Coenosia nigerrima (Malloch, 1934) comb. rest.

Patitucci, Luciano Damian, Mulieri, Pablo Ricardo, Couri, Marcia Souto & Dominguez, Martha Cecilia, 2023, Phylogeny of the old and fragmented genus Austrocoenosia Malloch reveals new evidences on the morphology and evolution of the genera Coenosia Meigen and Neodexiopsis Malloch (Diptera: Muscidae), Arthropod Systematics & amp; Phylogeny 81, pp. 611-653 : 611

Coenosia nigerrima (Malloch, 1934) comb. rest.

Male (Fig. 21A).

Length. Body: 3.40-3.94 mm, wing: 2.80-3.49 mm. Head: (Fig. 21B ). Frons, fronto-orbital plate, parafacial and gena black. 5-6 pairs of frontal setae. Frons at vertex about one third of the head width. Frons with similar length and width, with frontal triangle short, black, not reaching lunule. Gena with a similar width to the postpedicel. Fronto-orbital plate with 6-8 short setulae, close to parafacialia. Parafacial in lateral view narrow. Antenna black; in lateral view inserted over the mid-level of the eye; arista with its longest microtrichia shorter than its basal diameter. Palpus black. Thorax: (Fig. 21C ). Black with brown pollinosity, without vitta; anterior and posterior spiracles black. Chaetotaxy: acr s strong and biseriate; anterior presutural pair longer than the extra pair of presutural dorsocentral (eaDC); dorsocentrals 1+3, eaDC is less than one fifth of the aDC. Katepisternum with 2-3 setulae. Wing: Tegula black. Both calypters hyaline with black margins; halter black. Legs: Coxae, trochanters, femora, tibiae, and tarsus black. Fore femur with a row of strong pd to pv setae, and a row of strong av setae on basal third. Mid femur with 1-2 long setae on ventral surface, a row of setae on anterior surface, and 2 preapical setae on pd to posterior surface; mid tibia with one ad and one pd median setae, with the same length and ad seta positioned below pd seta. Hind femur with a row of ad and a row of av setae, with one preapical ad seta and one pd seta. Hind tibia similar size of claws and pulvilli of the three legs. Abdomen: (Fig. 21D ). Black without spots. Tergite 6 not visible in dorsal or lateral view. Sternite 5 broader than long, apical margin concave with a thin “U” shape reduced towards the base, and without membrane; few setae concentrated on the lobes and some long and strong on apical margin (Fig. 21E ). Terminalia: Cercus curved in lateral view, and two longitudinal keels only on basal half, apical margin straight. Little spines on inner surface. Surstylus broad at base and at apex, curved, with a pointed process at apical third in inner surface (Fig. 21F-H ). Hypandrium tubular longer than wide, with several little spicules close to pregt. Aedeagus with pgt developed and poor sclerotized; epiphalus slightly sclerotized, and distiph tubular, strongly sclerotized at base (Fig. 21I, J ).

Female (Fig. 22A, B).

Length. Body: 3.75-4.10 mm, wing: 3.60-4.30 mm. Differs from male as follows: Wing: Both calypters hyaline with white margins. Ovipositor: Tergites 6, 7 and 8 with 2 long and wide scletotized plates; epiproct triangular, with hair-like setae, cercus longer than epiproct (Fig. 22C ). Sternites 6 and 7 with long plates; sternite 8 with a central long plate and 2 small plates each with 4-5 setae on distal margin; hypoproct triangular, with several short setae on distal margin (Fig. 22D ). Spermathecae (Fig. 22E ).

Type material.

Paratypes. Two females; MNRJ. [pinned, without abdomen] Original labels: "Casa Pangue / Llanquihue / Chile Dec 1926 / R& E. Shannon" print. on white paper, “Paratypo” print. on green paper, black frame; “♀” handwr. on white paper. "M.N.R.J [print.] / 4401 [handwr.]" on white paper, black frame. Paratype: male; MNRJ. [glued on card, without abdomen]. Original labels: "Casa Pangue / llanquihue / Chile Dec 1926 / R& E. Shannon" print. on white paper, " Neodexiopsis / Neodexiopsis nigerrima (Mall.) [handwr.] / S.M. Lopes det. [print.]" on wihte paper. “Paratypo” print. on green paper, black frame; “♀” handwr. on white paper. "M.N.R.J [print.] / 4401 [handwr.]" on white paper, black frame.

Additional material examined.

ARGENTINA - Chubut province • 2 females, 10 males; PNLA, Seccional Lago Verde ; -42.718803, -71.727470; 538 m a.s.l.; Oct 2014, Mulieri Patitucci & Torretta leg.; MACN; Malaise • 1 female; PNLP, Pitranto Grande ; -42.0963, -71.612 9; 200 m a.s.l.; 11 Jan 2011; Patitucci leg.; MACN . - Neuquén province • 2 females; PNL, Pucara ; -40.1551565, -71.63161488; Jan 1952; Schajovskoi leg.; MACN .

Distribution (Fig. 23).

ARGENTINA: Chubut (new record), Neuquén (new record), Río Negro. CHILE: R. de Bio Bio, R. de los Lagos.

Remarks.

Malloch (1934) described C. nigerrima with females and male specimens from Argentina and Chile, and proposed it as the type species of Austrocoenosia . Also, this author highlighted the dark black coloration and the absence of marks on the thorax and abdomen, characters that differentiate this species from the remaining Austrocoenosia species. Later, Pont (1972) transferred the species to Coenosia . After that, Couri and Albuquerque (1979) presented drawing of the female and male terminalia, and transferred the species to Neodexiopsis . The general black coloration, and the strongly sclerotized male terminalia make it difficult to correctly identify the species. In the specimens studied in the present work, we observed some differences (presence of keels on the cercus, shape of the surstylus) from the drawings presented by Couri and Albuquerque (1979). We found morphological and phylogenetic evidence to consider this species as part of the C. argentifrons group, and thus restored the previous combination proposed by Pont (1972) Coenosia nigerrima .

Regarding its distribution, several authors ( Costacurta et al. 2003; Rodríguez-Fernández et al. 2006; Krüger et al. 2010; Fogaça et al. 2020) recorded this species in the South of Brazil (Fig. 23B ). Since species of the C. argentifrons group presents restricted distribution in the Central Chilean and Subantarctic subregions; it would be interesting to examine the specimens collected in southern Brazil to establish similarities and differences.

Figures

Figure 21. Coenosia nigerrima, male. A Lateral view, B head, frontal view, C thorax, dorsal view, D abdomen, dorsal view, E fifth sternite, F cercus, dorsal view (SEM), G cercus and surstylus, dorsal view, H cercus, surstylus and phallic complex, lateral view, I phallic complex, lateral view, J phallic complex, detail of distal tip. Scale bar: 1 mm (A), 0.5 mm (B-D), 0.2 mm (E-H), 0.05 mm (I-J). Hypandrium, spicules on ventral surface - red arrows.

Figure 22. Coenosia nigerrima, female. A: Lateral view, B head, frontal view, C ovipositor, dorsal view, distal tip, D ovipositor, ventral view, distal tip, E spermathecae. Scale bar: 1 mm (A), 0.5 mm (B-D), 0.2 mm (E).

Figure 23. Geographical distribution of Coenosia nigerrima. A Subantarctic subregion records (Argentina, Chile), B Atlantic forest region records (Brazil). Biogeographic subantarctic subregion - green area, new records - black circle; bibliographic records - yellow triangle: bibliographic records in Brazil - black triangle.