Empidideicus amicus 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 : 2-5

Empidideicus amicus Gharali & Evenhuis , sp. nov.

( Figs. 1 a–g, 7a, 8a–b)

Specimens examined: Holotype female (dried by HMDS) and 20 male, 20 female paratypes (5 males and 5 females dried by HMDS, remainder preserved in alcohol), IRAN: East Azerbaijan Province, Tabriz, Khosroshahr region, the field of Agricultural Research Centre, 1346 m asl., N 37° 58' 28" E 46° 2' 55", 1 June–12 August 2009, Malaise trap, leg. H. Lotfalizadeh (all TMUC); 29 male, 31 female paratypes, same data as holotype except 1 June–12 August 2008 (BPBM); 15 males, 30 females as paratypes (in Alcohol), same data as holotype (ZMHB); 15 females as paratypes (in Alcohol), same data as holotype, personal collection of Jorge Almeida ( Portugal); 10 male, 10 female paratypes, same data as holotype (personal collection of first author).

1. Empidideicus sugonjaevi Zaitzev, 1971 has a black occiput but a yellow scutellum with a black base that distinguishes it from the species in couplets two and three.

2. Empidideicus turkestanicus Paramonov, 1934 runs here but is easily distinguished by the presence of a closed discal cell. 3. This pattern is somewhat variable (stripes are free or coalesced as a single mark) so the illustration of Zaitzev (1971) for E. asiaticus Zaitzev may be interpreted in both ways. If the coalesced status is accepted then E. asiaticus is distinguished from E. persicus by the yellow prescutellar area; otherwise see the diagnosis of E. greatheadi .

Diagnosis. Empidideicus amicus is separated from its closely related species, E. matricarius , by the length of the second flagellomere that is as long as or longer than first flagellomere (in E. matricarius the second flagellomere is much shorter than the first flagellomere), the deep and wide apical invagination of reservoir (narrow and shallow invagination in E. matricarius ), and the presence of well sclerotised plates around the genital orifice (absent in E. matricarius ).

Description. Female. Length 1.73 mm (Female) – 1.43 mm (Male) (n=20).

Head ( Fig. 7 a). Slightly higher than long; eyes dichoptic, separated at vertex by two times distance between lateral ocellus; 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 medial depression; face, mentum and oral margin yellow; antennae ( Fig. 1 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 1.6 times width; second flagellomere faintly brown, 0.6 times length of first flagellomere; apical stylus transparent, minute, 0.2 times length of second flagellomere; clypeus yellow; labrum black, sclerotised, stiff, pointed apically; proboscis brown, 1.3 times head length; palpi not evident.

Thorax ( Figs. 8 a–b). mesonotum yellow to brownish yellow, with scattered yellow pubescence, dorsum with admedian whitish longitudinal stripe and pattern of brown and dark brown color medially and dorsolaterally; length of median longitudinal stripe ¾ length of mesonotum, divided by thin yellow stripe; humeral callus, notopleural area, postalar callus and rectangular prescutellar area yellowish; posterior margin of mesonotum with two dark brown spots laterally; scutellum yellow; pleura yellow except black on following: black patch on extreme anterior portion and lower margin of anepisternum, lower margin of anepimeron, lower ¾ of katepisternum, most of meron; halter stem and knob white.

Legs. Yellow except coxa III with brownish pattern dorsally and two last tarsal segments brown; claws black, pulvilli white.

Wing ( Fig. 1 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 less 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 the level of CuA1; M1 separated from M2 at an acute angle, slightly 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 much wider than r-m cross vein; fringe of hair shortest at wing tip becoming longer and more sparse toward base.

Abdomen. Tergites I to VI yellow with transverse brown bands anteriorly, bands narrowing toward tergite VI; remainder of tergites yellow; all tergites with brown spots next to brown bands; lateral margins of all tergites narrowly brown; sternites yellow except last sternite with pale brown mark basally and laterally.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 1 g). Spermathecal reservoir subglobular, slightly higher than wide with deep, pitcher-shaped invagination, depth of invagination 0.6 times reservoir height, width of invagination about one-half diameter of reservoir; apical spermathecal ducts long, membranous, 2.8 times as long as reservoir, about one-third basally and one-tenth apically slightly sclerotised; sperm pump long, membranous, striated, gradually tapering toward base, 1.2 times as long as apical duct with shallow apical valve (= muscle attachment); basal spermathecal ducts membranous, about 0.3 times length of sperm pump; common spermathecal duct membranous, broad, slightly longer than sperm pump; furca well sclerotised, pentagonshaped with two narrow lateral arms abruptly broadened as two wide plates with triangular processes dorsolaterally; vaginal orifice well sclerotised, laterally with two kidney-shaped plates joined to papillate sclerotised process.

Male. Similar to female but smaller and darker. All brown marks replaced by blackish brown to black marks. Hypopygium yellow except epandrium laterally brown.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 1 c–f). Epandrium yellow, subrectungular in lateral view, with dark brown and acutely pointed dorsoapical tip; gonocoxa fused, ellipsoid with less sclerotised, round tip, medially with a sclerotised plate; gonostylus L-shaped, broad basally, suddenly narrowing to bifid tip, inserted deeply on gonocoxal sclerotised plate; gonocoxal apodeme slightly longer than aedeagal apodeme; aedeagal bulb large, rounded; basal aedeagal apodeme narrow, much broadened and sclerotised basally as quadrate plate, lateral rami slightly shorter than aedeagal apodeme; epiphallus consists of median bridge-shaped and two lateral quadrate plates.

Etymology. The specific epithet derives from the Latin amicus = “friendship”; and refers to the friendship between entomologists from Iran, USA, Portugal and Germany that made possible the collecting, transporting, discovery, and description of new species.

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

Remarks. Evenhuis (2009), in describing the new species E. parvus from the UAE, used a diverging brown pattern in the prescutellar area as a diagnostic character and mentioned this character wasn’t seen in any other known Empidideicus . Using his key, E. amicus runs to above-mentioned species and some specimens show a similar faint prescutellar pattern when dried by HMDS, although this pattern is not as prominent as the photo presented for E. parvus in Evenhuis (2009). In Iranian specimens, the pattern that is noticeable is two brown small spots at the posterolateral margins of mesonotum. Interestingly the prescutellar mark used by Evenhuis (2009) is present in E. amicus but not clearly seen in all dried specimens or in some preserved in alcohol, so we think this character should be used with more care. For more accurate identification of species, other constant characters such as female or male genitalia should be studied in detail. In any case, Empidideicus amicus is easily distinguished from E. parvus by the yellow frons (the frons is brown with a yellow line along the inner eye margin in E. parvus ) and the sclerotised area around female genital orifice (absent in E. parvus ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Empidideicus amicus: a—antennae lateral view, b—wing, c—epandrium anterodorsal view, d—gonocoxa dorsal view, e—phallic complex dorsal view, f—phallic complex lateral 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.