Platyplastinx ibanezbernali, Jaume-Schinkel & Kvifte, 2022

Jaume-Schinkel, Santiago & Kvifte, Gunnar M., 2022, Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov., a new species of moth fly (Diptera: Psychodidae) from Ecuador, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 62 (2), pp. 383-389 : 386-388

Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov.

( Figs 1–8 )

Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♂, slide mounted (on the slide: head, left wing, terminal segments of abdomen and genitalia; thorax, right wing and legs removed for DNA barcoding). Deposited at INABIO with the following labels: “ Ecuador, Pichincha Prov., // Parroquia Pedro Vicente // Maldonado 0.118626, - // 78.958022400000004 // 779 m. 25-January-28 - // January-2020.// Kilian, Isabel” “ PSYCHODIDAE ♂ // Platyplastinx // ibanezbernali // Jaume-Schinkel, S. & Kvifte, G. M // det. Jaume-Schinkel, S. 2021” “HOLOTYPE” [red] “ ZFMK-DIP-00082164 ” [barcode] . PARATYPES: 2 ♂♂, slide mounted as holotype, same label information [deposited at INABIO] [ ZFMK-DIP-00081679 , ZFMK-DIP-00081672 ] ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, slide mounted as holotype, same label information [deposited at ZFMK] [ ZFMK-DIP-00082161 , ZFMK-DIP-00082180 ]; 1 ♂, slide mounted as holotype, same label information [deposited at IEXA] [ ZFMK-DIP-00082168 ]; 1 ♂ complete specimen stored in 96% ethanol, same label information [deposited at ZFMK] [ZFMK, ZFMK-DIP-000-81982 ].

Diagnosis. Adult male. Males of this species can be differentiated from other species of Platyplastinx by the following characters: hypopods with only 1 apical elongated tenaculum; hypopods pyriform, tapering towards apex; eye bridge with 4 facet rows; 16–18 short spiniform accessory tenacula; eyes contiguous with interocular suture T-shaped; wing membrane not darkened except for dark spots on apices of longitudinal veins.

It can be separated from P. sycophantos , P. cromossomiscos and P. culmosus by the presence of only one apical elongated tenaculum in the hypopods. It differs from P. hirsutus , P. tango , P. exiguus , P. moragai , and P. plumaris by the shape of the hypopods (pyriform and tapering towards the apex in Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov.). Finally, it can be differentiated from the most similar species, Platyplastinx duckhousei Lopes & Bravo 2015 , by the following characters: in Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov. the interocular suture is T-shaped and eyes contiguous with 4 facet rows, wings are not darkened in the apical half and bear dark spots at apices of wing veins, gonostyli are incurved; in P. duckhousei the interocular suture is inverted U-shaped and eyes separated by less than 1 facet diameter, wings are darkened in the apical half except for clear spots between wing veins, gonostyli are straight.

Description. Adult male ( Figs 1–6 , 12, 14–15 ). Measurements (averages, n = 6): Head width 0.58 mm, length 0.53 mm; wing width 0.93 mm, length 2.34 mm.

Head round in frontal view; surface regularly covered with setae alveoli. Eyes contiguous; Interocular suture T-shaped; eye bridge with 4 facet rows. Frontal alveoli patch bell-shaped, with lower margin bilobed. Clypeus with alveoli patch square, very sparse at median. Antenna with scape cylindrical, about twice length of pedicel; pedicel spherical; flagellomeres broadly fusiform, about same length as scape, terminal flagellomeres absent in material examined, maximum number of flagellomeres present in one specimen: 11, ascoids paired and long, digitiform, about length of 2.1 flagellomeres. Palpus short, not extending beyond flagellomere 6, all palp segments cylindrical; palp segment 4 striated; proportions of palp segments 1: 2: 2: 2.4. Labellum fleshy, longer than broad, with 3–5 setae and no spiniform or tooth-like sensilla.

Wing length 2.5 times its maximum width, oblanceolate with acute apex, general coloration of membrane yellowish with brown spots on apex of all longitudinal veins and at origin of R 5 and fork R 2+3; costa with one basal node; Sc ending freely at about start of M 3; Rs pectinate, radial fork slightly basal to medial fork, junction of R 3 + R 2 very faint ( Figs 3 , 14 ), R 5 ending at wing apex.

