Empidideicus matricarius Gharali & Evenhuis

Gharali, Babak, Kamali, Karim, Evenhuis, Neal, Talebi, Ali Asghar & Khalgani, Jafar, 2010, First record of the genus Empidideicus (Diptera: Bombylioidea: Mythicomyiidae) from Iran, with description of six new species, Zootaxa 2627, pp. 1-19 : 11-14

Empidideicus matricarius Gharali & Evenhuis , sp. nov.

( Figs. 5 a–g, 7d, 8e)

Specimens examined: Holotype female (dried by HMDS) and 3 male, 10 female paratypes (preserved in alcohol), IRAN: research field, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, 7 July 2008, swept on Matricaria recutita , leg. B. Gharali (all in TMUC), 12 male, 7 female paratypes same as holotype (BPBM); 10 female paratypes same as holotype (ZMHB); 2 males, 10 females same locality data as holotype except 25 June 2009 (personal collection of first author).

Diagnosis. E. matricarius is separated from congeners in Iran by the combination of following characters: Occiput yellow laterally; mesonotum with brown or blackish brown pattern, prescutellar area and sctuellum yellow; second flagellomere much shorter than first flagellomere; invagination of reservoir shallow and furca without sclerotisation around genital orifice.

Description. Female. Length 2 mm (Female)— 1.5 mm (Male) (n=5).

Head ( Fig. 7 d). Slightly higher than long; eye dichoptic, separated at vertex by 2 times distance between lateral ocelli; ocellar triangle black; vertex black, black color narrowly joined to upper eye margin; occiput black medially, yellow laterally; postgena yellow, frons slightly depressed medially with blackish brown longitudinal stripe from anterior ocellus to frontal depression; face, mentum, and oral margin yellow; antennae ( Fig. 4 a) set in deep pocket; two basal segments of antennae yellow; scape short, subtrapezoidal; pedicel spheroid-ellipsoid, wider than long; first flagellomere dark brown, ovoid, length about 1.3 times width,; second flagellomere faintly brown, 0.7 times length of first flagellomere, apical stylus transparent, minute, 0.3 times length of second flagellomere, proboscis 2.5 times of head length, labrum black, sclerotised, stiff, pointed apically, length about half of proboscis; palpi not evident.

Thorax ( Fig. 8 e). Mesonotum yellow to brownish yellow, with short moderately dense pubescence, dorsum with admedian whitish longitudinal vittae and pattern of brown and dark brown pattern medially and dorsolaterally; length of median longitudinal vittae ¾ length of mesonotum; humeral callus, notopleural area, postalar callus and rectangular prescutellar area yellowish, posterior margin of mesonotum faintly brownish. Scutellum yellow, pleura yellow with black color on following: anepisternum as crescent mark anteroventrally, ventral margin of anepimeron, lower three-fourth of katepisternum, and meron; halter stem and knob yellowish white.

Legs. Yellow except coxa III with brown mark dorsally, two last tarsal segments brown, claws black, pulvilli white.

Wing ( Fig. 5 b). Hyaline, length (from base to end of R4+5) 2.6 times width (from end of R1 to CuA2); veins brown; costa, Sc, R4+5 and CuA2 well sclerotised; veins M1, M2, M1+2 and CuA1 sclerotised; vein separating basal cells, the base of Rs and A1 evanescent; costa ends slightly beyond end of R4+5; Sc incomplete; R4+5 fairly straight to wing margin, meeting costa well beyond level of CuA1; M1 separated from M2 at an acute angle, curved to wing margin; M2 straight, slightly curved apically, 1.8 times as long as M1+2; cell dm open apically; A1 straight to wing margin; anal cell open in wing margin by width subequal to r-m crossvein; fringe of hair shortest at wing tip becoming longer and more sparse toward base.

Abdomen. Tergites I–VI yellow with transverse brown bands anteriorly, bands narrowing toward tergite VI; tergites II–V with scattered brown spots; remainder of tergites yellow; lateral margins of all tergites narrowly brown; sternites yellow except last sternite pale brown.

Genitalia ( Fig. 5 g). Spermathecal reservoir subglobular, slightly wider than high, with shallow cylindrical invagination, floor of invagination slightly puffed up, length of invagination 0.42 times reservoir height, width of invagination about 0.4 diameter of reservoir; apical spermathecal duct long, thin, length 1.3 times as long as sperm pump, slightly sclerotised apically; sperm pump long, thin and striated, about 1.9 times reservoir height, with shallow apical valve; basal duct short, slightly sclerotised, about half reservoir height; common spermathecal duct wide, membranous, thin, subequal to apical duct in length; furca U-shaped, much sclerotised apically, lateral arm apically broadened abruptly as two large and wide plates with deeply concave outer margin leaving two narrow processes.

Male. Similar to female.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 5 c–f). Similar to E. amicus .

Comments. Empidideicus matricarius is very similar to E. amicus morphologically and belongs to a species complex here we tentatively call the amicus complex. The amicus complex comprises at least two Iranian species whose mesonotal dorsum are yellow with a brown pattern and have the occiput yellow laterally. The male genitalia of both species are very similar and have some shared features, which are not seen in other species. The gonostyli in both species are deeply inserted in the median part of the gonocoxa instead of its apical portion; and the apical portion is less sclerotised and rounded, also the aedeagal bulb is very large and spheroid with only a short narrow tip. In the female genitalia both have a long and membranous common spermathecal duct that are seen in a few other species. They have few variable morphological differences and for the correct identification of species, the female genitalia should be checked. Theodor (1983), in describing the female genitalia of Empidideicus species, illustrated two unknown species that he said were closely related to E. mariouti in external morphology but had distinct female genitalia. He labeled his figures of them as “ E. sp. 1” and “ E. sp. 2”. The genitalia of “ E. sp. 1” appears the same as E. matricarius except the common spermathecal duct is absent in his figure. This difference may not be reliable because of the reasons discussed above for E. ebellicus . Recently, El-Hawagry et al. (2003) illustrated a part of the female genitalia of E. mariouti (the spermathecal reservoir and a part of apical tube). His illustration appears to be the same as Theodor’s figure of “ E. sp. 1”. Unfortunately, he did not depict the furca, a very important character to distinguish species, because he had only a single female specimen and this part was damaged during preparation of genitalia (El Hawagry, pers. comm.). We believe El Hawagry’s specimen and Theodor’s “ E. sp.1” are the same our species and different from E. mariouti . The amicus complex may also include E. mariouti but in order to confirm this, the type and its female genitalia should be checked.

Etymology. The specific epithet derives from the genus of the plant German chamomile Matricaria recutita (Asteraceae) , from which specimens were swept.

Distribution. This species is currently known only from Iran (Tehran province).

Variability. Some specimens are paler and do not have brown spots on the abdomen or anepisternum and the coxae can also be yellow without a brown mark.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Empidideicus matricarius: a—antennae lateral view, b—wing, c—phallic complex dorsal view, depandrium anterodorsal view, e—phallic complex lateral view, f—gonocoxa dorsal view, g—female genitalia.

FIGURE 7. Lateral view of Empidideicus adults (females): a— E. amicus, b— E. ebellicus, c— E. greatheadi, d— E. matricarius, e— E. legulicoxa, f— E. persicus.

FIGURE 8. Dorsal view of Empidideicus mesonotum (females): a, b— E. amicus, c— E. ebellicus, d— E. greatheadi, e— E. matricarius, f— E. persicus.