Amazunculus bethoi Marques, Skevington & Rafael, 2019

Marques, Dayse W. A., Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Rafael, José A., 2019, Revision of the genus Amazunculus Rafael (Diptera: Pipunculidae), with description of six new species, Zootaxa 4577 (3), pp. 439-472 : 445-449

Amazunculus bethoi Marques, Skevington & Rafael , sp. nov.

( Figs 31–45)

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ 177F9871-6CC9-4EA9-A8E7-977C639DC804

Diagnosis. Antenna with scape and pedicel dark brown; postpedicel light brown. Wing with basal third darkened. Epandrium moderately inflated. Surstyli symmetrical, short and slightly pointed at apex in ventral view, fused with epandrium. Phallic guide long, trifid at apex. Basal processes of phallus large, surpassing posterior margin of hypandrium. Phallus with two long and pointed sclerotized projections apically.

Description of male. Body length 8.4 mm. Head ( Fig. 31). Eyes contiguous for a distance of eighteen facets. F, EM, V = 0.6 mm, 0.6 mm, 0.4 mm. Frontal triangle brown pruinose. Face grey pruinose. Postcranium dark, brown pruinose dorsally and grey pruinose laterally and ventrally. Antennae ( Fig. 32) with scape dark brown; pedicel dark brown, with four dorsal and six ventral bristles; postpedicel light brown with apex rounded below. LPP/WPP = 1.6. Labellum brown. Thorax. Postpronotal lobe dark brown, brown pruinose. Scutum and scutellum dark brown to black with brown pruinescence. Notopleuron concolorous with the scutum, brown pruinose. Mesopleuron black, brown pruinose, except the anepisternum with grey pruinescence anterodorsally in certain lights; katatergite with sparse grey pruinescence, anatergite brown pruinose; mediotergite black with brown pruinescence. Wing ( Fig. 33). Length 7.7 mm. LW/MWW = 3.3. LTC/LFC = 1.5. Membrane mostly hyaline except by basal third brown darkened. Halter with stem light brown and knob dark brown. Legs ( Fig. 31). All legs dark brown to black, except apices of trochanters, apices of the femora and bases of the tibiae yellowish brown; mid femora with dense setae on posterior face; femora with brown pruinescense on posterior face. Pulvilli yellow. Abdomen ( Fig. 34). Slightly wider than long. Black, all tergites with dark brown pruinescence anteriorly and interrupted bands of light brown pruinescence posteriorly. Tergites 6, 7 and sternites 6 and 7 as in Fig. 36. Syntergosternite 8 mostly brown pruinose; about 0.4× length of tergite 5 ( Fig. 34) and with a relatively small, circular membranous area ( Fig. 37). Terminalia. Epandrium and surstyli yellowish brown ( Figs 38–39). Surstyli ( Figs 38–39) symmetrical, slightly pointed at apex, fused with epandrium, distinctly projected ventrally and surpassing the lateral margins of epandrium in lateral view ( Figs 40–41). Phallic guide ( Figs 42–44) long, about 1.6× the hypandrium length; trifid at apex and with a pronounced medial curvature in lateral view ( Fig. 44).Basal processes of phallus large, surpassing posterior margin of hypandrium, slightly wider than hypandrium ( Fig. 42). Phallus ( Figs 44–45) with two sclerotized long and pointed projections apically. Ejaculatory apodeme as in Fig. 45.

Female. Unknown.

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂: “ BRASIL, Amazonas , Carauari, 5°04'31"S 67°10'11"W, vii. 2005, Malaise em igarapé” “ A. Henriques & [F. F.] Xavier-Filho leg.” “DW0108” “ Holotype ♂, Amazunculus bethoi Marques, Skevington & Rafael ” ( INPA) ( Fig. 35).

Holotype condition. Right wing detached, mounted on microslide, left mid leg lost. Terminalia placed in a microvial with glycerin.

Etymology. Patronymic, this new species is dedicated to the first author’s father, Zilberto Marques F. da Silva (in memoriam), whose nickname was Betho.

Geographical distribution. This species is known only from the type locality, Amazonas, Brazil ( Fig. 182).

Habitat. This new species was collected in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, with a Malaise trap at ground level.