Quichuana rubicunda, 2012

Ricarte, Antonio, Marcos-García, M. Ángeles, Hancock, E. G. & Rotheray, Graham E., 2012, Revision of the New World genus Quichuana Knab, 1913 (Diptera: Syrphidae), including descriptions of 24 new species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 166 (1), pp. 72-131 : 110-111

QUICHUANA RUBICUNDA RICARTE & ROTHERAY SP. NOV.

FIGURES 17 AND 18

Description

Male

Head: Eye hairs brown, becoming lighter and sparser ventrally; black vertical triangle with white pollinosity only on the anterior corner; ocellar triangle with long black hairs; frontal triangle black with long black hairs and, on the eye margins, a line of pale hairs; antenna blackish red, nearly black at the apex of pedicel and at the base of basoflagellomere; basoflagellomere oval; bf = 1.2; arista red, darkened towards the apex; frontal prominence red and pollinose below antennae; frontal prominence with a faint, pollinose, tapering stripe extending from the eye margins to the antennae; black face with long white hairs except for a central bare stripe from the mouth edge to the bottom of the frontal prominence; face with white pollinosity on the eye margins and a stripe of white pollinosity from the eye margin to the mouth edge laterally; occiput white pollinose, with long white hairs, but also, on the upper third, with a line of intermixed black hairs.

Thorax: Black; greyish pollinose scutum with two medial, approximated, brownish pollinose stripes, stripes extending to about three-quarters the length of the scutum; scutum, including area immediately above wings, with intermixed red and black hairs, although black hairs more abundant on the surface posterior to TS; PAPT posterodorsally, NP, and PC with non-tufted groups of long hairs, intermixed red and black; brown scutellum, blackish on lateral corners; scutellum with intermixed red and black hairs; all femora extensively black, only lighter or yellow apically; basal half of pro- and mesotibia yellow, but apical half with some areas yellow; metatibia black, with some yellow areas at apex and base; pro- and metatarsomeres 2–5 and mesotarsomeres 3–5 black, lighter ventrally; femora, tibiae, and tarsi with both black and yellow hairs intermixed; wings extensively microtrichose, with some areas bare or with sparser microtrichia in cells BM, R, and CuA1; wings very lightly brown pigmented on the anterior half; veins on the anterior third of wing light brown.

Abdomen: Black; terga II–IV extensively brownish pollinose, with a short shiny band posteriorly (pollinosity of the same colour as that of the two medial stripes on scutum); tergum I with a moustache arrangement of reddish hairs not obscuring the background colour of tergum, and with a central gap of about half of the tergum width; terga II–IV mostly with red hairs, but also with black hairs roughly on the shiny parts of all terga, and along most of the length of the lateral margins on tergum II.

Genitalia: Superior lobes of hypandrium wedge shaped, viewed in profile ( Fig. 17 ); surstyli with a triangular process anteriorly ( Fig. 18 ).

Female

Same as the male, except black hairs on the surface immediately behind ocellar triangle; vertex and frons black; frons coarsely sculptured, with a triangular brownish white pollinose band; frons mainly with long black hairs and also a line of brownish white hairs on the eye margins; eye margins with a narrow band of pollinosity from the frons to the face; scape and pedicel black; basoflagellomere black, lighter ventrally; arista brown; frontal prominence with scattered, short, black hairs to the sides of the antennae; face sculptured and hairy, except for a central, smooth, bare stripe; scutum with both reddish brown and black hairs; pleuron faintly pollinose, with both black and brown hairs, although the brown hairs more abundant; PC with long reddish brown hairs and scattered black hairs; anterior and posterior spiracles black; scutellum reddish black, with intermixed reddish brown and black hairs, although reddish brown more abundant; femora extensively black, only red apically; pro- and mesotibia reddish brown; metatibia reddish brown on the basal third and at the apex; tarsi brownish black dorsally, except for tarsomere 1 and sometimes tarsomere 2; femora and tibiae with both black and reddish brown hairs, longer on femora; wing veins outlined with light-brown pigmentation, slightly heavier on the anterior half of the wing; wings with extensive areas bare of microtrichia on the posterior half; terga II–IV with an anterior, glasses-shaped, reddish brown pollinose area, replaced laterally by shiny oval markings, with the remainder of terga II–IV shiny black (at least tergum II with more or less visible lateral, reddish markings).

