Acidiostigma discale (Brunetti) Singh & Hancock & Ramamurthy, 2013

Singh, Shakti Kumar, Hancock, David L. & Ramamurthy, V. V., 2013, On the species of Stemonocera Rondani (Diptera: Tephritidae) from the Indian subcontinent, Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 48 (15 - 16), pp. 945-957 : 956

Acidiostigma discale (Brunetti) , comb. nov.

Acidia discalis Brunetti, 1917: 97 .

Stemonocera discalis (Brunetti) : Norrbom et al. 1999: 210.

Material examined

HOLOTYPE ♂, INDIA, Shimla hills (Phagu to Kufri), 2438 – 2743 m, 31°6′ N, 77° 15′ E, ♂, 21 May 1916, Coll. Ananadale and Kamp ( ZSI).

Remarks

Acidiostigma Hendel, 1927 , is differentiated from other Trypetini by its dark wing pattern (pterostigma) and elongated cell sc which is similar to those of Hemilea Loew , Pseudhemilea Chen and Drosanthus Hering. Acidia discalis was originally described by Brunetti (1917) as a species of Acidia from India (Simla) and formerly placed as Stemonocera discalis by Norrbom et al. (1999) based on the head morphology. Due to characters such as the dark wing pattern, elongated cell sc and the long setae on the forefemora, it would be better placed in Acidiostigma and the new combination Acidiostigma discale (Brunetti) comb. nov. is therefore proposed for it. Only two other species of Acidiostigma – Acidiostigma apicale (Bezzi) and Acidiostigma lucens (Munro) , were known previously from India. Acidiostigma discale differs from A. lucens in having hyaline costal band (from the end of vein sc to just start of r 2+3), and from A. apicale in having continuous wing banding pattern. Further, head with inner vertical setae 1, orbital setae 2, ocellar setae 1 and frontal setae 3, without any modification in the head as present in species of the genus Stemonocera (which has modified frontal plate) also prevents its placement in the latter genus. Observations on the holotype revealed that it disagrees with the description by Brunetti (1917) as regards the modified frontal plate. Despite the stigma being slightly shorter than usual in Acidiostigma , the wing banding pattern and other characters, together with long setae on forefemora, assign this species to Acidiostigma .