Drosophila (Sophophora) obscura, Fallen, 1823

Grimaldi, David A., 2024, The Drosophila (Sophophora) obscura species group in the Americas (Diptera: Drosophilidae): review, revisions, and three new species, American Museum Novitates 2024 (4015), pp. 1-44 : 11

THE DROSOPHILA (SOPHOPHORA) OBSCURA SPECIES GROUP

DIAGNOSIS: Dark, blackish-brown flies (occasionally light brown) (figs. 1–5), head and thorax integument generally dull and slightly pollinose, male abdomen always entirely dark, female abdomen entirely dark or in some species with dark abdominal bands; male testes bright yellow to orange or red (visible even through pleural membrane of abdomen); arista with 3–4 dorsal, 2 ventral branches (all usually short); genal seta-1 not enlarged, much smaller than vibrissa; eye with dense ommatrichia; male foretarsus with comb (“sex comb”) of thick, sclerotized setae (“teeth”) on ta 1 and ta 2 (the latter lost in several species or reduced to 1 tooth in the affinis subgroup ); male with ventral epandrial lobe bilobate, inner lobe closely adpressed laterally to surstylus; pair of sclerites (remnants of tergite 7) fused to tergite 6, articulate with inner margins of epandrium. Male genitalia rather uniform: aedeagus membranous, flanked by pair of sclerotized valves; postgonites slender, elongate, each with lateral row of minute sensilla trichodea; posterolateral corners of hypandrium articulating with pair of pointed lobes. Sperm occur in short and long forms, the latter involved in fertilization ( Snook and Karr, 1998).