Idiocera (Idiocera) cretopunctata, Starý, 2020

Starý, Jaroslav, 2020, Two new Idiocera Dale from the Mediterranean (Diptera: Limoniidae), Zootaxa 4803 (1), pp. 177-182 : 179-180

Idiocera (Idiocera) cretopunctata sp. n.

( Figs 2 , 4, 5 )

Diagnosis. Body colouration greyish brown, pruinose, patterned with pale yellow, especially on pleuron. Wing with dark brown pattern consisting of stigma and seams or spots along all (sub)vertical vein elements. Male terminalia with three separate gonostyli. Wing length 4.9–6.8 mm.

Material examined: Type specimens 19 ♂♂, 18 ♀♀.

Holotype ♂ ( SMOC): Greece: Crete: Khania Region: Alikianos, Xekollimenos River , 14.v.2004 (J. Starý leg.), labelled: “Crete 14.5.2004 / Khania Region, Alikianos, / Xekollimenos River / J. Starý leg.” [printed, white label], “ Holotype / Idiocera (s. str.) / cretopunctata sp. n. ♂ / J. Starý 2020” [printed, red label]. The specimen is glued onto a triangular cardboard point, left antenna and left fore and mid legs are missing, apex of abdomen cut off, terminalia dissected and placed in a sealed plastic tube with glycerine, pinned with the specimen.

Paratypes: Greece: Crete: Khania Region: Alikianos, Xekollimenos River , 14.v.2004, 11 ♂♂, 9 ♀♀, 17.v.2004, 6 ♂♂, 7 ♀♀; Nea Roumata, brook, 21.v.2004, 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀ (all J. Starý leg.) ( SMOC, JSOC). All specimens glued onto points; terminalia, if dissected, placed as for holotype .

Description. Male. Head pale grey dorsally, pale yellow around eyes, dark in middle. Antenna brown, with scape yellowed dorsally, 16-segmented, not reaching to base of wing. Flagellomeres ovoid to long-ovoid, with verticils about as long as respective segments.

Thorax with basic colouration grey, pruinose. Pronotum brownish grey, with lateral margins pale yellow. Prescutum and scutum grey, with two brown longitudinal stripes continuing onto scutal lobes, yellowed anterolaterally before prescutal pit. Other parts of dorsum of much the same basic colouration as prescutum, scutal lobe yellowed posterolaterally, scutellum posteriorly, and mediotergite anterolaterally. Pleuron richly patterned with pale yellow, with indications of two longitudinal stripes, one on dorsolateral membrane, paratergite, anepimeron, and part of anatergite, the other on upper part of katepisternum, katepimeron, and metakatepisternum. Wing ( Fig. 2 ) hyaline, with dark brown stigma and conspicuous dark brown seams or spots along all (sub)vertical vein elements; cell R 3 darkened on its apex. Wing venation usual for subgenus, with vein deflections more or less angulated, deflection of Rs sometimes with spur, and with following features of some taxonomic value: Sc 1 ending at about one third length of Rs; Sc 2 at origin of Rs; R 3 subvertical, connected with R 1 at wing margin or nearly so; R 3+4 distinctly shorter than R 4. Stem of halter whitish yellow, knob dark brown. Legs with coxae, trochanters, and femora yellow, latter with faint subapical rings, tibiae and tarsi yellow except for darker distal tarsal segments.

Abdomen dark brown, with posterior margins of segments narrowly yellow. Male terminalia ( Figs 4, 5 ): Tergite 9 conspicuously produced posteriorly, with broadly rounded margins. Gonocoxite elongate, with long dorsal lobe more conical distally than in preceding species (cf. Figs 3, 4 ). Three separate gonostyli present. Outer gonostylus gently curved, subacute at tip, bearing tubercle before apex and spine at about half length ( Fig. 5 ); intermediate gonostylus stout, comparatively long, unequally bifid, with stout, outer spine and much shorter thumb-like inner projection; inner gonostylus short, flattened, more or less truncate at apex, with row of setae at its distal, serrate margin.Aedeagus stout, conspicuously dilated distally, with narrowly rounded median tip and curved lateral projections directed posteroventrally.

Female. Resembling male in general appearance. Female terminalia with cercus long and slender, subacute at tip, evenly and slightly upturned (less so than in I. (I.) falcistylus sp. n.).

Etymology. The compound name of the new species refers to the island of its occurrence (Crete) and relationship to I. (I.) punctata . An adjective in nominative singular.

Distribution. Grecce: Crete.

Discussion. The new species is very similar, including the structure of its male terminalia, and obviously closely related to I. (I.) punctata . Although the shape of its aedeagus appears just as a magnified copy of that in the latter species, the shape of the outer gonostylus is quite different and very distinctive (cf. Figs 5, 6 ).

It should be emphasized that the apex of the aedeagus of I. (I.) punctata as illustrated by Edwards (1939, Fig. 2b ) and Starý (1977, Figs 1, 2 ) is inaccurate and somewhat confusing, having been drawn from the Canada balsam mount, and the present illustrations ( Figs 6, 7 ) should be consulted on identification of that species.

Figures

FIGURES 1–2. Wing (paratypes). 1: Idiocera (Idiocera) falcistylus sp. n.; 2: I. (I.) cretopunctata sp. n. Scale bar = 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 3–7. Male terminalia. 3: Idiocera (Idiocera) falcistylus sp. n., (paratype), general view, dorsal; 4–5: I. (I.) cretopunctata sp. n. (paratype), general view, dorsal (4) and outer gonostylus, lateral (5); 6–7: I. (I.) punctata (Edwards, 1938) (Czech Republic, Radějov), outer gonostylus, lateral (6) and aedeagus, dorsal (7). Scale bar = 0.25 mm.