Apotropina ornatipennis (Malloch, 1940)

Ang, Yuchen, Lumbers, James & Riccardi, Paula R., 2023, A conspectus of Australian Apotropina (Diptera, Chloropidae) with the description of two new species, ZooKeys 1187, pp. 261-299 : 261

Apotropina ornatipennis (Malloch, 1940)

Fig. 16A-C

Parahippelates ornatipennis Malloch, 1923: 620.

Lasiopleura (Lasiopleura) ornatipennis : Malloch 1940: 270.

Type locality and distribution.

Australia: Victoria (Chelsea), New South Wales (Collaroy, nr. Sydney).

Examined material.

Holotype ♀ Label transcription: "Chelsea, V., 28.9.19; Parahippelates ornatipennis Type, Det. J.R.Malloch ". Deposited in the SAMA.

Taxonomic notes.

Apotropina ornatipennis belongs to a group of described species (including A. exquisita , A. proxima and A. raymenti ) that have dark bodies with shiny tomentosity, wings with distinct dark patterning covering at least the medial region from costal margin to beyond R2+3 vein, and usually shiny-white alula. Apotropina ornatipennis can be distinguished from other species in this group with the following combination of characters: short capitate proboscis, with more than two distal tarsal segments dark, katepisternum completely whitish tomentose, wing veins lighter basally, darker brown near apex, femora dark but broadly yellow at least a quarter to the apices (Fig. 16A, B ). This species is only known from female specimens, male morphology unknown. However, there is evidence that species in this group may have sexually dimorphic color patterns (see Fig. 1 ) where males may have more prominent patterns than females. Chaetotaxy as observed: 1 vibrissa; 2 moderately-strong proclinate interfrontal setae; 2 postpronotal setae; 1+1 notopleural setae; short weak biseriate acrostichal row only in medial region of scutum; katepisternal seta missing/indistinct. Original description in Suppl. material 1.

Figures

Figure 1. In situ photo of Apotropina sp. showing sexual dimorphism. iNaturalist observation (Grove 2019) of two individuals (likely of A. ornatipennis (Malloch) or similar where ♂ wings (bottom left) have color pattern extending to wing apices (blue arrow), while the ♀ color pattern (top right) does not (red arrow).

Figure 16. Apotropina ornatipennis (Malloch) holotype ♀ A habitus, lateral view B habitus, dorsal view C specimen labels.