Limnophora sinuosa, Couri, Márcia & Pont, Adrian, 2017

Couri, Márcia & Pont, Adrian, 2017, Afrotropical Limnophora Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera, Muscidae) with the description of four new species, Zootaxa 4216 (6), pp. 501-536 : 528-529

Limnophora sinuosa sp. nov.

( Figs 92–95 )

Type material. Holotype male, N. NIGERIA: Zaria , Samaru, 21.ix.1968, J.C. Deeming, m.v. trap ( BMNH).

Paratypes, 3 males, same labels as holotype; 2 males (1 MNRJ, 1 BMNH), same locality, 29.ix.1969 ; 2 females (1 MNRJ, 1 BMNH), same locality, 7.x.1969 .

Diagnosis. General colour intensely grey dusted; male head very characteristic, with the inner and outer vertical setae and ocellar setae extremely short and setuliform; lower katepisternal absent; male fore tibia with the preapical dorsal seta long.

Description. General colouration. Ground-colour intensely grey dusted. Frontal vitta brown; fronto-orbital plate, parafacial, face and gena silvery pruinose. Ocellar triangle surrounded by a grey dusted area, which in female is round and strongly contrasts with the brown frons. Antenna, arista and palpus dark brown. Proboscis shining dark brown. Scutum uniformly grey dusted in male; female with 2 brown thin vittae along first and second presutural dorsocentral setae and 2 broader ones along first and second postsutural dorsocentrals; scutellum with a brown transverse band on basal third. Wing clear. Calypters white, haltere yellow. Legs dark brown. Abdomen with dark brown roundish spots on tergites 3 and 4.

Male. Measurements. Body length: 3.0 mm; wing length: 3.0 mm.

Head. Eye bare with margins converging to vertex; frontal row with 2–3 short pairs in the middle of frons, 1 longer pair close to lunule and 1 very short and hair-like pair a little below the level of anterior ocellus; inner and outer vertical setae very short and fine; ocellar seta short and fine. Antenna inserted at mid-level of eye, postpedicel about twice the length of pedicel; arista plumose. Palpus filiform.

Thorax. Dorsocentrals 2+3; acrostichal setulae in 2 rows presuturally and 5 rows postsuturally, prescutellar pair not differentiated; 2 postpronotals; 1 presutural and 1 postsutural intraalars, short and fine, the anterior one absent; 1 presutural and 1 postsutural supraalar; 2 postalars, the posterior one longer; prealar absent. Prosternum setulose. Notopleuron with two setae, similar in size. Scutellum with one sub-basal pair of setae and one long apical pair, lateral and ventral surfaces bare. Anepisternum with a series of 4–5 setae, 2 of them longer. Katepisternals 1+1, the lower posterior absent. Lower calypter about twice the length of the upper one.

Legs. Fore femur with rows of posterodorsal and posteroventral setae, the posteroventrals longer; fore tibia with 1 long dorsal preapical and 1 posteroventral apical setae; mid femur with 1 median anterior seta and 2 posterodorsal preapicals; mid tibia with 2–3 anteroventrals on middle to apical third, 2 posterodorsal and 1 strong apical ventral; hind femur with a row of anterodorsal setae on basal half, 2–3 anteroventral setae on apical third, 1 anterodorsal and 1 posterodorsal preapicals; hind tibia with 1 median anterodorsal seta, 1 submedian anteroventral seta; dorsal preapical seta and 1 ventral apical short.

Wing. Veins bare except for vein R4+5 which has 2 setulae on the node at base; veins R4+5 and M parallel at wing-tip; costal spine not differentiated.

Abdomen. Tergites 3–5 with medium-sized setae, mostly lateral marginals. Sternite 1 bare. Sternite 5 with long sinuous setae as in Fig. 92 .

Terminalia. Epandrium and cercal plate with long and sinuous setae. Cercal plate and surstylus as in Figs 93– 94 . Aedeagal complex as in Fig. 95 .

Female. length: 3.0 mm; wing length: 2.9 mm.

Similar to male, except for: frontal row with 3–4 pairs of spaced setae, the upper one reclinate, inner and outer vertical setae and ocellar seta much longer and stronger than in male; the preapical dorsal seta on fore tibia shorter than in male; the anterodorsal row of setae on hind femur is more complete.

Distribution. Nigeria.

Etymology. The specific name is from the Latin “sinuosus”, meaning “sinuous, curved”, and refers to the long and sinuous setae on sternite 5, epandrium and cercal plate.

Remarks. In Emden’s (1951) key to Limnophora , the new species runs to L. leptopus (junior synonym of L. stragula (Séguy)) , because of the presence of 2 posterior preapicals on mid femur and the absence of the lower katepisternal seta, but the general appearance of both species is totally different.

Figures

FIGURES 89 – 103. Sternite 5; cercal plate and surstyli in dorsal view (not figured for L. quadristriata); epandrium, cercal plate and surstyli in lateral view; aedeagus in lateral view: 89 – 91. Limnophora quadristriata Emden. 92 – 95. Limnophora sinuosa sp. nov. 96 – 99. Limnophora somereni Emden. 100 – 103. Limnophora spinata Stein.