Teuchophorus peltastes, Meuffels & Grootaert, 2004

Meuffels, Henk & Grootaert, Patrick, 2004, The genus Teuchophorus in South-East Asia and New Guinea, description of new species, species-groups and their phylogeny (Insecta, Diptera, Dolichopodidae), Journal of Natural History 38 (2), pp. 143-258 : 168-170

Species 11: Teuchophorus peltastes sp. nov. (male)

(figures 60–68)

Etymology. Gr. peltastès , a ‘peltast’ (a soldier armed with a rounded shield), alluding to the large, rounded wing stigma.

Diagnosis. Very small species, with a very broad wing stigma, bulging out from anterior wing margin. Eyes nearly touching each other on face. Mid femur ventrally on basal third with a row of short bristlets. Mid tibia without bristles, bearing some long hairs. Hind femur anteroventrally on apical two-fifths with a few thin, but long hair-like bristles and hairs. Hind tibia gently bent, feebly thickened apically, ventrally with tufts of hairs near base and near apex.

Material examined. Type material: Indonesia, Irian Jaya, Nabire, Topo , large swamp forest near river, 24 April 1997,    male and two      male (No. 97003, P. Grootaert and Ph. Hoyois) .

Male

Body length 1.25–1.35 mm; wing length 0.9–1.0 mm.

Head. Frons with shining greenish black ground colour. Face with black ground colour, rapidly narrowing downwards; eyes nearly touching each other on lower half of face. Palpi small, brown, each with a small, black apical bristlet. Rostrum brownish yellow. Occiput shining black. Chaetotaxy as usual; no postocellars. Postocular cilia uniseriate, black above, brownish below. Antenna (figure 60): rather long, yellowish brown or brown; third segment more yellowish on apical part. Marginal bristlets on second segment very short. Third segment triangular, with a blunt apex, about 1.5 times as long as deep. Arista dorsal, very shortly pubescent, about 2.5 times as long as antenna.

Thorax. Mesoscutum and scutellum with metallic greenish black ground colour. Pleurae dark brown; anterior part of metapleura blackish. Chaetotaxy as usual; acr uniseriate, very short. Scutellum with two marginals, without lateral hairs. No propleural bristles.

Legs. Legs, including coxae, yellow; apical half of hind femur progressively feebly browned.

Fore leg. Coxa with short, pale hairs. Femur without bristles; a tiny preapical pv. Tibia shorter than femur (about 5:8), without bristles or serration. No black spinules ventrally at base of first tarsal segment. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.29:0.15:0.06: 0.05: 0.04:0.04.

Mid leg. Coxa without bristles, bearing only short pale hairs. Femur (figure 62) ventrally on basal third with a row of about six short, pale bristlets; a small preapical av. Tibia (figure 62) nearly as long as femur, very feebly thickened about middle, and bearing there on ventral side two long, pale, partly coalescent hairs, preceded by a shorter pale hair; anteriorly, on apical third, a row of three or four bristly hairs, about as long as diameter of tibia. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.4:0.2: 0.1:0.07:0.05: 0.06.

Hind leg. Coxa with a weak, pale exterior bristle. Femur (figure 63) anteroventrally, at three-fifths from base, with a long, thin, pale hair-like bristle, longer than diameter of femur, followed towards tip of femur by a shorter hair-like bristle, and a row of three pale hairs, that gradually become shorter. Tibia (figure 63) about as long as femur, gently bent, feebly thickened on apical half; ventrally near base a tuft of three or four pale hairs, the longest of which are longer than diameter of tibia; ventrally, on apical third, a row of about five pale hairs, growing longer distally, the last three of them being longer than diameter of tibia; a short and weak pd may be present at about two-thirds from base. Length of tibia and tarsal segments (in mm): 0.45:0.09:0.13: 0.1:0.07:0.07.

Wing. Wing (figure 61) hyaline, short and broad. A very large, brown stigma, rounded at base, pointed at apex; this stigma bulges out from anterior wing margin, and forces r2+3 to curve downwards at its origin, and to follow the lower outline of the stigma; with its pointed apex the stigma nearly reaches to tip of r2+3, and beyond level of tp. r4+5 and m1+2 at first diverging, but nearly parallel apically. No anal vein. Halters large, yellow. Squamae small, brownish, with pale cilia.

Abdomen. Terga and sterna brown, dull; terga growing darker to the rear. Hairs and hind-marginal bristles on terga very short, dark. Hypopygium (figures 64–68) small, brown to dark brown; cerci small, brown.

Female Unknown.