Parusia almeria, Gibbs, 2023

Gibbs, David, 2023, A world review of the bee fly tribe Usiini (Diptera, Bombyliidae) - Part 3: Parageron Paramonov s. lat., European Journal of Taxonomy 863 (1), pp. 1-162 : 123-125

Parusia almeria gen. et sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:22C73CC7-88D1-4CE0-821A-1B3C795625DD

Figs 16 , 20 , 32 , 60

Etymology

Noun in apposition, after Almeria, the region of southeast Spain where the type material was collected.

Type material

Holotype

SPAIN • ♂; “ Almeria , Bird observatory of the Salinas del Cabo de Gata, N 36º45′39″ W 02º13′15″, dunes near salines, 9 April 2004 leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; NHMUK.

Paratypes

SPAIN • 1 ♀; “ Almeria , Bird observatory of the Salinas del Cabo de Gata, N 36º45′39″ W 02º13′15″, dunes near salines, 9April 2004, leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; NHMUK • 1 ♂ (in spirit); “same data”; PCMC-T • 1 ♂; “ Carboneros N36°59′39.7″ W01°56′29.6″ 100 m 19 March 2003, leg. J. Dils & J. Faes ”; PCJD • 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (in spirit); “near Torregarcía , N 36º49′58″ W 02º17′29″ zone with Ziziphus lotus and dunes, 13 April 2004 Moericke trap 1, leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; PCMC-T • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ Moericke Trap 3 Base del Cerro del Barronal, N 36º44′01 ′ W 02º08′29″, very sandy zone with Pitas, Rhamnus sp. , and Ammophila areanaria , 12 March 2004 pitfall trap 5, leg. Antonio Aguirre ”; PCDG .

Description

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 4.4–6.6 mm. Wing length: 3.7–5.8 mm.

Male

HEAD. Gena plus mouth margin black in ground colour, much narrower than the apical breadth of a palp, grey dusted gena very narrow, linear, more shining mouth margin a little wider. Frons black in ground colour, hind half narrowing distinctly from hind corners to just in front of anterior ocellus where eyes start to diverge before abruptly widening on anterior part before running parallel down mouth margins. Eyes separated at their narrowest by 1.5–2.5 times the diameter of the front ocellus, hind ocellus narrowly separated from the eye margin. Ocellar tubercle shining, barely dusted, narrow part of frons lightly grey dusted, subshining blackish, white dusted on front half, more thinly so medially where dark ground colour shows from some angles. Yellow-brown hairs on ocellar tubercle almost twice as long as the width of the frons at rear, narrow part of frons bare, anterior part of frons with numerous white hairs some of which are as long as scape and pedicel combined, inclined at 45°. Occiput dark in ground colour with fairly dense grey dust but ground colour still apparent, subshining, more shining on triangular area behind ocellar tubercle. Yellow to white hairs dorsally only just overtopping ocellar tubercle, tips curved anteriorly, hairs significantly longer below and rather wavy. Ommatidia uniform in size across the eyes. Antennae black, postpedicel variable but usually relatively short, less than twice length of scape and pedicel together, sensilla in subapical sulcus can be white and conspicuous. All antennal segments with short pale brown hairs above, longest just before subapical sulcus. Palps short but easily visible, strongly clavate, brown to black, the pale yellow apical setae as long as the length of the palps. Proboscis short, only about twice head length, dorsally clothed with short, adpressed brown setae basolaterally. Basoventral membrane dirty brownish-white.

THORAX. Shining black cuticle dulled by relatively thin blue-grey dust except sometimes along paramedian and antehumeral vittae where the shining black cuticle can show through to a greater or lesser extent. Where paramedian vittae are clear they are approximately equal to median dusted stripe anteriorly, widening rearward where tending to fade. Antehumeral vittae interrupted at the thoracic suture. Mesonotum covered with moderately long, pale yellow hair, the longest hairs longer than those on the ocellar tubercle. Scutellum more thinly dusted centrally, long-haired on the disc, hairs fringing the apical margin longer than those on mesonotum. Pleura similar to mesonotum laterally, or a little more densely dusted, white hairs on pronotum, posterior half of the anepisternum and much of katepisternum.

WING. Membrane faintly brown tinged, the veins brown. Crossvein r-m beyond basal third but before mid-point of discal cell conspicuously beyond m-cu. Anal lobe moderately developed with evenly convex margin, about as broad as the anal cell.

HALTERE. Pale yellow to white, base of stem slightly brownish.

LEGS. Coxae black with a coating of grey dust like that on the pleura, not entirely obscuring ground colour. Remainder of legs black or very dark brown, essentially undusted so the shining cuticle is not dulled. Coxae externally and femora ventrally covered with rather long, pale yellow hairs, on the femora longer than the greatest depth of the femora. Femora dorsally and tibia rather densely covered with both short adpressed white hairs, and on tibia a few longer, semi-erect hairs, especially at base.

ABDOMEN. All tergites subshining black, dusting on disc obscure and dark, laterally, on the reflexed margin, densely grey dusted mostly obscuring the ground colour, most extensive on tergite one. Middle tergites with narrow but conspicuous and sharply demarcated yellow apical margins; on tergite one this margin disappears laterally, on remaining tergites it tapers away on reflexed margin, tergites seven and eight with yellow apices very narrow or lacking. Sternites black cuticle with grey dusting dulling but not entirely obscuring the ground colour, apical yellow margins obscure. Tergites and sternites all covered with relatively short pale yellow hairs, mostly erect but on basal tergites tending to be inclined towards mid-line.

GENITALIA. Conspicuously large and globular. Gonocoxites black to dark brown, shining, composed of two rounded hemispheres separated by a deep sulcus. Epandrium shining black to dark brown. Both gonocoxite and epandrium covered in long yellow hairs, denser than on tergites, especially so on gonocoxite.

Female

Very similar to male except for broader frons, narrowest at rear where one fifth to one quarter head width, hind ocellus separated from eye by about one and a half times the diameter of that ocellus. Frons widening more evenly towards the front, hairs more extensive, biserial along eye margins to rear of front ocellus. Thorax very similar, hairing tending to be rather shorter. Yellow apical margins to the tergites relatively broader. Abdominal hairing a little sparser and shorter. Proximal part of genital fork more or less in line with angle of the arms, attached membranously, broadest towards pointed tip, basal spermathecal ducts normal, fusing at or just before the vaginal plate which is contiguous with the genital fork and not differentiated.

Remarks

Within this genus of eight species there is considerable uniformity in external characters, differences between the species being subtle and not likely to be much use in deducing affinities within the genus. The female genitalia suggest that this species is most closely allied to the other two Parusia gen. nov. that occur in Spain Pru. loewi and Pru. propinqua gen. et sp. nov. Of the African-Tyrrhenian species probably related to Pru. aurata , in which the male and female genitalia are closest to the Iberian species.

Distribution

Southeast Spain.

Figures

Fig. 16. Parusia almeria gen. et sp. nov., ♂.

Fig. 20. Parusia almeria gen. et sp. nov., ♂.

Fig. 32. Parusia almeria gen. et sp. nov., ♀.

Fig. 60. Parusia almeria sp. nov. a. Epiphallic complex ventral. b. Epiphallic complex lateral. c. Gonocoxite ventral. d. Epandrium dorsal. e. Female genitalia ventral.