Leucophora flavipes ( Stein, 1918 )

Ramírez-Mora, Manuel A. & Patitucci, Luciano Damián, 2025, Revision of the genus Leucophora (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) from South America, with the description of eight new species, Zootaxa 5707 (1), pp. 1-82 : 43-44

Leucophora flavipes ( Stein, 1918)

( Fig. 29 )

Ammomyia flavipes Stein, 1918 . Ann. Mus. Nat. Hung. 16: 239, 87. Type-locality: Piura, Peru. Stein, 1919:152 (catalogue). Hylephila flavipes Seguy, 1937:138 (catalogue).

Hammomyia flavipes Albuquerque, 1953:538 (catalogue).

Leucophora flavipes Pont, 1974:7 (catalogue).

Diagnosis. Leucophora flavipes can be differentiated from its congeners by the following combination of characters: only one longitudinal dorsal vitta on thorax and genae very narrow, about 0.1x eye height.

Material examined. Syntypes 2 ♂ ( MSNM): Piura, Peru, Nov. 9 CHTTownsend Collector. Ammomyia flavipes sp n ( MSNM) .

Description

Male ( Fig. 29 )

Body length 4.7–5.4 mm, wing length 4.0– 4.2 mm.

Coloration ( Fig. 29 ). Head brown to dark brown, with whitish-light yellow pruinosity; frontal vitta brown, lighter anteriorly ( Fig. 29B ). Fronto-orbital plate, parafacialia, genae, and face with whitish pruinosity; parafacialia in profile with a wide shifting brown patch from level of insertion of antennae to almost tip of postpedicel ( Fig. 29A ); genae with a narrow brown patch from the genal margin to the lower margin of the eye. Antennae brown, postpedicel dark brown; arista dark brown, yellowish at middle. Prementum brown. Palpi brown-yellowish. Thorax black to dark brown with greyish pruinosity; with one brown longitudinal vittae ( Fig. 29C ), filling the space between the acrostichal setae but finishing at prescutellar setae, scutellum with a brown apical patch. Pleura with a couple of light brown patches ( Fig. 29A ). Legs yellowish; coxae densely covered with whitish pruinosity. Tarsomere brown. Pulvilli light brown. Wing membrane hyaline with a whitish tinge basally; veins yellowish brown. Calypters whitish. Halteres yellowish, with slightly darker bases. Abdomen brown anteriorly to black posteriorly, with whitish pruinosity; with a longitudinal central brown vitta ( Fig. 29C ), more evident from tergite 3 and posteriorly; posterior margin of tergites 3–5 brownish. Tergites 3–5 with posterior margin yellowish (in profile).

Head. Fronto-orbital plate at narrowest point 1.2x width of anterior ocellus, widening anteriorly, bare; frontal vitta at narrowest point 0.8x width of anterior ocellus, slightly widening towards lunule; eyes separated at narrowest point 3.1x width of anterior ocellus ( Fig. 29B ). 4 pairs of fr s; the uppermost pair short and inserted slightly before the level the anterior ocellus ( Fig. 29A ). infr s not observed. oc s broken; ocellar triangle with 2–3 additional pairs of setulae. Postpedicel 1.3x the pedicel length; arista 2.2x the postpedicel length, short plumose, longest hairs more than 1.0x the postpedicel width. Parafacials 0.3 width of eye. Genae below lowest point of eye margin less than 0.1x eye height. Vibrissal angle slightly projected beyond the frontal angle ( Fig. 29A ).

Thorax. Chaetotaxy; prescutelar pair longer than the longest presut acr s ( Fig. 29C ). 4–5 anepst s. 1+2 kepst s ( Fig. 29A ). Prealar seta absent.

Legs. Mid tibia with 2 p setae.

Abdomen. Lateral marginal setae strong ( Fig. 29C ). Sternites 2–4 densely covered with long and erect setae.

Remarks. In external appearance, L. flavipes resembles those in L. chancani sp. nov., and L. tacuil sp. nov., by the narrow brown central vitta on thorax, but differs from both by the very narrow interfrontal plate and genae and fewer frontal setae, also because L. flavipes has only one vitta on thorax.

The description provided for this species is based exclusively on type material photographs.

Characters included in this redescription are based on photographs of the type material and complemented with the original description ( Stein 1918).

Distribution. Neotropical: Peru ( Fig. 54D ).

Figures

FIGURE 29. Leucophora flavipes (Stein, 1918), male. A. Habitus, lateral view. B. Head, frontal view. C. Habitus, dorsal view. Specimen from Laboratorio di Entomologia, MSNM, captured by Michele Zilioli. Scale bars: A, C = 1 mm; B = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 54. Distributional records of Leucophora species. A. Leucophora chancani Ramírez-Mora & Patitucci, sp. nov. B. Leucophora chilensis (Malloch, 1934). C. Leucophora delestero Ramírez-Mora & Patitucci, sp. nov. D. Leucophora flavipes (Stein, 1918). Black squares represent new records; white squares represent previous records.