Phronia ristoi, Kurina & Pototski, 2022

Kurina, Olavi & Pototski, Aleksander, 2022, Two new species of Phronia Winnertz, 1864 (Diptera, Mycetophilidae) from Taita Hills, Kenya, African Invertebrates 63 (1), pp. 89-103 : 89

Phronia ristoi sp. nov.

Figs 3B , 5A-F , 6A , 7A

Diagnosis.

Phronia ristoi sp. nov. is closest to P. flobertae Matile, 1978 and P. hannarostiae sp. nov. but differs in characters of the male terminalia: gonocoxites anteroventrally with shallow U-shaped incision; distal lobe of the ventral branch of the gonostylus elongated, tapering, apically bent; medial lobe of the ventral branch of the gonostylus thumb-like, with a strong long sabre-like spine subapically; internal branch of the gonostylus bipartite, with ventral lobe conical, having a comb of lamellae along dorsal margin, with dorsal lobe bipartite, having marginal lamellae; anterior branch of the gonostylus posteriorly rounded, with 3-4 long setae subapically; aedeagal guides digitiform, apically pointed.

Etymology.

The species is named in honor of Mr. Risto Haverinen (Vantaa, Finland), a Finnish entomologist working mainly on macrolepidoptera. He was one of the collectors of the material of both species described in this paper and, additionally, contributed greatly towards successful fieldwork in Kenya.

Description.

Male. Body length 2.9-3.0 mm (n = 2). Coloration. Head with vertex and frons dark brown, face and clypeus dark yellow to light brown, mouthparts yellow except palpus dark brown. Scape, pedicel and base of first flagellomere yellow, rest of flagellum brown.

Thorax with scutum dull-yellow, having three anteriorly fused longitudinal dull-brown strips, medial tapering posteriorly, ending before posterior margin; scutellum dull brown; antepronotum and proepisternum yellow, other thoracic lateral parts dull brown, posterior margin of laterotergite darker. Thoracic setae brown. Wing hyaline, unmarked with slight yellowish tinge. Halter with stem yellow and knob brown. Legs yellow, hind coxa with lateral elongated brown macula, hind femur entirely brown at apical fifth and brown dorsally at apical half, all tibiae with brown apical band, and tarsi yellow but seem darker because of dense brown setae. All setae on legs brown, tibial spurs brown. Abdomen brown, first 3-4 segments with yellow anterolateral areas. Abdominal vestiture brown. Terminalia dark yellow to brown. Head. Ocelli two, touching eye margins. Frontal furrow complete. Clypeus rectangular. Fourth flagellar segment about 1.2 times as long as wide, apical flagellar segment 2.1 times as long as wide basally. Flagellar segments with dense whitish setae about one third of segments’ width. Thorax. Scutum covered with setae, marginal setae stronger, two prominent prescutellar setae extending well over scutellum posteriorly. Scutellum with four strong marginal setae. Antepronotum with four strong and several weaker setae. Proepisternum with three strong and some weaker setae. Anepisternum with 3-4 strong setae at hind margin and several weak setae over surface. Katepisternum and anepimeron non-setose. Laterotergite setose with setae longer towards hind margin. Mediotergite non-setose. Wing. Length 2.67-2.79 mm, length to width 2.53-2.65. Sc, bm-m, m-stem and CuP non-setose, all other veins setose. C extending very slightly beyond apex of R4+5. Length of Sc measured from h 0.50 of r-stem. r-m about 0.75 times as long as m-stem. Posterior fork begins well beyond furcation of anterior fork, at the level of basal third of anterior fork, ratio of M2 to M4 2.4. Legs. Ratio of femur to tibia for fore, mid and hind legs: 0.96-1.00; 0.91-0.94; 0.87-0.91. Ratio of tibia to basitarsus for fore, mid and hind legs: 1.00-1.04; 1.43-1.50; 1.73-1.80. Fore tibia with a spur 2.67 times of tibial maximum width. Mid tibia with anterior spur 3.00-3.57 times and posterior spur 4.29 times of tibial maximum width. Hind tibia with anterior spur 2.50-2.70 times and posterior spur 3.10-3.50 times of tibial maximum width. Terminalia (Figs 5A-F , 6A , 7A ). Tergite 9 posteriorly rounded, with non-regular row of sub-marginal setae of different length, anteriorly with large U-shaped incision. Cerci long ovate, tapering posteriorly, with well discernible excavation mesially. Gonocoxites fused, closed ventrally and open dorsally; anteroventrally with shallow U-shaped incision. Posteroventral margin of gonocoxites medially membranous with a shallow incision. Gonocoxites setose with erect setae of sub-equal length. Ventral branch of gonostylus with setose distal lobe, anteriorly shoe-shaped, anteroventral part with an aggregation of long curved setae, posterior part non-setose, slightly bent; setose medial lobe thumb-shaped, with a small hump at dorsal margin medially and with a sabre-like spine subapically. Internal branch of gonostylus formed of ventral and dorsal lobes; ventral lobe large, conical, discernible partly between distal and medial lobe of ventral branch, with comb of lamellae along dorsal margin; dorsal lobe bipartite with lamellae along margins. Dorsal branch of gonostylus formed from two conical setose lobes. Anterior branch of gonostylus thumb-shaped, with 3-4 subapical long setae. Aedeagus digitate. Aedeagal guides digitiform, apically pointed. Parameres large, extending over aedeagus apically.

