Amazunculus psilalarius Skevington, Marques & 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 : 467-469

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

Figs 168–181

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ F 120247 C-9B83-47B6-829C-52EE4EC7C933

Diagnosis. Antenna dark brown. Wing base hyaline. Epandrium not inflated. Surstyli symmetrical, short and distinctly pointed at apex, fused with epandrium. Phallic guide short, narrow, tapering. Phallus with two very short and pointed apical projections.

Description of male. Body length 6.3 mm. Head ( Fig. 168). Eyes contiguous for a distance of five facets. F, EM, V = 1.0 mm, 0.2 mm, 0.4 mm. Frontal triangle black, silver pruinose. Face grey pruinose. Postcranium dark, brown pruinose dorsally and grey pruinose laterally and ventrally. Antennae ( Fig. 169) with scape dark brown; pedicel dark brown, with six dorsal and four ventral bristles; postpedicel brown with obtuse apex. LPP/WPP = 1.8. Labellum brown. Thorax. Postpronotal lobe brown. Scutum and scutellum dark brown with brown pruinescence. Notopleuron concolorous with the scutum, mostly brown pruinose. Mesopleuron brown, grey pruinose; katatergite and anatergite grey pruinose; mediotergite black, grey-brown pruinose. Wing ( Fig. 170). Length 9.4 mm. LW/MWW = 3.6. LTC/ LFC = 1.6. Membrane hyaline. Halter brown. Legs ( Fig. 168). All legs dark brown; all femora and tibiae with dense grey pruinescence on posterior face. Pulvilli yellow. Abdomen. Slightly longer than wide. Dark brown with brown pruinescence. Tergite 6 and sternites 6 and 7 as in Fig. 172. Syntergosternite 8 grey-brown pruinose; about 1.4 X length of tergite 5, with a large circular membranous area ( Fig. 173). Terminalia. Epandrium yellowish brown, not distinctly inflated ( Fig. 174). Surstyli ( Fig. 174) yellowish brown, symmetrical, about half the length of the epandrium, with pointed apex and fused with epandrium; in lateral view, not elongated ventrally, with distinct curvature near base ( Figs 175–176). Phallic guide ( Figs 177–179) short, almost as long as hypandrium; tapering evenly in ventral view ( Fig. 178). Phallus ( Fig. 179–180) with two sclerotized very small and pointed projections apically. Ejaculatory apodeme as in Fig. 181.

Female. Unknown.

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂: “ VENEZUELA: T.F. Amaz. [onas], Cerro de la Neblina basecamp, 0°50'N, 66°9'44"W, 140m, 4– 12.Feb. [ii].1984, D. Davis & T. McCabe ” “ CNC DIPTERA #12295 ” “ Holotype ♂, Amazunculus psilalarius Skevington, Marques & Rafael ” ( CNC) ( Fig. 171).

Holotype condition. Right hind leg missing; left hind leg missing two terminal tarsomeres. Specimen had been covered with fungal mycelia. Mycelia mostly removed but still obscuring some pruinosity. Terminalia placed in a microvial with glycerin.

Etymology. The specific epithet ‘ psilalarius ’ is from the Greek ‘psilos’ for ‘bare’ and the Latin ‘alarius’ for ‘of the wings’, in reference to the hyaline wing base.

Geographical distribution. This species is known only from the type locality, Amazonas, Venezuela ( Fig. 183).

Habitat. This species was collected in a tropical forest region in Venezuela.