Nephochaetopteryx pallidiventris Townsend

Carvalho-Filho, Fernando Da Silva, Esposito, Maria Cristina & Mello-Patiu, Cátia Antunes De, 2021, Revision of Nephochaetopteryx Townsend, 1934 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), Zootaxa 4928 (1), pp. 1-83 : 54-57

Nephochaetopteryx pallidiventris Townsend

( Figs 25 , 38A , C–E)

Nephochaetopteryx pallidiventris Townsend, 1934: 203 (description of female). Type locality: Brazil, Pará, Rio Tapajós, Boa Vista. Other references: Lopes (1936: 83–85; description of male and key); Lopes (1968: 53; redescription of paratype female); Dodge (1968a: 279; key); Lopes (1969: 28; catalog); Lopes (1975a: 277; redescriptions of male and female); Lopes (1979: 155; redescription of female and description of first instar larva); Tibana & Hime (1985: 339–342; redescriptions of male and female); Pape (1996: 261; catalog); Mello-Patiu & Santos (2001: 309; redescription of female).

Nephochaetopteryx angrensis Dodge, 1968a: 281 (description of male). Type locality: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Angra dos Reis, Japuhyba [= Japuíba]. Other references: Dodge (1968a: 279; key); Lopes (1975a: 277; proposal of synonymy).

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE ♁ ( MNRJ) : Holotype [printed on rectangular red label bordered with black]

// HOLOTYPE / Nephochaetopteryx / angrensis / Dodge [printed on rectangular white label bordered with red] // MNRJ / 2191 [handwritten and printed on rectangular white label]. [Holotype missing head, wings, fore legs, mid legs and left hind leg; terminalia cleared and preserved in glycerin in a microvial pinned beneath the specimen.] PARATYPE. ♁ ( MNRJ): JAPUHYBA / ANGRA 23–3 – 940 / J. LANE E LOPES [printed on rectangular white label bordered with black] // Paratype [printed on green label bordered with black] // PARATYPE / Nephochaetopteryx / angrensis / Det. 1964 / Dodge [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label bordered with red]. [Paratype in good condition, with sternite 5 glued to a card triangle; left hind leg and rest of terminalia missing.]

Additional material examined. Brazil. Amazonas: Manaus, C. Univers. [= University Campus], 24. VI .1982, Malaise trap, leg. J.A. Rafael (1 ♁, INPA). Ceará: Pacatuba, 350m, 23.VII.1973, leg. H.S. Lopes (1 ♁, 2 ♀♀, MNRJ). Pará: Belém, Parque Estadual do [= State Park] Utinga , VIII.69, leg. H.S. Lopes (1 ♁, MNRJ); Bragança , Mata do Lobão , 14–15.VIII.2008, butterfly trap baited with banana, leg. R . C.O. Santos (6 ♁♁, MPEG). Rio de Janeiro: Jardim Botânico, leg. H.S. Lopes (1 ♁, MNRJ) .

Redescription. Male. Length = 4.8–5.3 mm (n = 10).

Head. Fronto-orbital plate, parafacial plates and postocular strip with golden microtomentum. Frontal vitta black. Five frontal setae. Gena and postgena with golden microtomentum. Palpus brown.

Thorax. Chaetotaxy: dorsocentrals 2+4; intra-alars 2+3; supra-alars 2+3; anepisternals 4; merals 5. Mid femur with two median setae and with a differentiated posteroventral seta ( Fig. 38A ). Ctenidium consisting of three spines. Wing hyaline with dark spot beginning in the terminal portion of vein R 1, filling the distal third of cell r 1 and the upper half of the distal half of cell r 2+3; vein R 4+5 setulose dorsally to crossvein r-m.

Abdomen. Syntergite 1+2 orange, tergite 3 with anterior half orange and posterior half dark brown; tergites 4 and 5 dark brown; tergites with a band of golden microtomentum on lateral margin of anterior half. Sternites 1 to 4 rectangular, yellow, covered with yellowish setulae and with marginal setae. Sternite 4 with a median patch of spine-like setae on posterior margin ( Fig. 38E ) and a black spot beneath the patch.

