Aristobatina melasma, Marshall, 2014

Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A review of the Afrotropical genus Aristobatina Verbeke (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae), with descriptions of four new species from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, African Invertebrates 55 (1), pp. 143-143 : 147-148

Aristobatina melasma sp. n.

Figs 16 , 21–23

Etymology: From the Greek for “black spot” referring to the distinctive discal macula that characterizes this and the closely related A. metamelasma .

Description:

Length (head to wing tip): 11–15 mm.

Colour: Head orange anteriorly, reddish brown posteriorly, swollen part of frontal vitta dark reddish brown; thorax reddish brown; abdomen shiny blue­black; fore femur orange in basal ⅔, brown distally; mid femur uniformly orange except for black apex; hind femur orange at base and apex, but brown medially; basal 2 tarsomeres of fore and hind legs white, tarsomere 3 darker, tarsomeres 4 and 5 black; mid tarsus dark brown or black; abdominal pleurae entirely black in life ( Fig. 21 ), grey on the pinned holotype (same individual as in Fig. 21 ).

Head: Scape bare except for marginal ring of short setae; pedicel short­setose, with some longer ventral apical setae; frontal vitta with strongly convex circular area surrounding ocelli, extending ½ distance from anterior ocellus to anterior margin of frons; 2 pairs of fronto­orbital setae, 1 large above level of ocelli, 1 smaller below; postocellar, outer and inner vertical setae well­developed.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite flat and dull, with lateral indentation and small anterolateral vertical carina; proepisternum with a few long marginal ventral setae on posterior ½; katepisternum with double row of thin black setae, anterior row with only 5 setae, barely overlapping with lower end of posterior row; scutellum with 1 pair of marginal setae only, 1 small to minute seta between postalar and dorsocentral setae.

Wing: CuA 2 virtually at right angle to and in line with bm­cu, wing membrane with a small circular discal macula extending from just anterior to R 4+5 to M and having a distinctly infuscated tip; tegula and basicosta brown, similar to adjacent wing base, but base of stem vein black and dorsally microsetulose; wing base with 3 long costagial setae, inner one very long and inclinate.

Female abdomen: Paired spermathecae short, 1.2× as long as wide, with a transversely striate surface ( Fig. 16 ); spermathecal duct densely covered with knob­like processes beyond the division of the common duct into two straight branches. Single spermatheca not observed.

Male: unknown.

Holotype ♀: TANZANIA: Morogoro Region, Udzungwa Mts Nat. Park , 07°50'35''S 36°49'49''E, 11–13. xi.2009, 1000 m, T. Pape & S. A. Marshall ( DEBU#00323614 , deposited in ZMUC).

Comments:This appears to be a close sister species to A. metamelasma from the Uluguru Mountains.

Figures

Figs 12–17. Aristobatina spp.: (12–14) A. rufithorax male: (12) sternite 5; (13) terminalia; (14) apical part of distiphallus; (15–17) spermathecae and associated ducts: (15) A. morogoro sp. n., single small spermatheca and one of the paired large spermathecae; (16) A. melasma sp. n., spermatheca, one of pair; (17) A. rufithorax, bursa copulatrix, spermathecae and spermathecal ducts. Not to scale.

Figs 18–26. Aristobatina spp.: (18–20) A. rufithorax: (18) female; (19) female head; (20) male; (21–23) A. melasma sp.n., holotype male: (21, 23) ovipositing; (22) head; (24–26) A. morogoro sp. n.: (24) female; (25) female head; (26) male.