Ropalomera clavipes ( Fabricius, 1805 )

Ale-Rocha, Rosaly & Pollet, Marc, 2019, First records of Ropalomeridae (Diptera, Acalyptratae) from French Guiana, Zoosystema 41 (1), pp. 1-5 : 3

Ropalomera clavipes ( Fabricius, 1805) ( Fig. 1 A-C, F)

Dictya clavipes Fabricius, 1805: 329 .

Ropalomera clavipes – Wiedemann 1824: 17.

Ropalomera spinosa Perty, 1833: 189 , fig. 14.

Ropalomera nebulosa Walker, 1857: 225 .

Rhopalomera [sic] clavipes – Williston 1895 a: 184, 185.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — French Guiana. Mitaraka, La Planète Revisitée Guyane 2015, MNHN-PNI, APA 973-1, MIT-DZ, 02°14’01.8”N, 54°27’01.0”W, 306 m, drop zone, 24.II-10.III.2015, LT, leg. Julien Touroult (FR-GU/ Mitaraka /2015) – sample code: MITARAKA/115 (sorted by Marc Pollet, 2015). 1 ♀, MNHN ; idem , Mitaraka, MIT-E-savane roche 2, 02°13’59.8”N, 54°27’46.5”W, 471 m, open/partially opened areas on savane roche 2, 13-20. VIII.2015, MT (6 m), leg. Pierre-Henri Dalens (FR-GU/ Mitaraka /2015) – sample code: MITARAKA/230 (sorted by Marc Pollet, 2015), 2 ♂, 1 ♀, MNHN .

DISTRIBUTION. — Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana (first record), Brazil (Roraima, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Maranhão, Piauí, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, São Paulo), Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay.

DIAGNOSIS. — Frons ( Fig. 1B ) yellow or ochreous laterally, darkened centrally on ventral half and on ocellar tubercle, with two spots of silvery pruinosity lateral to ocellar triangle, and fine yellow pilosity; face brown with one yellow V-shaped spot on ventral half, below facial tubercle; scutum brown with acrostichal and dorsocentral stripes of pale golden pruinosity; pleura lacking horizontal stripe of silvery pruinescence on anepisternum (present in R. tibialis ); wing ( Fig. 1F ) hyaline with brown spots; mid tibia with ventroapical short, wide, spur-shaped process in males; hind tibia with tubercles on dorsal surface; tergites dark brown, with four spots of silvery pruinosity arranged in a checkerboard pattern; postgonites bilobate, phallus lacking lateral projections; dorsal process of hypandrial arms curved, with basal half perpendicular to basal region, apex rounded with short lateral branches.

COMMENTS

Together with R. nudipes Frey, 1959 and R. stictica Wiedemann, 1830 , R. clavipes belongs to a species group with distinctly infuscated wings. It differs from R. stictica by the size of the wing spots, which are larger in R. clavipes , and from R. nudipes by the number and sharpness of the spots, which are more distinct and numerous in R. clavipes . Furthermore, R. clavipes differs by features of the male genitalia as follows: surstylus straight (falciform in R. nudipes ) and anchor-shaped dorsal process of hypandrial arms with short branches (long branches in R. nudipes and R. stictica ). Ropalomera clavipes was revised by Kirst & Ale-Rocha (2012).

Figures

FIG. 1. — A-C, F, Ropalomera clavipes (Fabricius, 1805): A, female, habitus (lateral view); B, female, head (anterior view); C, male, head (anterior view); D, E, G, Ropalomera tibialis Walker, 1852, male: D, habitus (lateral view); E, head (anterior view); F, R. clavipes, wing; G, R. tibialis, wing. Scale bars: 1 mm.