Physiphora chalybea (Hendel 1909)

Elena P. Kameneva & Valery A. Kroneyev, 2016, Revision of the Genus Physiphora Fallén 1810 (Diptera: Ulidiidae: Ulidiinae), Zootaxa 4087 (1), pp. 1-88 : 25-27

Physiphora chalybea (Hendel 1909)

Figures 72–88 .

Chrysomyza chalybea Hendel, 1909: 620 .

Physiphora chalybea: Hennig, 1940: 11 ; Zaitzev, 1984: 60; Krivosheina & Krivosheina, 1997: 460; Kameneva, 2000: 155; Chen & Kameneva, 2007: 22; Kameneva & Korneyev, 2010: 622.

Material. Type. Syntypes: 6♂, 10♀: Turkmenistan: “Sary Yasy”, “Reitter 1894 / Turkmenien, III.87 ”, “ chalybea / det. Hendel”, “ Type ” (NHMW).

Diagnosis. P. chalybea belongs in the group of species with entirely brown or black fore basitarsomere together with P. euphorbiana , P. kirki sp. n., P. polita sp. n., P. sericea , P. smaragdina , and P. virens sp. n. differing from them by the combination of entire transverse microtrichose band on face (λ-shaped, isolated from antennal grooves in P. sericea and P. smaragdina ), finely rugulose, cyan subshining mesonotum (either densely rugulose, dull and matt green and blue in P. smaragdina and other species with black fore metatarsus, except shining cyan to purple in P. polita sp. n. and shining green to red and golden in P. virens sp. n.), smooth yellowish brown frons with semicircular orbital spot of microtrichia (black in P. euphorbiana and P. sericea , with large subrectangular area of microtrichia in the first, and cuneiform spot in the second; yellow with pitted calluses in P. kirki sp. n.), face brown with black epistome (entirely yellow in P. kirki sp. n.) and from them all by the narrow fore femur with thin posteroventral setae and preglans of the phallus with row of thick, short and separate spines (preglans bare in all the species with black fore metatarsus, except P. polita sp. n., but the latter differs by having variously shaped lobes of the glans ( Figs. 306–307 ), from short and blunt to long claw-like, whereas P. chalybea has all 6 lobes of glans short claw-like—Figs. 80–81).

Description. Head ( Figs. 73–75 ). Frons 1.25 times as long as wide, brown to black in posterior to brownish yellow in anterior half, satin shining, very sparsely and finely, almost inconspicuously brownish setulose, with round parafrontal microtichose spots and two pairs of calluses. Vertical plates black, shining, bearing 2 pairs of brown short, slightly reclinate orbital setae. Ocellar triangle black.

Face brown to black, dorsal half of facial carina and antennal grooves entirely gray microtrichose without bare areas. Lunule brown. Facial ridge, parafacial and gena shining orange or brown, gena 0.25–0.3 times as high as eye. Epistome uniformly brown to dark brown, in studied specimens without metallic sheen. Occiput entirely black and shining. Medial vertical seta 0.4 times as long as frons width, 1.2 times as long as lateral vertical and 3–5 times as long as ocellar, orbital and postocellar setae. Antenna reddish brown, greyish microtrichose; flagellomere 1 rounded apically, twice as long as wide; arista bare, brownish yellow in basal 1/4, remainder brown. Clypeus brown. Palp brown, microtrichose, with moderately long black setulae. Mouthparts black.

Thorax ( Figs. 72, 75 ). Scutum and scutellum brown to black, subshining cyan to blue, shallow and finely rugulose, except antepronotum, posterior surface of postpronotal lobe and pleura shining; postero-ventral margin of scutellum without microtrichose area; postscutellum brown microtrichose; anatergite and katatergite sparsely microtrichose. Mesonotal scutum apparently without medial row of setulae in anterior portion, but with dorsocentral and intra-alar rows, all setae fine and short, and brown; pair of hair-like dorsocentral seta; acrostichal seta in all specimens not visible (specimens directly pinned in front of scutellum). Other setae as in P. alceae .

Scutellum with dusk cyan sheen, apparently bare dorslly, with 2 pairs of black scutellar setae.

Wing. Entirely hyaline, with pale yellow veins; cell r4+5 almost closed, section of costal vein between R4+5 and M more 0.2 times as long as section of costal vein between R2+3 and R4+5; postero-apical extension of cell cup 1.3 times as long as vein A1+CuA2, and 2.8 times as long as transverse section of vein CuA2 ( Fig. 77 ). Length: 3.3–3.5 mm.

Legs. Brown except thee basal tarsomeres of mid and hind legs yellow; all setae black; fore femur narrow, postero-ventrally with 3–4 thin and long setae in apical half.

Abdomen. Both tergites and sternites brown or black-brown, with very weak bluish reflection, with black setulae; female abdominal tergite 2 with pair dimple-like structures laterally; tergite 5 in both male and female shining with deep blue reflection.

Male postabdomen brown to black; epandrium as on Figs. 83 , phallus with stipe twice as long as preglans and glans; preglans with row of separate. large and blunt black spines ( Fig. 80 ); glans ( Fig. 81 ) with 6 short claw-like lobes.

Female terminalia: as in P. alceae ; aculeus ( Figs. 86–87 ) 10 times as long as wide at base; 3 spherical spermathecae ( Fig. 88 ).

Distribution: Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan; Western China (Xingjian); poplar woods at lowland rivers.

Biology. Larvae feed under the bark of the Desert Poplar, or Turanga ( Populus euphratica Oliv. , syn. P. diversifolia Schrenk ) forming clusters under the bark of a fallen tree in the bast, near the sapping zones, mostly in lower, shady parts of the trunk. Larvae are believed to be saprophagous, though in laboratory they were able to feed on dead larvae of the jewel beetles ( Buprestidae ); however, this type of feeding is considered to be casual in the nature (Krivosheina & Krivosheina 1997).

Remarks. One of the most common ulidiid species in the temperate and arid zones of the Palaearctic Region. It is believed to be widespread with cattle due to shift of its original larval feeding in the date palm stems to the dung.

Figures

FIGURES 72 – 79. Physiphora chalybea, holotype ♀: 72, habitus, left; 73, head, anterior; 74, 75, head and thorax, left and dorsal; 76, fore leg; 77, wing; 78, abdomen, dorsal; 79, labels of holotype. Scale 1 mm.

FIGURES 80 – 88. Physiphora chalybea: 80, ♂ phallus; 81, glans, enlarged; 82, epandrium and hypandrium, right; 83, epandrium, posterior; 84, hypandrium, ventral; 85, ♀, dimple-like structure of tergite 2; 86, aculeus; 87, same, tip, enlarged; 88, spermathecae (two of the three).

FIGURES 306 – 312. Physiphora polita: 306, ♂ phallus; 307, glans and preglans, enlarged; 308, epandrium, posterior; 309, surstili, posterior; 310, hypandrium, ventral; 311, ♀, aculeus, tip, enlarged; 312, spermathecae.