Mesoconius cyclops (Hennig) Marshall, 2019

Marshall, Stephen A., 2019, A revision of the genus Mesoconius Enderlein (Diptera, Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 548, pp. 1-126 : 102-103

Mesoconius cyclops (Hennig) comb. nov.

Fig. 40C

Aristobata cyclops Hennig, 1935: 30 ; 1934: pl. 2, fig. 4 (nomen nudum).

Aristobata cyclops var. hemichrysus Hennig, 1935: 31 .

Zelatractodes cyclops – Steyskal 1968: 20 .

Diagnosis

Length about 14 mm. Head black. Frontal vitta velvety black; paracephalon and epicephalon shiny black; lower frons and orbital strips shiny brown, frons with anterior margin sinuate. Upper and lower parts of parafacial silvery, sharply demarcated from brown contiguous parts of frons. Subantennal pits and upper face shiny brown, upper face carinate, lower face pale and membranous; clypeus shiny orange; palpus relatively narrow, orange. Thorax orange. Distal half of fore femur and all of fore tibia black, fore tarsus white. Mid and hind femora orange in holotype (female paratype with a very weak basal ring), tibiae orange-yellow; mid tarsus black; tarsomeres 1 and 2 of hind leg orange-yellow. Wing clear, without pattern or pigmented areas. Abdomen red at base (T1 and part of T2), otherwise blueblack dorsally in male, matt black in female; abdomen pale yellow ventrally, epandrium orange-yellow, oviscape black. Female abdominal pleuron apparently with black pigmentation near junctions of some tergites. Ovipositor black. Male with S8 shiny black in contrast with dull orange epandrium; visible pleuron cream-yellow. Frontal vitta rounded and convex; postocellar bristles closely spaced and slightly divergent, inserted in microtrichose areas, inner vertical bristle well-developed; outer vertical bristle absent; one small lower frontal and one large upper orbital bristle. Abdominal segment 1 petiolate, segment 2 somewhat petiolate in male holotype but not in female paratype. Male abdomen with S6 long and y-shaped; S8 bare.

Material examined

Holotype

BOLIVIA • ♂; Mapiri , Sarampioni; 700 m a.s.l.; Jan. 1903; missing front and middle left legs; SMTD.

Paratype

BOLIVIA • ♀; San Carlos ; 800 m a.s.l.; 2 Jan. 1903; SMTD .

Syntypes of Aristobata cyclops var. hemichrysus

BOLIVIA • 1 ♂; Mapiri, San Carlos; 13 Jan. 1903; SMTD • 1 ♀; Yungas de Coroico ; 1000 m a.s.l.; 13 Jan. 1907; SMTD .

Remarks

The shiny black head and bicoloured abdomen of this otherwise mostly orange species seem to be distinctive, but it remains known only from the types. Hennig (1935) split the type series of four specimens into two varieties, with a male and female in the nominate variety and a male and female with more extensively pigmented mid and hind femora treated as Aristobata cyclops var. hemichrysis . Hennig (1934) illustrated the head of Mesoconius cyclops , as Aristobata cyclops , without an outer vertical bristle, but mentions the possession of an outer vertical bristle as a character in his diagnosis of Aristobata . I cannot see the outer vertical on the types. Hennig (1935) considered this species to be close to A. melini Frey, 1927 (= M. filipes Enderlein, 1922 ), which differs in having a black prothorax.

Figures

Fig. 40. Mesoconius oblitus group species known only from original type specimens. A. Mesoconius afurcatus (Hennig, 1935), holotype, ♂, MLUH, Venezuela. B. M. braueri (Hennig, 1935), paratype, ♂, NHMW, Venezuela. C. M. cyclops (Hennig, 1935), holotype, ♂, SMTCk, Bolivia. D. M. filipes Enderlein, 1922, holotype, ♀, MNBG, Peru. E. Aristobata melini Frey, 1927 (junior synonym of M. filipes), syntype, ZMUH, Peru. F. M. rufiventris (Enderlein, 1922), holotype, ♀, MNBG, Colombia. G. M. versicolorus (Enderlein, 1922), holotype, ♀, MNBG, Colombia.