Puliciphora jacquemarti Disney

Disney, R. Henry L., 2005, Rudimentary halteres of some flightless female Phoridae (Diptera) reassessed, and some taxonomic implications, Zootaxa 1042, pp. 39-54 : 46-47

Puliciphora jacquemarti Disney , sp. nov.

(Fig. 14)

A specimen sent for identification by Dr Patrick Grootaert (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique) proves to be a new species, which is described below and named after the collector.

Female

Frons dusky, almost orange, yellow with four supra­antennal bristles, a pair of strong bristles a little higher on frons and about midway between upper SAs and eye margin, and six bristles (including ocellars) on vertex. The three ocelli are smaller than sockets of ocellar bristles. Height of eyes, greatest diameters of postpedicels and also greatest width of labrum all subequal. The subglobose postpedicels yellow with a dozen SPS vesicles about the size of SA bristles sockets. Palps pale straw yellow, with a long apical bristle, a similar pre­apical, three finer bristles further back and a dozen hairs. Labrum at least as dark as frons. Thorax coloured as frons, with a small bristle below anterior spiracle, a strong posterolateral bristle each side, with four weaker bristles between them, and a strong alar bristle each side. Abdomen with chestnut brown tergites but T5 and T6 are a little paler. T1 is short and separate from T2. T5–T6 as Fig. 14. Venter dusky yellow with hairs below segments 3–6 and adjacent to the lateral margins of the tergites. Cerci pale straw yellow. Legs yellow with more dusky femora and tibiae, especially those of the hind legs.

The specimen was gravid with eight nearly mature eggs, which resemble those of P. borinquenensis Wheeler (Plate 1 in Bohart & Gressitt, 1951) but lacking the surface microsculpture.

FIGURES 14–15. Puliciphora females, abdominal tergites 4–6: (14) P. jacquemarti ; (15) P. imbecilla . Scale bars = 0.1 mm.

Affinities

This species runs to P. imbecilla Borgmeier in the key to Neotropical females ( Disney, 2003a). However, the abdominal tergites 2–4 of the new species are wider and the anterior flap of T5 has laterally directed apodemes (Fig. 14) in contrast to P. imbecilla (Fig. 15).