Paramimegralla steineri (Barraclough) Barraclough, 2017

Marshall, Stephen A., 2017, Micropezidae (Insecta, Diptera, Acalyptratae) of Madagascar and a revision of the genus Paramimegralla Hennig, Zootaxa 4290 (2), pp. 244-280 : 265-267

Paramimegralla steineri (Barraclough) new combination

Figs 53 ̄60

Stiltissima steineri Barraclough 1991: 8 .

Redescription. Length 14̄ 18mm. Ground colour dull black, densely microsetulose with silvery pruinose highlights, legs and anterior part of head mostly orange to yellow.

Head with frons broad, mostly microsetulose but ocellar triangle and epicephalon mostly shining black and posterior part of frontal vitta depressed and densely microsetulose; frontal vitta broad but weakly differentiated anterior to ocelli, narrow and tapered to a thin groove posteriorly. Head with a single large orbital seta, frontal setae absent. Palpus broad, yellow, parallel-sided; golden microsetulose with scattered black setulae. Occipital suture shining brown. Clypeus yellow, sparsely microsetulose, shorter than face plus lunule. Lower frons, face, antenna, and parafacials yellow–orange, arista black. Length of first flagellomere 1.6X maximum width.

Thorax entirely microsetulose, pruinosity brownish dorsally and silvery on pleuron. Proepisternum with short, inconspicuous ventral setae. Legs orange except as follows: fore and hind femora with a broad black band near middle, mid femur with one or two black bands near middle, apices of femora narrowly black. Tibiae and tarsi dark brown to black except for the white fore tarsomere one. Hind femur slightly flattened, hind tibia not sulcate.

Wing with a weakly pigmented apex and relatively narrow preapical and discal black bands; discal band incomplete; base of wing anteriorly infuscated and with a small isolated infuscated area basal to discal band. Anal cell bare, CuA2 weakly sinuate, in line with dm̄cu and broken or weakened just below dm̄cu, distal angle 50 °.

Abdominal syntergite 1+2 with T1 weakly convex with scattered long pale setae; T2, T3 and T4 indistinctly silvery anteriorly and posteriorly; pleural membrane in both sexes dark basally with prominent white vertical bands on segments 3 and 4, male with anterior part of P3 forming a pale brown eversible sac. Female with oviscape short, black and pruinose basally, shining distally with orange apex. Spermathecae on two ducts of similar length, thinner duct leading to very small spermatheca, thicker duct distally expanded and branching into two short cylindrical spermathecae on broad and densely convoluted stems. Male with genital fork (S5) with long distally tapered and incurved arms with inner margins densely packed with short, stout setae. Distiphallus broad and ending in a dense phallic bulb, not differentiated into basal and distal sections. Blade of ejaculatory apodeme small, much smaller than epandrium and slightly larger than sperm pump.

Type material. Holotype (♂, USNM) and paratype (♀, USNM) Madagascar. Prov. Fianarantosoa, 2kmW, W. Ranomafana [21°15'S, 47°25’E], 1100m, 8̄ 21.October.1988, W.E. Steiner, Malaise trap in small clearing, montane rain forest.

Other material examined. Madagascar. Ranomafana National Park, Sahamalaotra, 21°14.44’, 47°23.67’, 16.x. 2014, 650m, S.A. Marshall (6♂, 5♀, sequences MYCRO 118 ̄15, 119̄15,215̄15, DEBU) ; Moramanga district , Tamatave, Torotorofotsy, 22km N Andasibe. 18°46.25', 48°25.93', 23̄25.2014, A. Kirk – Spriggs, R. Harinhala (1♀, NMB) ; Andasibe , 950m, Analamazaotra Forest, 31.x ̄ 4.xi.2007, A. Freidberg (3♂, TAU) .

Comments. Paramimegralla steineri was previously known only from the holotype male and one female paratype, neither of which had been dissected to examine genitalic characters. This species and the similarly long– legged P. volcanica from northern Madagascar are clearly sister species, and were treated by Barraclough (1991) as a separate genus, Stiltissima .

Figures

FIGURES 53 – 60. Paramimegralla steineri (Barraclough). 53. Spermathecae and associated structures, dorsolateral; 54. Spermathecae and associated structures, lateral to show ventral receptacle; 55. Male S 5 with genital fork; 56. Male terminalia, ventral; 57. Male terminalia, left lateral; 58. Male with pleural sac everted, left lateral; 59. Male with pleural sac retracted, left anterolateral; 60. Female.