Platypalpus pseudoalter Raffone

Barták, Miroslav & Kubík, Štěpán, 2016, New species and new synonyms in European Platypalpus (Diptera: Hybotidae), Zootaxa 4175 (2), pp. 142-154 : 149-150

Platypalpus pseudoalter Raffone

Platypalpus pseudoalter Raffone, 2003a: 97 .

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE Ƌ, labelled: “ITALY—Parma—Riserva Naturale Gueadine Pradaccio, 18/VII—7/VIII/2001 legit Lab. Bosco Fontana, Malaisetrap sentiero State Forestry Corps—NRBF coll. / Holotypus Ƌ / Platypalpus pseudoalter n. sp. det. Raffone G. 2001” [genitalia dissected] (NRBF). PARATYPE: same data as holotype (1 ♀) ( MSNV) .

Notes on type material. The male holotype is well preserved (only left mid leg missing), with dissected genitalia, originally stored in alcohol but during this study was dried and mounted on a card. It is a male of P. boreoalpinus Frey. The peculiar shape of left cercus illustrated by Raffone (2003a, fig. 5) was caused by depicting the cercus together with parts of the subepandrial sclerite (compare with fig. 321 in Chvála 1975). This mistake was probably caused by incomplete clearing of the genitalia.

The female paratype is terribly damaged (head, thorax, right hind leg and abdomen separated and glued on a card, thorax only with left legs, mid leg without tarsi, both wings and right halter absent, thorax slightly damaged). It is a specimen of P. boreoalpinus : all structures present are identical with this species including peculiarly shaped abdominal sternite 8 with pronounced lustrous tip ( Raffone 2003a, fig. 8, with incorrect figure legend referring to male genitalia).

Remarks. Characters of P. boreoalpinus not previously mentioned in descriptions and specified here include: face very narrow in middle, almost linear (0.02 mm wide); postpedicel with subapical group of rather long setulae (about 0.03 mm long), variable in colour from almost entirely dark to yellow (both holotype and paratype of P. pseudoalter have postpedicel entirely yellow); compound eyes swollen ventrally and anteriorly, so they are distinctly kidney shaped, with lower facets slightly enlarged; katepisternum lustrous, with only lower part and narrow hind margin microtrichose; basal part of anal vein and apical part of vein CuP scarcely visible, almost absent; last tarsomere entirely dark but often one or two penultimate tarsomeres also darkened, more often on mid and hind legs. Female sternite 8 lustrous dorsally, with pronounced dorsal posterior corner. Male genitalia are extremely variable but all forms described below have one shared feature typical for this species: presence of finger-like extension of subepandrial sclerite, merging into a hollow in dorsal part of left epandrial lamella (depicted by Chvála 1975, fig. 321). Ventral setae on left epandrial lamella are about 1/3 as long as lamella is high in some specimens but almost as long as lamella is high in other specimens. Right surstylus and left cercus are extremely variable. Commonly (form A): the right surstylus is deeply bifurcated, interoventral arm being narrowly digitiform and interodorsal arm broader, slightly concave apically, with one corner sharp tipped and the other rounded (rarely both tips are sharp—as in Fig. 13 ); left cercus has elongated polished and bent tip. Other specimens (form B) have left cercus simple, broader or narrower (or even with small ventral projection) and right surstylus twice bifurcated (i.e. interoventral arm bears four digitiform processes—as in Fig. 14 ). Still another specimen (form C, from Grossglockner) has broader arm of right surstylus with rather long setae in middle of its apical part ( Fig. 16 ). Holotype of P. pseudoalter is most similar to form A: left cercus has elongated and bent tip and right surstylus is deeply bifurcated with interoventral arm narrowly digitiform and the broader arm nearly rectangular with only one of the outer corners slightly sharpened ( Fig. 15 ). All forms are interpreted here as variability of the single species.

Platypapus pseudoalter Raffone 2003 is considered a new junior synonym of P. boreoalpinus Frey, 1943 .

Figures

FIGURES 13 – 16. Platypalpus boreoalpinus Frey, 1943, right surstylus. 13, specimen from Beskydy Mts (Czech Republic); 14, specimen from Krkonoše Mts (Czech Republic); 15, holotypus of P. pseudoalter Raffone, 2003; 16, specimen from Grossglockner (Austria).