Neuratelia jabalmoussae, Kurina, Olavi, Ounap, Erki & Poldmaa, Kadri, 2015

Kurina, Olavi, Ounap, Erki & Poldmaa, Kadri, 2015, Two new Neuratelia Rondani (Diptera, Mycetophilidae) species from Western Palaearctic: a case of limited congruence between morphology and DNA sequence data, ZooKeys 496, pp. 105-129 : 110-113

Taxon classification Animalia Diptera Mycetophilidae

Neuratelia jabalmoussae sp. n. Figs 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15

Type material.

Holotype. 1♂, LEBANON, Kesrouane Mar Elias, 34°03'06,9"N, 35°46'00,5"E, 1138 m a.s.l., at light, 27.v.-4.vi.2012, J. Kullberg leg. (IZBE0200250, slide mounted in Euparal with terminalia in glycerine). Paratypes. 1♂, LEBANON, Kesrouane Mar Geryes, 34°03'20,9"N, 35°44'28,9"E, 749 m a.s.l., at light, 26.v.-2.vi.2012, J. Kullberg leg. (IZBE0200251, in alcohol with terminalia in glycerine);1♂, LEBANON, Kesrouane Ghbele, 34°03'25,5"N, 35°43'02,5"E, 884 m a.s.l., at light, 26.v.-30.v.2012, J. Kullberg leg. (IZBE0200252, in alcohol).

Description.

Male (Fig. 6). Body length 5.4-5.8, 5.6 [5.6] mm (n=3).

Head dark brown, with numerous pale to yellowish setae. Three ocelli in a shallow and wide triangular arrangement, with laterals separated from eye margins by a distance slightly more than their own diameter. Face conical, about 0.8 times as wide as maximum height; clypeus rectangular, about 0.6 times as wide as high; both brown, setose, with setae on clypeus stronger than those on face. Mouthparts yellow. Palpus five segmented, yellowish with apex of fifth segment brownish. Ratios of three apical palpal segments 1.0: 1.68-1.85, 1.77 [1.85]: 1.97-2.00, 1.98 [2.00]. Scape and pedicel light brown to brown, flagellomeres light brown, with short yellowish setae. First flagellomere yellowish at basal third. Flagellum evenly tapering; first flagellomere clavate, 2.9-3.1 times as long as broad apically, 2-13 flagellomeres cylindrical, fourth flagellomere about 1.7-2.5 times as long as broad, apical flagellomere slightly conical, 4.8-5.4 times as long as broad at base.

Thorax. All parts brown to dark brown, all setae yellow to light brownish. Mesonotum with evenly arranged numerous setae. Scutellum wholly setose with about 10 stronger setae along the margin, not arranged to distinct pairs. Antepronotum with 8-9 and proepisternum with 4-7 setae of unequal size, laterotergite with 22-26 setae and mediotergite with ca 14-16 setae medially on lower part. Other pleural parts bare. Halteres pale yellow, setose.

Legs. All coxae yellow, basally infuscated. All trochanters brown. All femora and tibiae yellow, tarsi seem considerably darker because of dense setae. Foretibia with 1-2 ad, 0-2 d and 2-3 pd. Midtibia with 4-7 a, 2-3 d, 1-2 av and 2-4 pd. Hind tibia with 7-8 a, 1-2 ad (1 at apex), 4-6 d, 0-1 pd, 5 p and with a posterior apical comb of setae. Ratio of femur to tibia for fore-, mid- and hind legs: 0.86-0.94, 0.9 [0.9]; 0.77-0.86, 0.82 [0.77]; 0.71-0.75, 0.73 [0.75]. Ratio of tibia to basitarsus for fore-, mid- and hind legs: 0.91-0.94, 0.93 [0.94]; 1.26-1.3, 1.27 [1.3]; 1.51-1.54, 1,53 [1.51].

Wing hyaline, length 5.0-5.03, 5.02 [5.03] mm (n=3). All veins brown, costal and radial veins somewhat darker. Both surfaces of veins setose, except bare bM-Cu and r-m. Wing membrane with micro- and macrotrichia on both surfaces. Costa reaches very little from R5 to M1. Sc reaches costa at about one sixth between Rs and tip of R1. R5 sinuate. Rs about as long as crossvein r-m. M1 basally obsolete: observable vein begins distally from middle of R1. Cubital fork begins proximally from apex of Sc.

Abdomen with tergites brown and sternites yellowish. Tergites 6-7 somewhat darker. Terminalia (Figs 7, 8, 9, 10, 15) dark brown. Tergite 9 apically almost straight, with wide basal incision about one third of height of tergite. Basolateral portions of tergite 9 narrow and proximally pointed. Setae on tergite 9 similar to these on the gonocoxite, the posteriormost ones slightly stronger than the others. Cerci separated, protruding over tergite 9, with strong apical setae deviating from other setosity. The gonocoxite with a complex ventroapical lobe laterally; ventrobasally with wide shelving incision; ventroapical margin medially with lateral well delimited sub-circular and a medial apically concave setose structures. Dorsomedial margin of the gonocoxite slightly sinuous. The gonostylus with four branches. The dorsal branch simply oval, setose. The ventral branch trifid with 1) internal lobe setose including two stronger internally directed setae, 2) middle lobe elongated with a strong subapical seta, and 3) lateral lobe similar to internal lobe except being bare. Medial branch setose with a well delimited medial hump. Internal branch complex with two strong pointed spines and a lobe bearing 9 short spines ventrally on its apical part. The medial branch of the gonostylus connected with apical part of ventroapical lateral lobe of the gonocoxite. Parameres not protruding over ventroapical margin of gonocoxite.

Female. Unknown.

Biology.

Unknown.

Etymology.

The species is named after the type locality in Jabal Moussa Biosphere Reserve, Lebanon; the specific epithet is a noun in genitive case.

Specific discussion.

Neuratelia jabalmoussae sp. n. is very similar to Neuratelia caucasica , into which it also runs to in the key by Zaitzev (1994) because of having the foretibia slightly shorter than the fore basitarsus. Also the male terminalia of these two species are extremely similar, differ in details as follows: 1) paramers not expanded apically (Fig. 15), while they are well expanded in Neuratelia caucasica (Fig. 16), 2) the lateral lobe of the trifid ventral branch of the gonostylus prominent, about half of the size of medial lobe (Fig. 10), while it is minute in Neuratelia caucasica , about one fifth of the size of medial lobe (Fig. 12), and 3) internal branch of gonostylus has 8 short spines on a separate lobe (Fig. 9), while there are 13 spines in Neuratelia caucasica (Fig. 11). Both species share the general outline of male terminalia also with Western Palaearctic species Neuratelia minor ( Lundström, 1912) and with Neuratelia microdigitata Sasakawa, 2004, known from Japan. However, Neuratelia minor has the foretibia slightly longer than fore basitarsus and the ventral branch of gonostylus bifid instead of being trifid. Neuratelia microdigitata has the internal branch of gonostylus with finger-like processes apically on a separate lobe (cf. Sasakawa 2004: fig. 4) instead of short spines as in other three species. All four species have the similar branching of the gonostylus and two strong pointed spines on internal branch of the gonostylus.