Efferia

Aubrey G. Scarbrough & Daniel E. Perez-Gelabert, 2009, Review of the West Indian species of Efferia Coquillett (Diptera: Asilidae) with 13 new species and checklist: Part II. Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Lesser Antilles including Tobago and Trinidad, Zootaxa 1994, pp. 1-66 : 63-64

Efferia sp. C

Figs. 130–131 , Table 1

This species is apparently undescribed, but because females are usually difficult to determine by themselves, we choose not to give it a name at this time. Notes of the female are included in the event that males are located in the future, and it is included in the key to females.

Female. Measurements, body 11.3–15.0 mm, wing 10.4–12.5 mm. Head: Mostly pale yellow tomentose with pale setae. Face and frons often brownish-yellow tomentose, blackish below gibbosity on face laterally and below epistome; bristles black, numerous medially and along epistomal margin laterally, latter bristles thin; sparse thin pale bristles present just above epistomal margin medially; pale whitish or yellowish setae intermixed. Palpi and ocellar tubercle entirely black setose; frons black setose, pale setae sparse. Antennae and occiput with mostly pale vestiture, 2–3 postocular bristles black.

Thorax: Blackish; postpronotum and postalar callus brownish-yellow or reddish. Scutum brownishyellow or yellow tomentose laterally; anterior scutal setae about as long as scape; setae mostly and bristles entirely black; pale setae laterally. Scutellum yellowish-gray tomentose, setae whitish, longer than scape and pedicel combined; 5–8 marginal bristles, usually black or mixed black and yellowish. Pleura brownish-yellow tomentose, setae mostly pale, scattered black setae present on anepisternum and anepimeron dorsally; katatergite vestiture variable entirely black, yellowish, or mixed.

Wing: Yellowish, hyaline anteromedially; veins mostly brown, brownish-yellow or yellow basally, anterior 3 veins reddish except brown apically. R4 fork beyond apex of cell d, R4 recurrent vein much longer than basal diameter of cell r4 about as long as r-m crossvein; crossvein apical 1/3 of cell d.

Legs: Coxae, trochanters, tarsi black; coxae brownish-yellow tomentose with pale yellowish vestiture, sometimes reddish. Femora and tibiae reddish, narrow apices black, bristles mostly black or mixed red and black; mesothoracic and metathoracic femora with mostly black bristles anteriorly and anteroventrally, usually at least 1–2 bristles red. Tibiae and tarsi with black bristles.

Abdomen: Mostly yellowish-gray or gray tomentose, tergite 1 and wide sides of tergites 2–7 grayish tomentose, gray extends along apical margin of most tergites, joining medially; tergites 2–7 with large brown tomentose spot dorsally, few to abundant brown setae present; setae elsewhere yellowish or whitish.

Terminalia ( Figs. 130–131 ): Length 4.0– 4.5 mm, at middle 1/6–1/7 as wide as long; cercus short, tergite 9

2.3–2.4 times longer than cercus. Spermathecae oval, surface mostly brownish.

Specimens examined. TOBAGO: Canoe Bay rd. scrub / forest, nr. Hilton Resort / 7–8.iii.2006 D. Perez (8 ♀, NMNH). TRINIDAD: Arima Valley / Simla 18.v.1987 / R. E. Woodruff / at light (3 ♀, FSCA).

Distribution. Tobago and Trinidad. Captured near sea level during March and April.

Remarks. Efferia sp. is distinguished by the entirely black palpal setae, abundant black bristles of the face, blackish tomentum along the lateral margin of the face and below the epistomal margin, brownishyellow tomentum of the scutum and pleura, reddish femora and tibiae with only narrow apices black, and pale tomentum on the lateral margin of tergites 2–7. It is further distinguished by the short, wide terminalia and the oval, mostly brownish surface of the spermathecae ( Figs. 130–131 ).

In Bromley’s (1934) key, the Tobago-Trinidad species end in couplet 5 that includes Efferia amazonica (Bromley) and E. titon (Bromley). These are large (34–35 mm) flies with reddish femora and black markings, and uniformly brownish-gray tomentose abdomens. The femora of E. amazonica are mostly black ventrally whereas those of E. triton have a wide, black, median spot dorsally. Contrastingly, the Tobago-Trinidad species is much smaller (11–15 mm), only the extreme apices of the femora are partly or completely black, and the abdominal tomentum is mostly gray with large brown spots dorsally. Also, the palpal setae of E. amazonica are entirely whitish whereas they are black in this species. The palpal setae of E. triton are mostly black, those basally whitish.

Figures

FIGURES 130–131. Efferia sp. C. Female terminalia, lateral view: 130. Ovipositor; 131. Lateral spermatheca.