Terminalia. Sternite 5 brown; longer than wide with setae restricted to anterior half, concentrated mainly on arm and the region below the lobe; cleft shallow, extending slightly beyond base of lobe; lobe rounded and with a tuft of short setulae ( Figs 38 C–D); arm short and clubbed, parallel to lobe ( Fig. 25E ).Cercus straight and short (shorter than epandrium), with cercal base enlarged and cercal prong narrowed; tip of cercus rectangular and with a small apical knob in the ventral margin in lateral view ( Fig. 25B ). Cerci divergent in dorsal view, with rounded tips ( Fig. 25A ). Setulae absent on tip and outer lateral margin of cercus, with long setae on proximal half ( Figs 25 A–B). Surstylus clubbed, with setae restricted to apical half and with a narrow strip of setulae on basal half ( Fig. 25B ). Pregonite tapering toward the apex with distal half perpendicular to base, bearing some minute pointed setae ( Fig. 25C ). Postgonite claw-shaped, gently curved anteriorly, about the same length of pregonite, with a long seta on posterior margin and with small pointed setulae on distal half ( Fig. 25D ). Basiphallus short, about one third length of distiphallus, T-shaped in lateral view ( Fig. 25F ). Distiphallus with proximal half narrowed and distal half enlarged, with dorsal margin sinuous and rounded apical margin. Ventral margin serrated, with grooves laterally ( Fig. 25F ). Vesica angled in lateral view, with distal portion parallel to the ventral margin of distiphallus; elongate and narrow, with a rounded middle projection ( Fig. 25F ). Inner process of vesica hammer-shaped, with curved apex in lateral view ( Fig. 25F ). Lateral and median styli short, of about one-fifth of width of widest portion of lateral wall of distiphallus, and both inserted apically in distiphallus ( Fig. 25F ).

Female. Terminalia as described by Mello-Patiu & Santos (2001, figs 19–21, 38).

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL—Brazil (Ceará, Minas Gerais, Pará, Rio de Janeiro).

Remarks. Nephochaetopteryx pallidiventris shares with N. spinosa and N. boruca sp. nov. the narrow and angled vesica, the T-shaped basiphallus, and sternite 5 longer than wide. The cerci of N. pallidiventris and N. spinosa are similar, but these species are easily separated by the shape of the vesica (see remarks under N. spinosa ).

Nephochaetopteryx pallidiventris was described by Townsend (1934) based on three female specimens from the state of Pará in Brazil. The description is short and does not contain information or illustrations about the terminalia. Lopes (1936) obtained some male specimens from rearing larvae extracted from a gravid female from Rio de Janeiro with coloration similar to that in the description of Townsend (1934). Therefore, these specimens were identified as N. pallidiventris by Lopes (1936), who described the male of this species for the first time. Subsequently, Lopes (1968) analyzed the two paratypes of N. pallidiventris and only one of them was similar to the female described by Lopes (1936). Finally, Lopes (1979) redescribed the female holotype of N. pallidiventris and observed that its terminalia are similar to those of the female described as N. palidiventris by him in a previous work ( Lopes 1936).

Lopes (1975a) considered the species N. angrensis Dodge (1968) to be a junior synonym of N. pallidiventris . The terminalia of the holotype of N. angrensis are similar to those of N. pallidiventris , and thus the synonymy proposed by Lopes (1975a) is maintained.

Figures

FIGURE 25. Nephochaetopteryx pallidiventris Townsend, 1934, male terminalia. Specimen from Bragança, Pará, Brazil (MPEG).A. Cerci, dorsal view (setation omitted on the right side). B. Epandrium, surstylus and cercus, left lateral view. C. Pregonite, left lateral view. D. Postgonite, left lateral view. E. Sternite 5, ventral view (setation omitted on the right side). F. Phallus, left lateral view; arrow showing median rounded projection of vesica. Abbreviations: bp = basiphallus; dp = distiphallus; ip = inner process of vesica; ls = lateral stylus; ms = median stylus; ve = vesica. Scale bars: A, B, E = 0.1 mm; C, D, F = 0.05 mm.

FIGURE 38. Nephochaetopteryx species. A. Male mid femur of N. pallidiventris Townsend, 1934, lateral view of posterior surface; arrow showing elongate seta. Specimen from Bragança, Pará, Brazil (MPEG). B. Male mid femur of N. paraensis Dodge, 1968, lateral view of posterior surface. Specimen from Bragança, Pará, Brazil (MPEG); arrow showing row of posteroventral setae without a differentiated seta. C. Male sternite 5 of N. pallidiventris, with lobes highlighted. Specimen from Bragança, Pará, Brazil (MPEG). D. Lobes of male sternite 5 of N. pallidiventris. Specimen from Bragança, Pará, Brazil (MPEG). E. Male sternite 4 of N. pallidiventris, with arrow pointing to patch of thick setae near posterior margin. Specimen from Bragança, Pará, Brazil (MPEG). Scale bars: A = 200 μm; B = 300 μm; C, E = 100 μm; D = 20 μm.