Etymology

The epithet ‘ rubicunda ’ means ‘red haired’ and refers to the body hairs, which are mostly and distinctively red.

Material examined

Holotype: 1m, Sector Orosilito , Est. Pitilla 9 km S. Santa Cecilia, Prov. Guana, Costa Rica, 800–1100 m, 3–24.iv.1995, leg. E. Alfaro. L N 328650 378600 #4600/ Costa Rica INBio CRI 002140625 ( INBio).

Paratypes: COSTA RICA: 1m, Est. Pitilla, Sector Fila Orosilito, P.N. Guanacaste, Prov. Guana, Costa Rica, 800–1100 m, iv.1994, leg. C. Moraga, L N 328650_ 378600 # 2842, Costa Rica INBio CRI 001789053, Quichuana CR-4.1, 16.i.1997 (INBio); 1m, Prov. Cartago, Turrialba, Tayutic, P.N. Barbilla, Sector Cerro Tigre, 1600 m, 22.iii.2001, leg. E. Rojas, Manual, L_N_602500_211700#61734 (INB0003144666); 1m, Prov. Cartago, P.N. Barbilla, Sector Cerro Tigre, 1600 m, 26.iv.2001, leg. E. Rojas, F. Umaña, E. Mora, Manual, L_N_211700_602500#63210 (INB0003331185); 1m, Prov. Guanacaste, P.N. Volcán Tenorio, Bijagua, Faldas NE, Volcán Tenorio, 1700–1800 m, 29.v.2001, leg. K. Caballero, Libre, L_N_294650_425500#64468 (INB0003365324); 3f, Prov. Guanacaste, Upala, Bijagua, Faldas NE Volcán Tenorio, 1300–1865 m, 29.v.2001, leg. E. Rojas, Libre, L_N_294650_425500#63271 (1f), and L_N_ 295900_426650#63267’ (2f) (INB0003333579, 3333485, 3333484); 1f, San José, San Gerardo de Dota, Albergue Savegre. Send. Los Robles, 2300–2450 m, 20–22.i.1998, leg. MAZ, L_S_389000_484200 #49970, det. as Quichuana CR 4b by FCT ( INBio CRI 002415874); 2f, San Gerardo de Dota, 2000–2500 m, Prov. San José, Curso Tachinidae y Syrphidae , 22–26.ii.1992, L-S 387400, 482700, det. as Quichuana CR 4c by FCT ( INBio CRI 000407726, and 406849); 1f, Prov. San José, Est. Cuerici, Sendero al Mirador, 4.6 km al E de Villa Mills, 2640–2700 m, 9.vi.1996, leg. A. Picado. L_S_ 389700_499600 #7696, det. as Quichuana CR 4b by FCT ( INBio CRI 002466259) (INBio); 1f from larva collected in a trunk cavity of a fallen tree, Costa Rica (CR13), Volcán Tenorio, Alajuela Upala (sendero puentes), 23.ii.2006, leg. MAM & GER (CEUA).

Range

Costa Rica.

Taxonomic notes

Medium size to large species (13 mm, holotype) with broad abdomen; similar to Q. communis sp. nov., but with body hairs predominantly reddish; in females of Q. rubicunda sp. nov. hairs on tergum I can be white, but neither in male nor in female golden yellow, which is the usual colour of hairs in Q. communis sp. nov.; males of Q. rubicunda sp. nov. can be separated from males of the similar Q. atra sp. nov. and Q. communis sp. nov. by the shape of the superior lobes, which are wedge shaped at the apex, viewed in profile ( Fig. 17 ); variation in colour patterns of female Q. communis sp. nov. and Q. rubicunda sp. nov. might make it difficult to separate these two species. To distinguish females of Q. atra sp. nov., Q. communissp . nov., and Q. rubicunda sp. nov., see ‘Taxonomic notes’ under Q. atra sp. nov.

Figures

Figures 17–19. Quichuana male genitalia: 17–18, Quichuana rubicunda sp. nov.; 17, hypandrium, lateral view; 18, epandrium, lateral view; 19, Quichuana atra sp. nov., hypandrium, lateral view. Scale bar: 1 mm.