Scipopus (Scipopus), 1922

Lindsay, Kate & Marshall, Stephen A., 2023, A revision of Scipopus Enderlein including the subgenera Scipopus s. str., Phaeopterina Frey and Parascipopus subgen. nov. (Diptera, Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 904, pp. 1-189 : 23-25

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5852/ejt.2023.904.2323
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C2FCC15D-1DE5-4198-B867-EE4C582BA689
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10406151
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/75B16026-19C0-4736-9B53-7C2715029568
taxon LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:act:75B16026-19C0-4736-9B53-7C2715029568
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Scipopus (Scipopus)
status	s. str.

Treatment

Scipopus (Scipopus) View in CoL s. str. Enderlein, 1922

Scipopus Enderlein, 1922: 208 View in CoL

(type species: Scipopus erythrocephalus ( Fabricius, 1805)) View in CoL .

Scipopus View in CoL – Enderlein 1922: 165 (key), 208 (diagnosis, key). — Frey 1927: 68 (keyed), 74 (list). — Cresson 1930: 324 (diagnosis). — Curran 1934a: 450 (keyed), 451 (key); 1934b: 305 (key). — Hennig 1934: 72 (keyed), 321 (diagnosis, key). — Aczél 1949: 339 (catalog); 1951: 534, 538 (key). — Steyskal 1968: 48.15 (catalog). — Albuquerque 1971: 89 (diagnosis). — Schumann 1988: 115 (list). — Marshall 2010: 810 (key), 812 (notes). — Ferro & de Carvalho 2014: 53 (key), 59 (diagnosis, list). — Martinez-Alava & Serna 2015: 345 (distribution). — Marshall et al. 2016: 543 (catalog). — Martinez et al. 2020: 180 (phoretic relationships).

Diagnosis

Frontal vitta orange. Thorax, abdominal tergites, wings and legs dark brown or black. Thoracic pleuron with varying patterns of white and brown microtrichosity; anepisternum always white microtrichose on majority of anteroventral ⅓ and anteroventral margin, primarily brown microtrichose on at least posterior ⅓. Thorax stout, height greater than length (thorax ratio ≤0.93). Common spermathecal duct rugose, clearly delineated from smooth paired duct; single spermathecal duct arising from basal portion of paired duct.

Remarks

Scipopus was originally diagnosed by the bare arista, short anal cell (cua) and very short third costal sector, but all of these character states also occur in combination in other species outside of Scipopus . Most relatively large black or dark brown micropezids with a contrasting orange or red head belong to Scipopus s. lat., and all species of Scipopus s. str. have this characteristic colour combination. The characteristic pattern of white microtrichosity on the mesopleuron provides a new, reliably diagnostic character for the subgenus.

Description

LENGTH. 9–16 mm.

HEAD. Antenna orange. Frontal vitta dull, orange, microtrichose. Orbital plate dull, orange, microtrichose ( Fig. 10A View Fig ), or with shiny, bare anterior patches ( Fig. 11C View Fig ). Anterior frontal vitta with scattered black setulae. Epicephalon orange to black, either shiny and clearly delineated from upper frontal vitta ( Fig. 7C View Fig ) or dull and not clearly delineated ( Fig. 17B View Fig ). Paracephalon orange to black, shiny, slightly convex ( Fig. 22H View Fig ) to strongly convex with upturned bumps ( Fig. 29C View Fig ). Head chaetotaxy always including inner vertical, postocellar, upper fronto-orbital seta, and 1–2 lower fronto-orbital seta; outer vertical seta usually present (absent in S. (S.) wokomung sp. nov. and sometimes absent in S. (S.) chalybeus ). Palpus narrow (length 3.6–6.0× width), nearly parallel-sided, rounded and tapered apically, pale microtrichose and black setulose. Clypeus orange to black, usually twice as wide as high, sometimes much higher than wide (as in S. (S.) convexus sp. nov. and S. (S.) nigripennis ) ( Fig. 15A View Fig ), usually bare medially and microtrichose posterolaterally (entirely white microtrichose in S. (S.) chalybeus ) ( Fig. 13A View Fig ).

