Quichuana atra, 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 : 78-80

QUICHUANA ATRA RICARTE & MARCOS- GARCÍA SP. NOV.

FIGURES 19 AND 79

Description

Male

Head: Eye hairs straight, no curved apex, and light brown, slightly denser on the upper surface of eye; vertical triangle with long hairs, which are brownishblack and, on the surface immediately behind the ocellar triangle, bright yellow; frontal triangle black, with anteriorly directed hairs that are brownish black, and on the eye margins are shorter and bright yellow; basoflagellomere almost square shaped; pedicel and basoflagellomere extensively black, only narrowly reddish at the apex of pedicel and at the base of basoflagellomere; bf = 1.1; frontal prominence yellowish and thinly pollinose below antennae; face shiny black; facial pollinosity white and restricted to a narrow band on the eye margins; face with both bright-yellow and brownish-black hairs, long and down facing, except for a central bare stripe extending from the mouth edge to the bottom of the frontal prominence; occiput with bright-yellow hairs, longer on the upper and lower thirds of occiput, but also, on the upper third, with a line of intermixed, long, black hairs.

Thorax: Scutum with two medial grey pollinose stripes extending from the anterior margin, where they converge, to a point anterior to TS; long black hairs, intermixed with yellow hairs mainly on the surface anterior to TS; PP with long hairs, both black and yellow; PAPT posterodorsally, NP and PC with a tuft of black hairs; brownish-black scutellum, with black hairs as long as those on scutum, but, on the posterior margin, longer and both black (most of them) and yellow intermixed; red legs except for black coxae, trochanters, femora (narrowly red apically, even narrowerly in metafemur), and tarsomeres 3–5; protibia blackish dorsally, mesotibia extensively darkened and metatibia blackish; meso- and metatarsomeres 3–5 yellowish ventrally; posterior face of fore- and mesofemur with long erect black hairs; metafemur with long black hairs intermixed with a few pale hairs, which are both short and very long ventrally; metatibia with short black hairs; wings wholly microtrichose, very lightly pigmented; black ventral calypter, with very short black hairs centrally; calypter margins fringed with black hairs; light-red halter.

Abdomen: Tergum I black; anterior half of tergum II extensively black, but posterior half with two lateral nearly triangular red markings and a narrow red band at the posterior margin; terga III and IV red with a triangular black area anteriorly, but the anterior margin of the terga narrowly red; tergum I with a moustache arrangement of long hairs, both black and grey intermixed; anterior third of terga II–IV with yellow hairs, longer towards the lateral margins (hairs black on lateral margins of tergum II); the remainder surfaces of terga II–IV with black hairs, more backwards inclined when closer to the posterior margin; sterna I–IV with scattered long yellow hairs centrally and a few black hairs laterally, except for sternum II, with black hairs also centrally.

Genitalia: Superior lobes of hypandrium anteriorly curved, nearly rounded at apex and very finely serrated on the interior ridge of apex ( Fig. 19 ); surstyli with a triangular process anteriorly ( Fig. 18 ).

Female

Same as the male except ocellar triangle and vertex with long, anteriorly directed, black hairs; black frons with a central groove extending from the antennae to a point just before the ocellar triangle; frons with long, erect, black hairs and, on the eye margins, a line of small to medium size reddish hairs; frontal prominence with long, anteriorly directed, black hairs above the antennae; pedicel blackish red; basoflagellomere oval; basoflagellomere red, slightly darkened dorsally ( Fig. 79 ); face with long white hairs ( Fig. 79 ), intermixed with scattered black hairs on the lower surface; scutum coated in faint silver pollinosity, with two medial white pollinose stripes extending on the anterior four-fifths of scutum; a white pollinose marking on the surface immediately in front of and behind TS; a white pollinose triangular marking on the posterior margin of scutum; scutum with sparser pilosity than that in the male; brown scutellum, blackish on lateral corners; black legs, except for red apex of femora (very narrowly red in metafemur) and tarsomeres 1–2; tibiae dark, blackish in metaleg; tarsomeres 3–5 red ventrally; metafemur with long black hairs anteriorly, posterior, and ventral; calypter margins fringed with longer hairs than those in the male; tergum I with two lateral, faint, reddish markings; terga II–IV dull black except for a shiny posterior band: on terga II–III the length of the band is a quarter of the tergum length, and on tergum IV the length of the band is half of the tergum length; tergum II with two lateral white pollinose markings bearing white hairs; anterior quarter of tergum III with yellow hairs; lateral margins of terga III–IV with both black and white hairs intermixed, slightly longer on tergum IV; all sterna with long scattered white hairs, but sternum II with a few black hairs on the posterior corners (other sterna sometimes with a few black hairs).

Etymology

The epithet ‘ atra ’ means ‘dull black’ in Latin and refers to the general body colour in adults.

Material examined

Holotype: 1m with puparium, Costa Rica P.N. Tapantí, Macizo de la Muerte, La Esperanza, 5.ii.2008, ex live bromeliad (P: 12.iv.2008, A: 2.v.2008), leg. MAM ( CR185 ) ( CEUA).

