Borboroides staniochi, McAlpine, 2007

McAlpine, DK, 2007, Review of the Borboroidini or Wombat Flies (Diptera: Heteromyzidae), with Reconsideration of the Status of Families Heleomyzidae and Sphaeroceridae, and Descriptions of Femoral Gland-baskets, Records of the Australian Museum 59, pp. 143-219 : 180-183

Borboroides staniochi n.sp.

Figs 70–79

Material examined. HOLOTYPE.?, New South Wales: Putty Road , 41 km N of Colo R. bridge, 33°11'S 150°41'E, c. 220 m, [Yengo National Park], 6.vi.2002, D.K.M. ( AM K219749 ). Mounted on card point . PARATYPES. New South Wales: 17??, 12!!, same locality as holotype, May , June 2002 –2004, D.K.M. ( AM, ANIC, USNM) .

Description (male, female). Very small, stout, largely black fly with unmarked wing.

Coloration. Head, thorax, legs and abdomen black to dark brown. Postfrons without glossy zones, extensively pruinescent but more sparsely so centrally and posteriorly where surface shows strong fingerprint sculpture ( Fig. 72); lower margin of cheek narrowly grey-pruinescent.Antenna: segment 1 tawny-yellow; segment 2 dark brown; segment 3 brown with variable tawny zone near base. Prelabrum blackish; palpus brown-black. Mesoscutum largely thinly pruinescent, shining; scutellum more densely brownpruinescent; mesopleuron glossy brown-black centrally, the glossy zone extending narrowly to lower margin and to anteroventral extremity, upper and posterior margins broadly greyish-pruinescent; sternopleuron, pteropleuron, and pleurotergite grey-pruinescent. Legs, including tarsi, dark brown; bases of tibiae often narrowly tawny. Wing membrane faintly smoky, without paler or darker zones. Halter brown, with creamy-white capitellum. Abdominal tergites with thin brown pruinescence.

Head higher than long; eye subcircular, apparently bare; postfrons with numerous erect to somewhat proclinate setulae on anterior half; face concave, particularly on lower part; height of cheek 0.41–0.56 of height of eye; postvertical bristle slightly shorter than posterior fronto-orbital; ocellar bristle large; posterior fronto-orbital bristle moderately long, reclinate and slightly sloped outwards; anterior frontoorbital similarly inclined but very small, often as long as adjacent setulae.Antenna: segment 3 ovoid, not decumbent; arista distinctly longer than greatest diameter of eye, with moderately dense short hairs, not longer than maximum diameter of segment 5. Prelabrum narrow, not prominent, slightly larger in female than in male; palpus moderately short; proboscis short, with broadly rounded labella.

Thorax moderately stout; intradorsocentral setulae in six irregular rows anteriorly, sparser posteriorly; mesopleuron with few posterior setulae; the following thoracic bristles present: humeral, presutural, 1+1 notopleurals, supra-alar, postalar (near apex of postalar callus), posterior intraalar, 0+3 well-developed dorsocentrals, two pairs of large scutellars, small anterior sternopleural and larger posterior one. Fore femur with three or four posteroventral bristles, of which at least two are moderately long, and usually two long posterodorsal bristles on distal part; mid femur with three to six anterior bristles on distal half; hind femur with anterodorsal to dorsal bristle near apical fifth of length; fore tibia with preapical dorsal bristle indistinct or absent; mid tibia with only one, rather short anterodorsal bristle near mid-length, pair of stout preapical dorsal bristles near apical fifth, and with following subapical spurs: large anterior, vestigial posterior, in female only large ventral; hind tibia with preapical dorsal bristle and quite small but often distinct apical anteroventral spur. Wing: costa without special armature; subcosta weakened near level of humeral break of costa, well sclerotized for short distance beyond; anterior crossvein meeting vein 4 near mid-length of discal cell; apical section of vein 4 c. 3.4–4.3× as long as penultimate section; basal crossvein moderately oblique, making distinct angle with moderately curved section of vein 5 on discal cell; apical section of vein 5 very slightly curved; anal crossvein curved; distal section of vein 6 extending c. two thirds of distance from anal crossvein to margin or almost so, well sclerotized approximately straight.

Abdomen. Sternite 1 sclerotized at sides, attenuated (almost desclerotized) medially; tergite 5 slightly shorter than tergite 4 in female, subequal to it in male. Male postabdomen: sternite 5 extensively sclerotized on each side, but narrowed and weakly sclerotized medially; tergite 6 reduced to small separate strip on each side, with spiracle near its lower extremity in membrane; compound protandrial sclerite (synsternite 6–8) becoming rather slender and tubular posteriorly; anterior margin of sternite 6 marked by strongly sclerotized dark band more or less encircling postabdomen, but less distinct and sclerotized on right side; sclerotization of sternite 7 most distinct on left side; ventral region of sternites 6 and 7 extensively densely microtrichose; length of synsternite on median dorsal line more than twice that of tergite 5; epandrium rather stout, moderately narrowed anteriorly, its anteroventral bridge at narrowest (on median line) c. 0.2 of total length of epandrium; prehypandrial membrane with many minute combs of slender microtrichia, except at sides; surstylus large, with small posterobasal foot, greatly expanded distally and obliquely subtruncate, with few setulae before and near mid-length, dense comb of setulae on inner surface near commencement of expansion, and many minute, blunt, crowded spinules on inner surface near distal margin; gonite large, complex, with anterobasal mammiliform process, similar but larger medial process, and rounded setulose apex; aedeagus short, concealed between lateral processes, with short, largely membranous distiphallus and long, slender apodeme; cerci joined by membrane for most of length, and by pigmented sclerotized anterior bar just before apices, each cercus, in posterior view, very broad, with acute apex, with scattered small setulae, a prominent apical setula, and a dense tuft of coarse setulae on anterior surface.

Dimensions. Total length,? 1.4–1.9 mm,! 1.4–1.9 mm; length of thorax,? 0.66–0.78 mm,! 0.69–0.86 mm; length of wing,? 1.6–1.8 mm,! 1.8–2.2 mm.

Distribution. New South Wales: lowlands of Colo River district, between Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley. Only known from the type locality.

Notes

Borboroides staniochi belongs in the staniochi group as indicated by the compact discal cell bordered by a strongly curved section of vein 5, reduced anterior fronto-orbital bristle, and absence of any glossy zone on the postfrons. Within this group it is distinguished from B. dayi by the less restricted shining zone on the mesopleuron; the presence on the mid tibia of only one anterodorsal bristle (in addition to the preapical dorsal pair), at most only a very small posterior subapical spur, and, in the male, the absence of the subapical ventral spur; the slightly shorter vein 6; the smaller prelabrum (the difference more obvious between females); and, in the abdomen of the male, the medially attenuated sternite 5, the broadly, asymmetrically spatulate surstylus, the broad cercus, and the broad, complex gonite ( Figs 77, 79).

All specimens were collected around wombat dung bait in a natural wombat habitat.

The specific epithet refers to Damien Stanioch, formerly of Wonderland Sydney, whose co-operation led to the discovery of this and several other species of Borboroides .