Empis (Empis) insulata Collin

Shamshev, Igor V., 2020, Empis s. str. (Diptera: Empididae) from Egypt, Israel and Syria: notes on some species described by J. E. Collin and a key to species, Zootaxa 4743 (2), pp. 266-274 : 269-271

Empis (Empis) insulata Collin

( Figs 6–8 )

Collin, 1937: 143, fig. 4. Type locality (by lectotype designation): “Doummar”, Syria.

Other references: Chvála & Wagner, 1989: 266 (catalogue); Pont, 1995: 91 (type data); Yang et al., 2007: 103 (catalogue); Çiftçi et al., 2012: 52 (key, misidentification).

Notes on the type-series. Collin (1937) described E. insulata after three males. Only one specimen has label data (as Collin noted, also Pont (1995: 91)), however, it is highly damaged.

Type material examined. LECTOTYPE (here designated in order to fix identity of the species), ♂ ( Fig. 6 ), labelled ( Fig. 7 ): “[no data]”; “ Empis / insulata Collin / TYPE ♂. [hand-written by Collin]”; “VC-TYPE 558/ Empis ♂ / insulata/ Collin”; “ Lectotypus / Empis / insulata Collin, 1937 / design. Shamshev, 2019 [red label]” ( OUMNH).

PARALECTOTYPES. Doummar ( Syrie) 17.iv.; VC-TYPE 558/ Empis ♂ / insulata/ Collin ; Paralectotypus, Empis insulata Collin, 1937 , design. Shamshev, 2019 (♂, OUMNH); VC-TYPE 558/ Empis ♂ / insulata/ Collin ; Paralectotypus, Empis insulata Collin, 1937 , design. Shamshev, 2019 (♂, OUMNH; terminalia dissected, main- tained in Canada balsam and pinned on a celluloid slip) .

Diagnosis. Small (body about 4 mm) blackish grey flies with moderately long labrum, uniformly black legs, yellow halteres, pale setose laterotergite and abdomen, black spiracles, faintly infuscate wings with incomplete anal vein; phallus short, straight on apical portion.

Re-description. Male ( Fig. 6 ). Lectotype wing length 3.3 mm. Head with dense light greyish pruinescence on face, frons, postgena, ocellar triangle and occiput. Holoptic, eye with upper ommatidia enlarged. Frons represented by very small triangular space below ocellar tubercle and larger subtriangular space above antennae, bare. Ocellar triangle with 2 long and some short fine setae. Occiput with numerous black short to moderately long setae on upper part and pale hair-like setae on lower part. Antenna black; scape and pedicel short, scape slightly longer, both with short setulae; postpedicel conical, about 2X longer than wide; stylus long, nearly 3/4 of postpedicel length. Palpus black; with rather scattered, short, dark setae. Proboscis with labrum nearly 1.4X head height.

Thorax densely greyish pruinescent; scutum viewed dorsally with indications of indistinct brownish vittae along rows of dorsocentral setae. Prosternum bare. Proepisternum with a few pale hair-like setae on lower portion and 1–2 short dark setae on upper portion opposite anterior spiracle. Antepronotum with several black short setae. Postpronotal lobe with 1 long, strong black seta, 1–2 short setae and several minute setulae. Mesonotum with black well differentiated setation: 1 long presutural intra-alar, 1 presutural supra-alar, 3 notopleurals with several additional setulae anteriorly, 1–2 postsutural supra-alars, 1 postalar and 4 long scutellars; acrostichals arranged in 2 irregular rows, short, lacking on prescutellar depression; presutural dorsocentrals 1–2-serial, long, postsutural dorsocentrals uniserial, 2 prescutellar pairs longest (nearly as long as scutellars). Laterotergite with several fine pale and 1–2 stronger black setae. Anterior and posterior spiracles black.

Legs quite robust, black, faintly greyish pruinescent. Coxae with pale fine setae. Fore femur with rows of short to minute fine anteroventral and posteroventral setae (pale closer to base). Mid femur with moderately long anterodorsal setae on basal half, intermixed long stronger and short finer setae anteroventrally and posteroventrally (longest setae somewhat longer that femur width). Hind femur covered with short setae. Fore tibia with some slightly longer setulae posterodorsally and posteriorly. Mid tibia with 2–3 long anterodorsal setae (except circlet of subapicals), some numerous finer setae posterodorsally and moderately long intermixed strong and fine setae anteroventrally. Hind tibia straight, slender, with about 4 pairs of somewhat longer setae dorsally; no seta in posteroapical comb. Fore basitarsus slender, with somewhat longer setulae posterodorsally and posteriorly; hind basitarsus slender, covered with short setae dorsally.

Wing membrane faintly infuscate. Basal costal seta present, long. Pterostigma indistinct, yellowish brown. Veins brownish, well sclerotised. CuA+CuP (anal vein) incomplete. Cell dm short, almost truncate, with slightly elongate apex. Anal lobe well-developed; axillary incision right angled. Squama dirty yellow, pale fringed. Halter yellow.

Abdomen dark brown in ground-colour, densely greyish pruinescent; mostly with pale hair-like setae longer on tergites laterally, some blackish short setae on tergites dorsally. Sclerites of pregenital segments without projections.

Terminalia small ( Fig. 8 ). Cercus black, narrow, subrectangular, with apex slightly produced beyond apex of epandrium (lateral view); in dorsal view with short internal projection near base; covered with black setulae. Epandrial lamella black, subtriangular, covered with black setae somewhat longer along lower margin. Hypandrium dark brown, subshiny, narrow subtriangular, bare. Phallus yellow, rather short, with short portion slightly projecting beyond cerci; straight beyond basal curvature; with small wing-like projections near middle, remaining portion tubular.

Female. Unknown. Distribution. Palaearctic: Syria. Remarks. In addition to the species keyed below, E. insulata is similar to E. basilaris Becker and E. petulans Becker known only from Canary Isles and Corsica, respectively ( Syrovátka 1991). Both these species differs from E. insulata primarily by the presence of pale setulae on the postpronotal lobe.

Figures

FIGURES 6–8. Empis (Empis) insulata Collin. 6. male habitus, lectotype, lateral view; 7. lectotype labels; 8. male terminalia (from Collin, 1937, fig. 4).