Grallipeza paraplacida, Marshall, S. A., 2013

Marshall, S. A., 2013, Grallipeza Rondani (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae) of the Caribbean and North America, Zootaxa 3682 (1), pp. 45-84 : 70-72

Grallipeza paraplacida new species

Figs. 49–53

Description: Size: Approximately 7 mm. Colour: Head, including frontal vitta and palpus, almost entirely orange; ocellar triangle black ( Fig. 49 ), clypeus shining brown. Fore femur dark dorsally in female, only distal part of fore femur dark distally in male. Tibia brown, fore tibia with a patch of white apicoventral setulae; fore tarsomeres 1–2 white with white setulae except apicoventral tip of tarsomere 2, tarsomeres 3–5 brown with dark setulae. Mid and hind femora, tibia and tarsi uniformly pale brown. Thorax almost entirely orange, katepisternal bristles black, posterodorsal part of katepisternum and posterior anepisternum silvery pollinose. Female abdomen with tergites 1– 5 pale reddish brown, pollinose and setulose; tergite 6 shining and sparsely setulose; oviscape shining brown dorsally with sparse small setulae; pollinose laterally and apically, apex pale. Abdominal pleuron of female mostly white, dorsal margin blackish ( Fig. 50 and inset). Male abdominal syntergite 1–5 brown, pollinose and setulose; tergite 6 and sternite 8 darker and shining but with setulosity similar to tergites 1–5; epandrium elongate yellow and entirely densely microsetulose and setulose. Male abdomen with a distinct, large, round, yellow-brown microsetulose membranous dome on pleuron of segment 2, pleuron otherwise darker on dorsal half, white ventrally.

Head: Arista with sparse long hairs almost to apex, hairs as long as or longer than scape width ( Fig. 49 ). Pedicel with long ventroapical bristles, one as long as first flagellomere. Supraantennal shelf small but exposed between lower frons and scape. Frontal vitta flat, expanded in front of ocelli but narrowed and depressed behind, lower orbital margins distinctly elevated.

Thorax: Cervical sclerite strongly sexually dimorphic; female sclerite convex with dense covering of pits and pores, male without pores and with a broad transverse furrow. Fore femur with only small ventral setulae. Two distinct dorsocentral bristles, 1–2 small suprahumeral bristles continuous with but distinctly larger that the complete row of dorsocentral setulae. Postpronotum microsetulose but with few or no setulae. Wing: Anal cell mostly bare, setulose near margins. Membrane lightly infuscated over anterior 2/3, infuscation slightly darker in middle (discal) area.

Female abdomen: Spermathecae with a pair of large, recumbent and bell-like spermathecae on a long common duct with an elongate and gradually expanded swelling preceding the split into separate stems for the two spermathecae; single spermatheca small, wrinkled and transverse, on a thin duct about half as long as the duct leading to the large spermathecae ( Fig. 51 ).

Male abdomen: Genital fork pale, strongly curved, V-shaped and deeply cleft basally; mesal surface with short quadrate basal lobe with a tightly packed row of teeth, and a double row of about 12 stout distal teeth; outer surface with a conspicuously long apico-lateral tuft of black bristles ( Fig. 52 ). Distiphallus short, slightly longer than epandrium; basal part relatively broad and parallel-sided with a sinuate duct; bulb broad and dense, with a broad, flat distal extension about half as long as bulb ( Fig. 53 ).

Type material: Holotype (female, CMNH #329.104)): Dominican Republic. Hato Mayor, Parque los Haitises, 3kmW Cueva de Arena, 19-04N, 16-29W, 20m, 7–9.vii.1992, R. Davidson et al, mesic lowland forest). Paratypes: Dominican Republic. Puerto Plata, beach/forest edge, 20–27.xii.2003, S.M. Paiero, (2 Ƥ, 2 3 DEBU, debu00241793, 94, 96, 97,); La Vega Prov, Parque Nac. A. Bermudez, La Cienaga-Los Tablones, 16.vii.2006, D. Perez (1 Ƥ, USNM); Santiago Prov., Juncalito, 1,000m, 3–4.xi.2007, D. Perez (1 3, USNM); Bonao, sweep cacao plantation, 14.1.199, J.E. Swann (1 Ƥ, DEBU); Puerto Plata, rural area near city, 20–22.xii.2003, S.M. Paiero (1 3, DEBU, debu00241852).

Etymology: Grallipeza paraplacida is named for its similarity to the Cuban species G. placida . Both species have quadrate, toothed basal lobes on the male genital fork, but they differ widely in structure of the female common spermathecal duct.

Figures

FIGURES 49 – 53. Grallipeza paraplacida. 49, female head and thorax dorsal; 50, female right dorsal (with inset of abdomen to show bicolored oviscape); 51, spermathecae and ducts; 52, male terminalia; 53, detail of phallus.