Molophilus (Molophilus) balcanicus Kolcsar

Kolcsar, Levente-Peter, Toeroek, Edina & Keresztes, Lujza, 2015, A new species and new records of Molophilus Curtis, 1833 (Diptera: Limoniidae) from the Western Palaearctic Region, Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 5466-5466 : 5466

Molophilus (Molophilus) balcanicus Kolcsar sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: TI100 - LCMMB-BG-01 ; recordedBy: L. Keresztes, E. Török, L.-P. Kolcsár; individualCount: 1; sex: male; Taxon: genus: Molophilus; subgenus: Molophilus; specificEpithet: balcanicus; scientificNameAuthorship: Kolcsár; Location: country: Bulgaria; stateProvince: Montana; county: Berkovitza; municipality: Barzia; locality: Petrohan Pass ; verbatimElevation: 1100-1200 m; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; decimalLatitude: 43.134061; decimalLongitude: 23.149889; Event: samplingProtocol: butterfly net; eventDate: 06/10/2012; habitat: small brook in beech forest; Record Level: institutionCode: Museum of Zoology, Babeș-Bolyai University (MZBBU)

Description

Head. Vertex black, with short black setae. Rostrum light brown with a few short dark setae. Palpus 4-segmented, brown. Antennae 16-segmented, yellowish, only the scape is dark brown. Pedicellus globular 1.5-1.8x wider than the flagellum segments. Flagellomeres are cylindrical to fusiform.

Thorax. Yellowish orange (Fig. 1a). Frontal parts of the thorax are darker than the back parts, with an evenly transition from yellow to dark orange. The neck (cervix) has its lateral parts black (cervical sclerites). Prescutum and scutum orange, scutellum yellow, pleural part yellow - orange. The coxae and the trochanters are yellowish orange, with long pale setae. The femur, tibia and tarsomeres are absent in the examined material. Wings yellow, wing venation light brown, covered by a densely light brown macrotrichia, partly worn out in specimen examined by us. Haltereres are yellow.

Abdomen. Dark orange - light brown, tergites mainly dark, anterior sternites lighter than caudal sternites. Both sternites and tergites are covered with long pale setae. Pleural membrane yellow. Hypopigium generally yellow (Fig. 1b, c). 9th tergite covered by long pale setae. The dorsal portion of the gonocoxite is short, rounded in lateral view, the caudal margine is straight, with a darkened inner wedge like projection at the ventral edge, which is striking dark pigmented at the end (ventral (tergal) view - Fig. 1b). Ventral lobe of gonocoxite shorter than dorsal portion and it is rounded at the tip. All parts of gonocoxit are covered by long yellowish setae. Both gonostyli are darkly pigmented. The inner gonostylus has its proximal part very thick, which ventrally narrows and is slightly curved. The outer gonostylus is thick, S-shaped inwards and it is ending in a hook like structure ventrally. The proximal part is stouter and lighter than distally, which widens before the hook like end (ventral view - Fig. 1b). Aedeagus is long, the end reaches the gonocoxite apex. The proximal part is thick which narrows to the distal end. In half of the length of the aedeagus is curved ventrally, after that it turns dorsally (Fig. 1d).

Female: unknown.

Larva: unknown.

Diagnosis

Small species with yellowish orange general colour, body lenght is 4-4.5 mm and wing length 5 mm (Fig. 1a). It is very close to Molophilus serpentiger and M. variispinus . Inner gonostylus thick, narrows to end. Outer gonostylus thick S-haped having a hook like end.

Etymology

Balcanicus (latin) = referring to the Balkan area, from where the species were collected. The name is to be deemed to be a latinized adjective in nominative singular.

Distribution

Bulgaria (Balkan mountain range).

Ecology

Only one specimen was collected in a beech forest, close to a small brook at 1100-1200 m. The valley of the brook was dominated by medium to large sized rocks, along with thick layer of accumulated leaf litter.

Taxon discussion

The new species is very close to Molophilus serpentiger and M. variispinus , but differs from both sibling species by the thick outer and inner gonostylus. Both of the two already known sibling species have thin outer gonostylus without hook like end (Figs 1c, 2c, 3c). M. balcanicus sp. n. is more close related to M. variispinus , than to M. serpentiger, on the base of the shape of the aedeagal complex (Figs 1d, 2d, 3d).