Terminalia. Hypandrium bilobed and joining gonocoxites at basal margin, lobes with single bristle near apex ( Fig. 6 ), it appears membranous, giving appearance of “cleft” near median line; gonostyli longer than gonocoxites, curved inward, with apices at same level as that of aedeagus; ejaculatory apodeme almost square with anterior margin little wider than posterior margin; aedeagal-paramere complex with two finger-like appendages; epandrium approximately as wide as long, with anterior margin concave, with bristles distributed at apical margin; hypopods curved pyriform, with one apical feathered tenaculum and additional 16–18 short spiniform accessory tenacula distributed in distal half of ventral surface.

Female ( Figs 7–10 , 13, 16 ). Measurements (n = 1) head width 0.48 mm, length 0.53 mm; wing width 0.76 mm, length 1.92 mm. Same as male except for proportion of palp segments 1: 2: 2: 2.3 ( Fig. 7 ). Terminal flagellomeres missing in material examined; maximum number of flagellomeres present in one specimen: six. Ascoids missing in material examined. Wing length 2.5 times its maximum width, general coloration as in male wing, with faint darkening in middle section but not extending towards apex ( Fig. 8 ).

Terminalia. Hypogynium apical margin rounded (hypogynium rounded and not bilobed is a characteristic of the genus, see diagnosis in QUATE 1999; QUATE & BROWN 2004 [as subgenital plate]) trapezoid-shaped with broadly sclerotized U-shaped margin carrying small setulae and 4 strong bristles as in Figs 11 , 16 . Hypogynium short, about 0.45 length of cerci. Cerci length is about 1.5 its maximum width. Genital chamber simple, shaped like inverted S on each side, as in Figs 11 , 16 .

Egg. The single female specimen contained eggs inside the abdomen, the overall shape is ovoid ( Fig. 9 ). All eggs present micropyle as conical-shaped structure on anterior pole as in Figs 9–10 . Microsculpture is not preserved well enough to allow diagnosis.

Etymology. The specific epithet is in honor of a great mentor, entomologist and Psychodidae specialist, Dr. Sergio Ibáñez-Bernal.

Genetics. The GenBank accession numbers for the DNA barcodes (5ʹ- COI) for this species are: ON002471 [ZFMK-DIP-00082164], ON002470 [ZFMK-DIP-00082168], ON002472 [ZFMK-DIP-00082180].

Distribution. Currently known only from the type locality. Differential diagnosis. This species can be included in the key to males of world Platyplastinx presented by LOPES & BRAVO (2015), modified as follows:

6 Hypopods (cercus in LOPES & BRAVO 2015) with accessory tenacula numbering 16–18. ......................... 7

– Hypopods (cercus in LOPES & BRAVO 2015) with accessory tenacula numbering 6 to 9. .......................... 8

7 Eyes separated by less than 1 facet diameter; interocular suture inverted U-shaped; Wing membrane darkened in apical half with exception of small apical areas between wing veins; genitalia as in LOPES & BRAVO (2015: fig. 4). ............................................................... ..... Platyplastinx duckhousei Lopes & Bravo, 2015

– Eyes contiguous; interocular suture T-shaped ( Fig. 1 ); wing membrane not darkened in apical half, with darkened apices of wing veins; genitalia as in Figs 5–6 . ... ....................... Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov.

Figures

Figs 1–6. Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov., male holotype. 1 – head; 2 – antennal scape, pedicel and first two flagellomeres; 3 – wing; 4 – epandrium and hypandrium; 5–6 – male genitalia. Abbreviations: asc – ascoids, ata – accessory tenacula, ep – epandrium, es – scape, fl – flagellomere, gns – gonostyli, gnx – gonocoxites, hpd – hypopods, hpr – hypandrium, pd – pedicel, ta – tenaculum. Scale in millimeters.

Figs 7–11. Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov., female paratype. 7 – head; 8 – wing; 9–10 – egg; 11 – terminalia. Abbreviations: ap – anterior pole, cer – cercus, hyp – hypogynium, pp – posterior pole. Scales in millimeters.

Figs 12–16. Platyplastinx ibanezbernali sp. nov., photographies. 12 – head, male holotype; 13 – head, female paratype; 14 – wing, male paratype; 15 – genitalia, male holotype; 16 – genitalia, female paratype. Scale in μm.