Syringogaster lanei Prado, 1969

Marshall, S. A., Buck, M., Skevington, J. H. & Grimaldi, D., 2009, A revision of the family Syringogastridae (Diptera: Diopsoidea), Zootaxa 1996 (1), pp. 1-80 : 47-48

Syringogaster lanei Prado

Map 5

Syringogaster lanei Prado, 1969: 6 .

Syringogaster rufa auctt., nec Cresson, 1912: Papavero, 1964.

DESCRIPTION: Frons yellow anteriorly, darker posteriorly, ocellar tubercle black. Ocellar triangle indistinct, setulose, tapered to a point near anterior margin of frons; bordered on each side by a row of three small inclinate bristles; remainder of frons mostly bare and dull. Vertex strongly convex at middle. Ocellar bristles absent. Parafacial white with fine white hairs near eyes; vibrissal angle with sparse long brown hairs. Subgena short, concave, shorter than setose upper part of gena. Clypeus narrow, no wider than 3 Supracervical collar prominent and convex, equal in length to middle of pronotum.

Thorax: Pronotum black along anterior margin. Mesonotum tomentose, orange anteriorly, middle part mostly dark brown posterior to suture, anterior part of dark brown part trifid along anterior margin; humeral pit black with a very high black carina extending laterally more than the width of the pit. Notopleural carina prominent and triangular, postpronotum between notopleural and humeral carinae slightly convex yellow and shining. Supra-alar carina well developed, bilamellate, posterior lamella obsolete. Anterior part of katepisternum, and posterior part of anepisternum tomentose, anepimeron bare except for a few scattered pale hairs. First prespiracular process a short, black, inconspicuous tooth extending posteriorly towards the conical, almost entirely setose second prespiracular process. Metapleuron with a small setulose patch just below spiracle, otherwise bare. Postnotum (including katatergite) tomentose. Fore coxa pale yellow to white, tibia dark brown, balance of leg yellow-brown. Anteroventral margin of distal part of fore femur with row of 5–9 (5 in original description, 8–9 on specimens examined) short stout, dark bristles, increasing in size proximally. Inner surface of fore tibia with a patch of dense yellow setae covering distal half, bristles otherwise brown. Mid femur white basally, pale brown distally. Mid tarsomeres 1–4 with antero- and posteroventral sawlines. Hind femur with a white base followed by a narrow, oblique brown band, rest orange-brown; anteroventral row of seven spines extending over distal 3/5 of femur, posteroventral row shorter. Hind tibia with apex weakly trilobate, lobes subequal. Anterior sawlines of hind tarsomeres as described for mid leg.

Wing clear with small dark patches over all crossveins, and a strong oval discal band extending from apex of R 2+3 to dm-cu and connected by pigmented area to dark patch over r-m. Fork of CuA slightly distal to bmcu; A 1 +CuA 2 extending half way to wing margin, CuA 1 extending slightly over half way from dm to wing margin. R 2+3 turned up to costa near apex. Cell r 4+5 gradually widening beyond r-m, not abruptly tapered to rm; r-m about half as long as dm-cu.

Abdomen: Syntergite 1–3 narrow at base, tergites 1 and 2 parallel-sided and strongly granulate, sparsely long-setose, separated from tergite 3 by an indistinct suture; tergite 3 gradually widening to an apex twice as wide as base, length 3X width at apex. Background color pale shining brown, tergites 1–3 mostly pale, distal part of tergite 3 and following tergites slightly darker. Tergite 1 covered with distinct scale-like microsculpture; tergites 2–3 less distinctly sculptured.

Female terminalia: Tergite 7 not emarginate, indistinctly concave on posterior surface. Four spermathecae in two pairs, each pair close together on short ducts, touching but not fused; spermatheca smooth, broadly cylindrical, with a broad basal invagination and a small smooth, cylindrical cap (evagination) distally, cap about 0.5X spermathecal diameter.

Male terminalia: Tergites 5 and 6 unmodified, ventrolateral margins straight; spiracles 5 in membrane, spiracles 6 in tergite at margin. Sternites 4 and 5 pale but complete, sternite 5 relatively pale medially, both sternites with several small medial setulae and one long bristle on each side. Synsternite 7+8 short, forming a complete ribbon-like ring of uniform length dorsally and ventrally. Epandrium wider than long. Cercus small, much shorter than the large mitt-shaped surstylus, outer surface of the latter setulose, with long hairs at and near ventral margin. Basiphallus elongate, distal part expanded into two long club-like lobes conspicuously extending posteriorly. Distiphallus strikingly long and thin, strongly curved sinistrally, ribbon-like over most of length, terminating in a dark, thin, long sickle-like process. Anterior hypandrial loop thin and ribbon-like: hypandrial bridge broad and complete, medial part serving as pivot point for basiphallus. Anterior part of hypandrial arm very broad, ending in two short, broad, scale-like spurs. Posterior part of hypandrial arms short and subquadrate, meeting broad surface of pregonite at right angle, postgonite tri-lobed, with the posterior lobe unusually long and sinuate.

TYPE MATERIAL: Holotype ♂ and paratype ♀ ( MZSP, not examined): BRAZIL. São Paulo, Barueri , 15.viii.1957, K. Lenko. Other paratypes: same data as holotype but 14.vii., 11 and 24.viii.1955 (6♂, 4♀, MZSP).

MATERIAL EXAMINED: BOLIVIA. La Paz, Heath River Wildlife Centre, 12º40’S, 68º42’W, 28.iv–12.v.2007, S.A. Marshall (1♂, DEBU) . BRAZIL. São Paulo, Atlantic Coast near Praia Maresias, W Ilha de São Sebastião , foot of coastal mountains “Serra do Mar”, 18.iii.1986, swampy area at forest edge, swept, eclector, M. v. Tschirnhaus, “X519” (3♀, DEBU) .

COMMENTS: The type material of S. lanei was collected near São Paulo, Brazil and designated by Prado (1969) for deposition in the Museu de Zoologia, São Paulo. The type series of seven males (including holotype) and five females was apparently never deposited in the museum and we have thus far been unable to examine any of these types. Our concept of this species is therefore based mostly on a male specimen (collected in Bolivia by the senior author) that is a close match to the description and extensive figures, including a habitus drawing and detailed drawings of male genitalia, in Prado (1969). The details of the male genitalia visible in Prado’s (1969) figures match our specimen perfectly, including the remarkable elongate paired posterior lobes arising from the distal part of the basiphallus, and the unique pair of short, broad spurs at the apex of the anterior hypandrial arm. Prado (1969) suggests that Syringogaster lanei is close to S. papaveroi , from which it differs most obviously by the absence of ocellar bristles. Our phylogenetic analysis places both species in the rufa -group. Syringogaster lanei shares several characters with S. dactylopleura of the figurata -group: number of spines of anteroventral row of hind femur reduced (i.e., ≤9), hind femur entirely shining and distiphallus with a long, finger-like lobe. The strongly developed second prespiracular process was not mentioned by Prado (1969) for this species (nor for S. papaveroi ), but the specimens we have identified as S. lanei have a relatively small conical prespiracular process (as opposed to a very long digitiform process in S. dactylopleura ).

We have not illustrated this species because it keys well and is fully figured in Prado (1969).