THORAX. Cervical sclerite dark brown or black, white microtrichose, subquadrate, usually relatively flat or slightly convex, but anterior part swollen in females of S. (S.) chalybeus ( Fig. 13C View Fig ). Mesothorax robust, only slightly tapered anteriorly. Thorax ratio (length/height) always less than 0.93. Anterior edge of mesonotum elevated (most clearly seen laterally), with surface becoming anteriorly humped ( Fig. 13G View Fig ), convex ( Fig. 7D View Fig ) or relatively flat ( Fig. 33B View Fig ). Postpronotal lobe distinct, dark brown or black, raised, slightly tapered anteriorly, length ~2.0–2.5× height ( Fig. 30A View Fig ). Notopleuron brown or black, often with interspecifically varying patterns of silvery or pale brown microtrichia ( Figs 27 View Fig , 34G View Fig ). Pleuron dark brown or black with variable patterns of white and brown microtrichosity; anepisternum always white on most of anteroventral ⅓ and anteroventral margin, brown on majority of posterior ⅓ ( Fig. 7E View Fig ). Legs dark brown or black, fore and hind tarsomere 1 partially or entirely white, or entirely black or brown dorsally, often with ventral golden fringe. Scutellum with two long, strong apical setae (2.0× length of scutellum), and 1–3 pairs of short, lateral or dorsolateral discal setulae.

WING. Uniformly brown infuscate.

ABDOMEN. Tergites dark brown or black. T1 with fine white, and/or black or dark brown setae, remainder of abdomen with short black or dark brown setulae. T1 (especially posterior margin), posterior margin or corners of T2, anterior margin of T3, entirety or lateral edges of T4, and entirety of T5–6 usually very indisctinctly white microtrichose, more obvious in some species (as in S. (S.) planus sp. nov. and S. (S.) convexus sp. nov.). Pleuron with P1, upper half of P2 and sometimes upper half of P3–6 either almost entirely black, pale grey, or off-white and dark brown ( Fig. 13G View Fig ).

FEMALE ABDOMEN. T1+2 1.1–2.8× length of T3. Oviscape dark brown or black, variable in dimension but tapered distally and sparsely covered in short black setulae, anterior ⅓ usually entirely or partially white microtrichose ( Fig. 6A–B View Fig ). Common spermathecal duct arising from bursa, roughly textured and ranging from very short (almost absent) ( Fig. 11B View Fig ) to very long (¾ of entire combined duct length) ( Fig. 8C View Fig ), clearly delineated from paired duct. Paired spermathecal duct smooth, ranging from short and wide ( Fig. 17E View Fig ) to long and narrow ( Fig. 20B View Fig ). Paired spermathecal stems bare ( Fig. 17E View Fig ) or with spiked or finger-like projections ( Fig. 11B View Fig ); paired spermatheca striate, usually spherical or ovoid ( Fig. 20B View Fig ), sometimes elongate ( Fig.15B View Fig ). Single spermathecal duct arising from basal portion of paired duct, smooth and narrow, swollen distally, ending in usually one but sometimes two finger- or bulb-like spermathecae ( Fig. 14B View Fig ).

MALE ABDOMEN. T1+2 1.4–2.9× length of T3. Genital fork dark brown or black, white microtrichose, arms with inner basal process ( Fig. 24B View Fig ), length and shape of arms and processes variable. Epandrium dark brown or black, white microtrichose and setulose, stout (length ≈ height) to elongate (length ≥ 2.0× height). Basiphallus usually small, crescent-shaped when viewed ventrally ( Fig. 22F View Fig ). Basal distiphallus usually very short and wide (1.0–2.0 × length of phallic bulb), ending or partially enclosing phallic bulb ( Fig 10C View Fig ). Phallic bulb usually short, somewhat spherical, with multiple chambers, sometimes with posterior projections ( Fig. 22F View Fig ). Distal distiphallus short (shorter than epandrium) to long (> 2.0× length of epandrium), usually narrow ( Fig. 10C View Fig ). Phallapodeme slender or broad, may or may not be expanded apically. Ejaculatory apodeme varying in size, usually with a fan-like apodeme attached to a bulbous sperm pump ( Fig. 15D View Fig ).