Platypalpus taninensis Zouhair & Grootaert, 2024

Zouhair, Laila, Grootaert, Patrick & Kettani, Kawtar, 2024, Twelve new species of Platypalpus Macquart (Diptera: Hybotidae) from Morocco, with additional new records, European Journal of Taxonomy 951 (1), pp. 1-53 : 12-14

Platypalpus taninensis Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:883E5997-6B59-499A-A3B8-7777

Figs 4–5

Diagnosis

A small black species (2.5 mm long) of the albiseta group, with one pair of long black verticals. Antennae blackish brown with white stylus, postpedicel elongate conical, about 4× as long as wide at base, stylus densely pubescent, as long as third antennal segment. Thorax with mesoscutum polished, including postpronotal lobe (except for dusted margins of mesoscutum), pleura subshining, leaving a large polished spot on katepisternum. Legs blackish brown, except for fore coxa and trochanter whitish yellow, tip of fore femur and apical third of hind femora yellowish. Mid tibia without apical spur. Hind femur with long yellow anteroventral setae. Wings mainly brown infuscate with vein M 1+2 conspicuously bowed before meeting wing margin and vein R 4+5 rather straight.

Etymology

This new species is named after Oued Tanina, which drains the mountain of Jbel Kelti at the western Rif of Morocco, where the holotype was collected.

Material examined

Holotype

MOROCCO – Rif • ♂; Oued Tanina ; 22 Apr. 2021; sweep net; L. Zouhair leg.; RBINS.

Paratype

MOROCCO – Rif • 1 ♀; same collection data as for holotype; LESCB.

Description

Male

LENGTH. Body: 2.5 mm; wing: 2.8 mm.

HEAD. Black in ground colour, occiput greyish pollinose, covered with short brown setae, one pair of long black verticals. Gena greyish pollinose with long brown setae. Frons greyish dusted, narrower than pedicel, somewhat broader toward ocellar tubercle. Face greyish dusted, narrower than pedicel. Clypeus polished, long, about as long as face. Antennae blackish brown with white stylus (slightly brownish at extreme base), pedicel as long as deep, postpedicel very elongate conical, about 4–5× as long as wide at base, stylus densely pubescent, as long as postpedicel. Proboscis brown, shorter than head is high. Palpus brown, small with scattered pale hairs and long dark subapical setae.

THORAX. With mesoscutum black, pleura brown. Mesoscutum polished, including postpronotal lobe (except for dusted margins of mesoscutum), pleura subshining, leaving a large polished spot on katepisternum. Postpronotal lobe with 1 long, faint yellow seta and 1 short yellow seta. Mesoscutum with 1 long notopleural, 1 moderately long postalar, 2 pairs of long yellow prescutellars, 4 brownish scutellars (apical pair long and cruciate, lateral pair very short), acrostichals yellow, biserial, widely separated, dorsocentrals yellow, uniserial, as long as acrostichals.

LEGS. Blackish brown with fore coxa and trochanter whitish yellow, tip of fore femur and apical third of hind femora yellowish. CoXae and trochanters with yellow setae of different lengths. Fore femur thickened in basal two thirds, with a row of long pale posteroventral setae. Fore tibia rather spindle-shaped, clothed with ordinary pale setulae. Mid femur slightly thicker than fore femur, with double row of black ventral spinules and row of long, thick (spine-like), brown posteroventral setae. Mid tibia slender, without apical spur, covered with ordinary setulae. Hind femur slender, with long yellow anteroventral setae. Hind tibia slender, slightly shorter than femur, clothed with ordinary brown setulae.

WINGS. Mainly brownish infuscate, with brownish veins. Costa with one moderately long brown seta. Vein M 1+2 conspicuously bowed before meeting wing margin, vein R 4+5 rather straight. Crossveins m-cu and r-m not separated, bm slightly longer and broader than br. Vein Cu 2 rather sinuate, recurrent. Vein Cu reaching wing border, recurrent in basal part. Anal vein distinct in basal part and evanescent in apical part. Squama yellowish. Haltere whitish.

ABDOMEN. With brown tergites, polished, covered with short pale setae. Sternites paler brown, with similar setation. Male terminalia ( Fig. 4 ) with left cercus very wide with a rectangular process ( Fig. 4B–D ). Right cercus narrower, bearing a tiny point at tip ( Fig. 4D ). Left epandrial lamella very narrow, lacking long setae on left border. Right border of right epandrial lamella also lacks usual long setae ( Fig. 4A ).

Female

Resembling male, except for the terminalia.

Remarks

The key in Grootaert & Chvála (1992) leads to Platypalpus albocapillatus Fallén, 1815 (couplet 46). Compared to the description of P. albocapillatus in Chvála (1973), both species are very close; they share the majority of morphological characters, but they differ in some characters especially in the legs: in P. albocapillatus the legs are mostly blackish including the coxae, with the knees and fore tibia towards the base brown, or the legs are entirely brown in paler specimens, while in the new species the legs are blackish brown, but the fore coxa and trochanter are whitish yellow, with the tip of the fore femur and the apical third of the hind femora yellow. The posteroventral setae of the fore femur in P. albocapillatus are black, while in the new species they are pale. The genitalia of both species are completely different in all details (compare Chvála 1973: fig. 8 or Chvála 1975: figs 289–291 with Fig. 4 ).

This species can also be compared with Platypalpus miroslavi sp. nov. They both belong to the albiseta group. The two species are similar, but differ in several characters: the postpedicel is more elongate in P. taninensis sp. nov. than in P. miroslavi , the legs in P. miroslavi are yellow, including the coxae, except for the fore and mid femora dorsally, the fore tibiae, the apical third of the hind femora and all the tarsi are brownish to blackish brown, while in P. taninensis the legs are blackish brown, with the fore coxa, the tip of the fore femur and the apical third of the hind femora yellowish. The male terminalia of both species differ clearly especially in the shape of cerci ( Figs 2B , 4B ).

Figures

Fig. 4. Platypalpus taninensis Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., male terminalia (holotype, RBINS). A. Right epandrial lamella with detail of apex. B. Epandrium, dorsal view. C. Left epandrial lamella. D. Cerci, dorsal view. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.

Fig. 5. Platypalpus taninensis Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., ♂, habitus (holotype, RBINS).

Fig. 2. Platypalpus miroslavi Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., male terminalia (holotype, RBINS). A. Left epandrial lamella with border of right epandrial lamella, ventral view. B. Epandrium with cerci, dorsal view. C. Left cercus. D. Detail of tip of left and right epandrial lamellae. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.