Paratypes: COSTA RICA: 1f with puparium, P.N. Tapantí, Macizo de la Muerte, la Esperanza, 5.ii.2008 (P: 3.iii.2008, A: 18.iv.2008), ex live bromeliad, leg. MAM (CR164) (CEUA); 1f with puparium, P.N. Tapantí, Macizo de la Muerte, 2400 m, 5.ii.2008 (P: 30.iii.2008, A: 10.iv.2008), leg. MAM (CR177) (CEUA); 1m and 4f, Prov. Cartago, P.N. Tapantí, Macizo de la Muerte, Queveri, 2100 m, 13.ii.2002, M. Alfaro, Red de Golpe, L_N_189500_552200#66938 (INB0003431702, 3431694, 3431696 to 3431698); 1f, Tapantí, Mirador Quetzales, 2650 m, 4.xii2006, larva ex live bromeliad, leg. MAM (CR111); 1f, Prov. San José, R.F. Río Macho, Estación Ojo de Agua, 3000 m, i.1997, M. Segura L_S_396500_482050 #45292 ( INBio CRI 002535149); 1f, F. Cementerio de la Máquina, 2100–2500 m, P.N. Chirripó, Prov. San José, 2.iii.1993, MAZ, L-S-378700, 512500 ( INBio CRI 001305800); 1f, San Gerardo de Dota, 2000–2500 m, Prov. San José, Curso Tachinidae y Syrphidae , 22–26.ii.1992, L-S 387400, 482700 ( INBio CRI 000406860) (all specimens pre-identified as Quichuana CR 4a by FCT); 11f collected in ‘Prov. San José, zona protectora Cerros de Escazú, Alto Tapezco, 1760 m’, ‘Prov. San José, Cerros de Escazú, C. Pico Blanco, 2200 m’, ‘Prov. San José, Pérez Zeledón, Parque Nacional Chirripó, Llano Bonito, 2450 m’, ‘Prov. San José, Pérez Zeledón, Parque Nacional Chirripó, Sabana los Leones, 3160 m’, ‘Prov. San José, Dota, C. a Providencia, 2.5 km de C. Interamericana Sur, 2800 m’, ‘Prov. Cartago, R.F. Río Macho, 2.8 km desde camino del ICE pasando por la Esperanza del Guarco, 2500 m’ and ‘Prov. Heredia, San Rafael, Cerro Chompipe, 2100 m’, on 17.i.1999, 31.i.1999, 24.iii.1999, 27.i.2000, 31.i.2000, 25.iii.2000, 2.viii.2006, leg. A. Picado or MAZ, by ‘colecta libre’, ‘Manual’ or ‘red con aguamiel’.

Range

Costa Rica.

Taxonomic notes

Large species (13.2 mm, holotype) with broad abdomen; similar to Q. communis sp. nov. and Q. rubicunda sp. nov., but separable from these by the male genitalia; in Q. atra sp. nov. the apex of the posterior lobe is more rounded ( Fig. 19 ) than that in Q. communis sp. nov. ( Figs 32, 36 ) and Q. rubicunda sp. nov. ( Fig. 18 ); some females of Q. atra sp. nov. are difficult to distinguish from females of the other two species, but they have grey-black hairs on tergum I, whereas these hairs are light or bright red in Q. rubicunda sp. nov., and are usually golden yellow in Q. communis sp. nov.; additionally, females of Q. atra sp. nov. have terga black (although tergum II sometimes with two lateral, faint, triangular, reddish markings), but in females of Q. communis sp. nov. terga III–IV usually show conspicuous red markings, as do females of Q. rubicunda sp. nov., although these markings are smaller.

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.

Figures 73–79. Features of the ‘slender’ and ‘robust’ species of Quichuana. 73–76, ‘slender’ species. 73, Quichuana angustiventris, male from Trinidad with attached puparium, overall appearance, dorsal view; scale bar = 2 mm. 74, Quichuana calathea, male from Costa Rica, eye contiguity and vertical triangle; scale bar = 0.5 mm. 75–76, Quichuana picadoi, male: 75, anterior view; 76, lateral view; scale bar = 1 mm. 77–79, ‘robust’ species. 77, Quichuana fasciata, female lectotype, overall appearance, dorsal view; scale bar = 2 mm. 78, Quichuana dissimilis sp. nov., male holotype, eye contiguity and vertical triangle; scale bar = 1 mm. 79, Quichuana atra sp. nov., female, anterior view; scale bar = 1 mm.

Figures 30–37. Morphological variability in Quichuana communis sp. nov. male genitalia: 30–31, 37, dominant morphotype in ‘Costa Rica, Estación Barva’; 30, hypandrium, anterior view; 31, superior lobe, anterolateral view; 37, epandrium, lateral view; 32–33, dominant morphotype in ‘Costa Rica, Estación Cacao’; 32, apical part of hypandrium, lateral view; 33, superior lobe, anterolateral view; 34–36, morphotype occurring in specimens from Costa Rica, Estación Barva, Estación Cacao, and Sendero el Ripario; 34, hypandrium, anterior view; 35, superior lobe, anterolateral view; 36, apical part of hypandrium, lateral view. Scale bar: 1 mm.