Micrempis brevis, Solórzano Kraemer & Sinclair & Cumming, 2005

Solórzano Kraemer, Mónica M., Sinclair, Bradley J. & Cumming, Jeffrey M., 2005, Five new species of Tachydromiinae (Diptera: Empididae s. l.) from New World Tertiary ambers, Zootaxa 1010, pp. 37-52 : 47-48

Micrempis brevis sp. nov.

DIAGNOSIS. Distinguished from other species of Micrempis by the cell bm being very slightly longer than cell br such that crossveins r­m and bm­cu are not confluent ( Fig. 4B).

DESCRIPTION. Female ( Fig. 4A). Length ca. 1 mm, body dark brown to black.

Head. Eyes with ommatrichia (pubescence); contiguous below antennae; facets not enlarged below antennae. Frons nearly parallel­sided, subequal to width of ocellar triangle. Two pairs of ocellar bristles; anterior pair convergent, posterior pair divergent. One pair of long, slightly convergent vertical bristles. Antennae arising below middle of head; scape small, shorter than half length of pedicel; pedicel large globose, with ventral preapical bristle; postpedicel small, ovate, with dorsoapical arista­like style longer than head; basal two antennal segments, postpedicel and arista­like style brown to dark.

Thorax. Brown to black; postpronotal lobe small; 1 long pprn; 2 npl; 1 spal; 1 pal; 1 pair of sctl.

Wing. ( Fig. 4B) Length 0.8 mm. Third costal section slightly less than twice the length of second costal section; bm­cu oblique; cell bm slightly longer than cell br; A 1 absent.

Abdomen. Segments uniformly telescopic with first 5 segments broader than posterior segments, lacking distinctive bristles. Terminalia: sternite 8 with apex partially separated from base; cercus slightly longer than half­length of tergite 8.

TYPE. Holotype female from Mexico: exact locality unknown, MX 266 – X. Housed in SMNS. The holotype is in a somewhat cube­shaped piece of clear amber measuring about 3 x 2 mm.

REMARKS. The inclusion was found together with a number of other families and orders, for example Cecidomyiidae , Chironomidae and an acalyptrate dipteran, Mymaridae , Formicidae, Coleoptera, Psocoptera and Isoptera. Two additional fossil species of Micrempis are known, both described from Baltic amber (see Table 1).

Extant species of Micrempis are found on vegetation in a wide variety of dry open habitats, such as very open sparse woodlands, mixed prairie communities, dry stony barrens and coastal beach vegetation ( Cumming & Cooper 1989).

ETYMOLOGY. From the Latin, brevis (short), in reference to cell br being slightly shorter than cell bm.