Exorista (Spixomyia) sabahensis, Tachi, 2011

Tachi, Takuji, 2011, Three new species of Exorista Meigen (Diptera: Tachinidae), with a discussion of the evolutionary pattern of host use in the genus, Journal of Natural History 45 (19 - 20), pp. 1165-1197 : 1186-1189

Exorista (Spixomyia) sabahensis sp. nov.

( Figure 7 A–D)

Similar to E. flaviventris sp. nov., but differing from it as follows.

Description

Male. Vertex approximately 0.25 of head width; gena 0.25–0.27 of eye height; parafacial 1.2–1.4 times as wide as width of first flagellomere; first flagellomere 3.3–3.5 times as long as wide and 2.5–3 times as long as pedicel; apical one-quarter to one-fifth of palpus light orange to reddish yellow; sides of third and anterolateral portions of fourth abdominal tergum reddish yellow; third to fifth terga with dense greyish yellow pruinosity on anterior half; third and fourth abdominal terga each often with a pair of short discal setae. Male postabdomen: surstylus curved ventrally at middle in lateral view; cerci tapered to apex in lateral view with many long golden setae on basal three-quarters, apex slightly curved ventrally, nearly oval in dorsal view; pregonite nearly straight with some setae dorsally; postgonite rather narrow and curved ventrally; epiphallus club-shaped; distiphallus nearly triangular with a small membranous area dorsocentrally.

Body length. 11–13 mm.

Female. Unknown.

Holotype

Male ( ITBC), Inobong , Sabah, Malaysia, 2 February 2006, T. Tachi. Paratypes

Four males ( ITBC, BLKU), same locality as holotype, 4, 28 February, 16 April, 2 May 2004 .

Etymology

The name of this species is based on Sabah, the Malaysian state containing the type locality .

Distribution

Malaysia (Sabah).

Host

Unknown.

Remarks

This species seems to be closely related to E. hyalipennis because of similarities in the male distiphallus, but is easily distinguished from it by other characters (e.g. cerci and surstylus) of the male postabdomen.

Figures

Figure 7. Male postabdomen of Exorista (Spixomyia) sabahensis sp. nov. (A) Epandrium, cerci and surstylus in lateral view; (B) same in dorsal view (setae omitted on entire portion); (C) hypandrium, pregonite, postgonite and aedeagus in lateral view; (D) abdominal fifth sternum in dorsal view (setae omitted on left side). Scale bars 0.2 mm.