Heteromeringia ptenopa, Lonsdale, 2009

Lonsdale, Owen, 2009, The Heteromeringia (Diptera: Clusiidae: Clusiodinae) of Australia, Records of the Australian Museum 61 (3), pp. 229-262 : 255

Heteromeringia ptenopa n.sp.

Figs 69–72 , 103

Type material. HOLOTYPE: Queensland: 12.44S 143.14E, 3km ENE of Mt. Tozer , 28.vi–4.vii.1986, D.H. Colless, Malaise trap (1♂, ANIC) . PARATYPE: Queensland: N QLD, Claudie R. near Mt. Lamond , 5.vi.1966, D.K. McAlpine (1♀, AMS) .

Description

Male. Body length 3.9 mm. Bristles dark brown. First flagellomere orbicular. Arista short plumose. Vibrissa relatively long and curved. Ocellar bristle minute. Two dorsocentral bristles. Gena small and flat. Face and buccal cavity shiny and meeting at an angle. Head dark brown with antenna (excluding arista) dirty yellow, buccal cavity and mouthparts yellow with palpus brown, dorsal half of gena dirty yellow and silvery tomentose, and frons yellowish along posteromedial and lateral margins; frons shiny. Thorax dark brown with postpronotum yellow, and meron and katepisternum below level of anepisternum yellow. Legs yellow with fore coxa light yellow, fore tibia and tarsi dark brown, fore femur with inner-distal spot, mid tibia yellow and hind tibia light brown with base darker. Fore tarsi slightly compressed laterally. Abdomen dark brown with terminalia yellow. M 1+2 ratio 6.0. Wing with relatively wide anterodistal infuscation. Halter white.

Female. As described for male except as follows: postpronotum brown; mid tibia brownish; head (excluding antenna) dark brown; wing clear.

Male terminalia ( Figs 69–72 ). Epandrium with height, length and width subequal; perianal region deeply excavated. Cerci entirely united, long and subrectangular. Surstylus nearly as long as epandrium and rounded, with distal half wrinkled and curved inwards so that outer face only fully visible posteriorly; inner-distal margin with several tubercle-like bristles. Hypandrial complex relatively pale and gracile compared to other Australian species. Hypandrium + pregonite divided into thin anterior lobe with two stout apical bristles, and long, wide, posteriorly-directed setulose lobe with rounded posterobasal swelling. Ribs of phallus unequal in length, with one rib entirely thin and linear and ending at 2 ⁄ 3 length; longer rib abruptly bent apically and with two accessory sclerites near apex (one sclerite thin, tapered at both ends and lightly “feathered”, and one smooth and deeply trifid.

Female terminalia (Fig. 103). Ventral receptacle weakly sclerotized and narrowing apically and flagellum long and straight. Spermatheca tapering apically, as wide as long and with shallow basal wrinkles.

Etymology. The specific name is derived from the Greek for “feathered” (ptenos), referring to the long-plumose arista characteristic of this species.

Comments. Heteromeringia ptenopa is distinct from most other Australia Heteromeringia in that the hairs on the arista are short-plumose, not pubescent, and the thorax is brown excluding most of the katepisternum. The only other species with a similar arista is H. hypoleuca , which has much different colouration.

Figures

Figures 69–72. Male terminalia, Heteromeringia ptenopa n.sp.; (69) external, left lateral; (70) external, posterior; (71) phallus, anterior (with detail of phallus tip in different angle); (72) hypandrial complex (distal portion of distiphallus removed), left lateral.