Female. Unknown.

Type material.

Holotype. Kenya • ♂; Taita-Taveta County, Taita Hills, Ngangao indigenous forest; 3.3642°S, 38.3410°E; alt. 1930 m; 4 February 2022; A. Pototski & R. Haverinen leg.; hand-picked (pinned, terminalia in glycerin, IZBE0228829). Paratypes. Kenya • ♂, same data as for holotype (pinned, terminalia in glycerin, IZBE0228830).

Comments.

For distinguishing P. ristoi sp. nov. from P. hannarostiae sp. nov. see comments under the latter. Phronia ristoi resembles also P. flobertae Matile, 1978 as both species have distal lobe of ventral branch of the gonostylus evenly tapering posteriorly. However, P. ristoi has (1) the medial lobe of ventral branch of the gonostylus with strong sabre-like subapical spine, well discernible also from ventral view (without any spine in P. flobertae ) and (2) the ventral lobe of internal branch of the gonostylus conical, in subequal length with the distal lobe of the ventral branch (subrectangular, about half length of the distal lobe of the ventral branch in P. flobertae ).

Figures

Figure 3. General habitus of Afrotropical Phronia species, lateral view A P. hannarostiae sp. nov. B P. ristoi sp. nov.

Figure 4. Phronia hannarostiae sp. nov., male terminalia A terminalia, ventral view B terminalia, dorsal view with cerci detached C terminalia, lateral view D cerci and tergite IX E gonostylus, lateral view F gonostylus, internal view. Abbreviations: aed = aedeagus, aed gd = aedeagal guide, cer = cercus, gc = gonocoxite, gc pvm = posteroventral margin of gonocoxite, gst ab = anterior branch of gonostylus, gst db = dorsal branch of gonostylus, gst ibdl = dorsal lobe of internal branch of gonostylus, gst ibvl = ventral lobe of internal branch of gonostylus, gst vbdl = distal lobe of ventral branch of gonostylus, gst vbml = medial lobe of ventral branch of gonostylus, par = paramere, tg 9 = tergite IX. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figure 5. Phronia ristoi sp. nov., male terminalia A terminalia, ventral view B terminalia, dorsal view with gonostyli and cerci detached C terminalia, lateral view D cerci and tergite IX E gonostylus, lateral view F gonostylus, internal view. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figure 6. Gonostylus, lateral view A Phronia ristoi sp. nov. B Phronia hannarostiae sp. nov. For abbreviations see Fig. 4. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.

Figure 7. Gonostylus, internal view A Phronia ristoi sp. nov. B Phronia hannarostiae sp. nov. For abbreviations see Fig. 4. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.