. (37) habitus; (38) antenna; (39) hypopygium.