Grallipeza abeja, Marshall, S. A., 2013

Marshall, S. A., 2013, Grallipeza Rondani (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae) of the Caribbean and North America, Zootaxa 3682 (1), pp. 45-84 : 53

Grallipeza abeja new species

Figs. 1–7

Description: Size: 8–9mm. Colour: Head mostly orange; ocellar triangle black, first flagellomere dark (Figs. 3,4). Thorax entirely orange; fore femur and fore tibia entirely black; fore tarsomere one and base of tarsomere two offwhite, other tarsomeres brown. Mid and hind femora dark brown to black except for a strongly contrasting yellow distal ring ( Fig. 3 ). Katepisternum with a double row of black bristles, anterior row small. Abdominal tergites 1–6 reddish brown, syntergite 1+2 relatively pale. Upper quarter of female abdominal pleuron black on segments 3–6 (all specimens in type series shriveled and obscuring this character); oviscape shining brown except for paler tip. Epandrium brown.

Head: Arista long-haired at least over basal 2/3, longest hairs ½ scape width. Pedicel with long ventroapical bristles, one almost as long as first flagellomere. Clypeus shining orange. Palpus orange, tapered apically, with short dark bristles on ventral half and apex. Frontal vitta almost parallel sided throughout, slightly raised in front of ocelli, slightly depressed behind ocelli.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite convex and shining ventrally in male, convex and dull in female. Postpronotum bulging, with 2–3 small indistinct setulae along posteroventral margin. Fore femur with only small ventral setulae. One distinct dorsocentral bristle, 2 very long exclinate suprahumeral bristles. Wing: Anal cell short and microsetulose, wing membrane lightly and evenly infuscated over distal ¾ with a slightly paler portion between discal area and darker apex.

Female abdomen: Oviscape 3 times as long as tergite 6, almost as long as preabdomen. Paired spermathecae smooth and oval, on an enormously swollen common duct enlarged in distal half into an oval area 4 times as wide as spermatheca, separate ducts narrow and half as long as spermatheca Fig. 1). Single spermatheca bilobed and wrinkled, on a narrow duct slightly shorter than common duct.

Male abdomen: Syntergite 1+2 with fine hairs on anterior part of tergite 1 and a transverse row of long bristles on posterior part. Tergites 2–6 uniformly setulose. Sternite 8 shining with a few setulae; epandrium about twice as long as wide, microtrichose and setulose distally, basal third bare and shining at least laterally. Sternite 5 with a broad anterior part (base), inner surface of each arm of posterior part (genital fork) with a cluster of 2–3 contiguous basal spines and 6–7 evenly spaced spines on distal half; sternite 5 not cleft basal to spines of genital fork ( Fig. 6 ). Internal genitalia, examined on one dissected specimen, with simple ovate postgonite; distiphallus slightly shorter than sternite 5 and about as long as epandrium, terminating in a broad swollen section ( Fig. 7 ). Pregonite with only small, inconspicuous ventral setae.

Type material: Holotype: Dominican Republic. Pedernales Province. P.N. Sierra de Barouco, Las Abejas, 18 ° 09.11’N, 7 ° 37.342’W, 1150m, 11.vii.2004, N. E. Woodley (male, USNM). Paratypes: Same locality as holotype. 19.i.1989, S.A. Marshall (1 Ƥ, DEBU); 11.vii.2004, D. Perez (4 3, 1 Ƥ, USNM). Note that 4 of the D. Perez types were knocked off the pins and damaged in shipping; some were dissociated from label data and their collection data is inferred; these specimens now bear only labels reading “loan from USNMNH 2046396”; two of these were used for abdominal dissections.

Etymology: The specific epithet is from the Spanish for “bee”, and refers to the type locality, Las Abejas (“the bees”).

Comments: Grallipeza abeja and G. p e re z i are known only from Dominican Republic’s remarkable Las Abejas intramontane area. Both species are characterized by a relatively dark hind femur with a pale band (the reverse of the usual pattern), but they differ widely in head colour and characters of the male terminalia. Female terminalia were not examined for G. p e re z i.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. Grallipeza abeja. 1, spermathecae and ducts; 2, female right lateral; 3, male left lateral; 4, head dorsal; 5, male terminalia left lateral; 6, male sternite 5 (genital fork); 7, male phallus detail. Abbreviations: dp, distiphallus; gf, genital fork; ep, epandrium; S 5, sternite 5; S 6, sternite 6; pb, phallic bulb; ps, paired spermathecae; ss, single spermathecae.