Neocephalosphaera paolae, Ramos-Pastrana & Marques & Rafael, 2022

Ramos-Pastrana, Yardany, Marques, Dayse W. A. & Rafael, José Albertino, 2022, Cephalosphaera Enderlein and Neocephalosphaera De Meyer (Diptera: Pipunculidae) of Colombia, with description of nine new species and an updated key to their Neotropical species, Zootaxa 5178 (4), pp. 301-333 : 316

Neocephalosphaera paolae sp. nov.

Figs 72–84 , 130

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂: COLOMBIA, Caquetá, San José del Fragua, Yurayaco , 0120’55’’N / 7606’11’’W, 1270 m [eters], 09–13.ix.2000, F. Gonzales “M03, (1♂, IAvH) (photographed specimen) . Holotype with left wing mounted on microslide with Canada balsam. Left antenna and terminalia were placed in a microvial with glycerin, both pinned along the specimen.

Diagnosis. Trochanters yellow; femora mostly brown, yellow on proximal half; tibiae yellow; hind tibia with erect setae medially. Abdomen brown, tergite 1 entirely gray pruinose and tergites 2–5 gray pruinose posterolaterally. Surstyli subsymmetrical, both with tips inward directed and inner margin with lobes that converge apically. Apex of phallic guide stout, long, with distinct translucent lobes dorsally and ventrally. Phallus trifid, long, with apex of ejaculatory ducts coiled.

Description. MALE (holotype). Body length 3.7 mm. Head ( Figs 72–73 ). Eyes contiguous for 14 facets. F, EM, V (mm) = 0.5, 0.5, 0.5. Frons gray pruinose. Postcranium brown, laterally and ventrally gray pruinose, dorsally brown pruinose. Antenna ( Fig. 74 ). with scape and pedicel dark brown, scape with one dorsal seta; pedicel with three setae dorsally and 2 long setae ventrally; postpedicel yellow, with acuminate apex. LPP/WPP = 4.7. Thorax ( Figs 72–73, 75 ). Postpronotal lobe brown. Scutum brown, brown pruinose. Notopleuron concolorous with the scutum, gray pruinose. Scutellum concolorous with scutum gray pruinose, with four conspicuous setae along posterior margin. Mesopleuron and mediotergite light brown, gray pruinose. Wing ( Fig. 76 ). Length 7.8 mm. LW/MWW = 3.3; LTC/LFC = 2.6. Membrane faintly brown infuscated; third section costal longer than the length of fourth; vein r-m located after the basal third of the upper section of the cell dm; vein M 2 long; dm-m/M 2 = 1.8; section between cell dm and vein M 2 greater than vein dm-m; vein dm-m slightly curved. Halter stem and knob beige, except the base of stem slightly light brown. Legs ( Fig. 72 ). Coxae brown, gray pruinose; trochanters yellow; femora mostly brown, yellow on proximal half, with a row of long and fine yellow setae posterolaterally; tibiae yellow, hind tibia with erect setae medially; tarsomeres 1–4 yellow, 5 brown; pulvilli yellow. Abdomen ( Figs 72–73, 77 ). Brown, tergite 1 gray pruinose, with four stout brown setae laterally; tergites 2–5 gray pruinose posterolaterally; tergites and sternites 6 and 7 as in Fig. 78 . Syntergosternite 8 brown, brown pruinose, shorter than tergite 5, with membranous area large, dividing the syntergosternite 8 and reaching epandrium ( Figs 77, 79 ). Terminalia ( Figs 78–84 ). Epandrium light brown and surstyli yellow ( Figs 79–80 ). Surstyli ( Figs 80–82 ) subsymmetrical, equal in length to epandrium, completely setose; both surstyli with tips inward directed and inner margin with irregularly shaped lobes that converge apically; when seen in lateral view right surstylus strong and long, both surstyli with tips slightly downward directed ( Figs 81–82 ). Apex of phallic guide stout, long, with distinct translucent lobes dorsally and ventrally, extreme tip acute and downward directed ( Fig. 83 ). Ejaculatory apodeme funnel-shaped narrowed ( Fig. 84 ). Phallus trifid, long, with apex of ejaculatory ducts coiled ( Fig. 83 ).

FEMALE. Unknown.

Geographical distribution. Colombia (Caquetá) ( Fig. 130 ).

Etymology. The specific epithet is nominated in honor of Paola Andrea Vargas Triviño. She is the wife of the first author, in gratitude to approximately 21 years of accompaniment, time in which she has been a support to travel this long path called ‘life’.

Habitat. The specimens were collected with Malaise traps at ground level, where the vegetation is composed of cloud Andean forests of the Eastern Piedmont of the Cordillera of the Southwest region of Colombia.

Taxonomic notes. Neocephalosphaera paolae sp. nov. runs to N. semispiralis Rafael & Rosa 1991 in the couplet 5 of the key presented by Souza & Ale-Rocha (2009). It differs from N. semispiralis by having the antenna with scape and pedicel dark brown ( Fig. 74 ) (versus antenna with scape and pedicel dark yellow in N. semispiralis ); scutellum brown ( Figs 73, 75 ) (versus scutellum yellow); all coxae brown (versus fore and mid coxae yellow, hind coxa black); all trochanters yellow ( Fig. 72 ) (versus fore and hind trochanters yellow, mid trochanter black); both surstyli with straight ventral margins when seen in lateral view ( Figs 81–82 ) [versus both surstyli with two ventral lobes when seen in lateral view, figures 9–10, presented by Rafael & Rosa (1991)]; phallus trifid, long, with the apex of ejaculatory ducts coiled ( Fig. 83 ) (versus phallus bifid, with ejaculatory ducts long and thin, apparently covered by a membrane with spines apically, in original description).

Figures

FIGURE 130. Geographical records of Neocephalosphaera species in Colombia. N. iguaquensis sp. nov., N. muisca sp. nov. and N. paolae sp. nov.

FIGURES 72–84. Neocephalosphaera paolae sp. nov. (IAvH–M03). Male. 72, Habitus, left lateral view; 73, Habitus, dorsal view; 74, Antenna; 75, Thorax, dorsal view; 76, Wing; 77, Abdomen, dorsal view; 78, Tergites and sternites 6 and 7, ventral view; 79, Terminalia, dorsal view; 80, Surstyli, dorsal view; 81, Left surstylus, lateral view; 82, Right surstylus, lateral view; 83, Phallic guide and phallus, left lateral view; 84, Ejaculatory apodeme.