Ramuliseta Keiser, 1951

Korneyev, V. A., 2015, A New Species Of The Genus Ramuliseta (Diptera, Ctenostylidae) From Madagascar, With A Key To Species, Vestnik Zoologii 49 (6), pp. 489-496 : 489-490

Ramuliseta Keiser, 1951

Keiser, 1951: 119; Hennig, 1960: 323; Steyskal, 1980: 556; McAlpine, 1990: 365, 369; Barraclough, 1994: 6, 1995: 135, 1998: 115; Korneyev, 2001: 48; 2006: 63, 2010: 963, 965; Rafael et al., 2009: 63, 64; Câmara & Rafael, 2013: 147; Pereira-Colavite & Mello, 2014: 219.

Type species: Ramuliseta palpifera Keiser, 1951 (by original designation).

Diagnosis. The flies of the genus Ramuliseta , similarly to the other Higher Tephritoidea (sensu Korneyev, 1999) have pictured wings and telesopic ovipositor of the females. Similarly to the other ctenostylids, they can be easily distinguished by the combination of lacking ocelli, vestigial proboscis, incomplete vein Sc, cell cup closed by arcuate crossvein without triangular lobe along vein CuA 2 +A 1, strongly dimorphic arista (dendritical in females, simple and short pubescent in males), transverse prosternum, proepisternum bare or at most with one fine seta, spiracles round and open, without marginal fringe, anterior notopleural seta lacking, male genitalia with surstyli indistinguishable, without prensisetae, phallus spimple, tubular, with reduced glans, and female with aculeus simple, tubular, non-sclerotized, with small, blunt and short setulose, non-piercing cercal unit. Flies of the genus Ramuliseta have well developed palp as in species of Neotropical Furciseta Aczél, 1956 , Oriental Nepaliseta Barraclough, 1995 and Sinolochmostylia Yang, 1995 differing from them all by veins R 2+3 and R 4+5 subparallel: distance along costal margin between R 2+3 and R 4+5 less than twice distance between R 4+5 and M (strongly divergent, with R 2+3 conspicuously bowed anterobasally in Furciseta , Nepaliseta , and Sinolochmostylia ). The species of Ramuliseta differ from Furciseta also by having frons of males unmodified, not strongly narrowed (sexually dimorphic in Furciseta very narrow in males and unmodified in females) and vein M developed in distal half of cell bm (vein M lacking basally of crossvein bm-cu in Furciseta ). The species of Ramuliseta differ from Nepaliseta and Sinolochmostylia by having flagellomere 1 of females elongate, with narrowed apical projection, and arista with multiple branching (in Nepaliseta and Sinolochmostylia , flagellomere 1 of females almost spherical, without apical projection, and arista extremely modified, disk-like).

The genus was described by Barraclough (1994) in details, and I do not repeat the description here.

D i s t r i b u t i o n. Afrotropical ( Nigeria and Tanzania to South Africa; Madagascar) and Oriental Region (Lesser Sunda Islands).

The genus now includes 3 species: Palaeotropical Ramuliseta palpifera Keiser, 1951 (= R. lindneri Keiser, 1952 ), Afrotropical R. madagascariensis Hennig, 1960 and R. dolini sp. n. ( Madagascar). The Oriental R. thaica Korneyev, 2001 belongs elsewhere, either to Sinolochmostylia or Nepaliseta (Korneyev, in prep.).

Key to species of Ramuliseta

1. Smaller (wing shorter than 5.5 mm) dark brown flies; wing with brown wing pattern; cell R 4+5 entirely brown in apical half ( fig. 1 , 3 ). Mainland sub-Saharan Africa, Lesser Sunda Islands. ................................. ..................................................................................................................... Ramuliseta palpifera ( Keiser, 1951)

— Larger (wing shorter than 6.5 mm) yellow flies; wing with yellow wing pattern; cell R 4+5 with one or two hyaline areas in apical half ( fig. 1, 1 , 2 ). Madagascar..................................................................................... 2.

2. Wing apex hyaline; cell r 4+5 distal of crossvein dm-cu with two hyaline areas separated by rounded brown spot between them ( fig. 1 , 2 ). ...................................... Ramuliseta madagascariensis Hennig, 1961

— Wing apex yellow; cell r 4+5 distal of crossvein dm-cu with one large hyaline area and apical yellow band reaching its apex ( fig. 1, 1 ). .......................................................................................... Ramuliseta dolini sp. n.

Figures

Fig. 1. Ramuliseta, wing: 1 — R. dolini sp.n.; 2 — R. madagascariensis; 3 — R. palpifera (arrows show key characters).

Fig. 3. Ramuliseta madagascariensis, paralectotype ♀: 1 — head dorsal, 2 — same, right; 3 — wing.

Fig. 2. Ramuliseta dolini sp. n., holotype ♀: 1 — habitus, lateral view; 2–5 — head (2 — left, 3 — anterior, 4 — dorsal view); 6 — wing; 7 — mesonotum, dorsal view.