Rhynchomicropteron Annandale, 1912

Lengyel, Gábor Dániel, 2011, The first Rhynchomicropteron Annandale, 1912 (Diptera, Phoridae) species from the Palearctic region, with taxonomic and faunistic notes on the fauna of Israel, Zootaxa 2885, pp. 23-32 : 24-25

Genus Rhynchomicropteron Annandale, 1912

Type species: Rhynchomicropteron puliciforme Annandale, 1912

The Oriental genus Rhynchomicropteron currently includes 19 species which are mainly known from female specimens ( Table 1 ) ( Fig. 2 ). For more than 80 years, males of this genus were included in the genus Gymnoselia Schmitz, 1929 , now a junior synonym of Rhynchomicropteron ( Brown 1992) . So far there is only a single species, R. nudiventer Papp, 1982 of which both sexes are known. There are two more species described based on males, but these may be conspecific with other species known from female sex only.

The sexual dimorphism is striking in this genus, but not unparalleled in the family Phoridae . The females have rudimentary wings, and eyes (composed by less than 20 ommatidia), strongly swollen abdomen with few or no sclerotised tergites, fully membranous sternites, and very long proboscis. On the contrary, the congeneric males look like a “usual” phorid ( Fig. 3 ). This phenomenon is in connection with the different biology and habitat of the males and the females. Females live together with ants or termites ( Disney 1999), while males are free living.

Males are usually much bigger than females and are supposedly able to lift up the flightless females and carry them to another ant colony. The circumstances of the capture of R. kuslitzkyi sp. n. confirm this supposition. In 2009 Dr. Amnon Freidberg (Tel-Aviv University, Israel) sent me wingless phorids from a Malaise trap. It was very improbable that the wingless females could climb up into the trap, they should be brought up by males or by phoresy, therefore the remaining trap material was sorted and 13 males were found.

It should be noted that the correct spelling in case of two species are Rhynchomicropteron muluense Disney, 1981 and R. nepalense Disney, 1991 (described as R. muluensis and R. nepalensis ) according to the rules of ICZN (1999).

In the collection of Los Angeles County Museum, USA ( LACM) and in the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest ( HNHM) there are undescribed Rhynchomicropteron males from the following countries: Australia, Iran, Nigeria, Thailand, Nigeria, Malaysia—LACM; Taiwan, and Vietnam—HNHM.

1. Rhynchomicropteron aphidiforme Schmitz & Mjoberg, 1925 - + Malaysia: Borneo

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 2. Collecting sites in Israel (1); Distribution of the known Rhynchomicropteron species (2). Numbers in squares refer to males, circles to females. (Numbers refer to: 1. R. aphidiforme; 2. R. beaveri; 3. R. bifidspinarum; 4. R. brevipes; 5. R. caecutiens; 6. R. curvescens; 7. R. dudichi; 8. R. ellwoodi; 9. R. kuslitzkyi sp. n.; 10. R. laticosta; 11. R. micraphidiforme; 12. R. muluense; 13. R. necaphidiforme; 14. R. necbeaveri; 15. R. nepalensis; 16. R. nudicosta; 17. R. nudiventer; 18. R. puliciforme; 19. R. silvestrii; 20. R. vallacki.).

FIGURES 3 – 5. Rhynchomicropteron kuslitzkyi sp. n. 3, habitus of male and female; 4, female lateral view; 5, female dorsal view. Scale bars: 0.5 mm.