Sycorax longistyla, WAGNER & AGNIHOTRI & SINGH, 2022

WAGNER, RÜDIGER, AGNIHOTRI, PRIYA & SINGH, HUKAM, 2022, A new species of Sycorax (Sycoracinae: Psychodidae) from the Lower Eocene amber of Tadkeshwar, Gujarat, India, Palaeoentomology 5 (4), pp. 319-326 : 321-323

Sycorax longistyla sp. nov.

( Fig. 3 )

Type material. Holotype: 1 ♂, collection no. Tad 877 , specimen in almost perfect lateral view Fig. 3A ; paratypes: 1 ♂, Tad 64 (dark, partly destroyed, genitalia permit assignment to the species) ( Fig. 3B ); 1 ♂, Tad 876 ; 1 ♂, Tad 879 ; 1 ♀, Tad 356 A ; 1 ♀ (?), Tad 878 , (probably a female, abdomen tip not discernable); 1 ♀, Tad 880 . Types deposited in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, U.S.A.

Etymology. The name refers to the remarkably elongate gonocoxite and gonostylus.

The description is based on all material mentioned above because not all features are clearly visible in every specimen.

Type locality and horizon. Tadkeshwar Lignite Mine , Cambay Basin, Gujarat, India. Early Eocene.

Description. Male. Head ( Fig. 3C ) with oval eyes, no eye bridge, face slightly protruded between the eyes. Antenna ( Fig. 3D ) with saucer-shaped scape, pedicel globular, and flagellum with 13 elongate bottle-shaped flagellomeres, neck of flagellomere short; length of flagellomeres decreasing apically, distal one with a small apical indentation. All flagellomeres covered with a few long setae, short digitate ascoids recognized on flagellomeres 1–3; on other segments ascoids probably absent or indistinguishable from setae. Mouthparts short, palpus ( Fig. 3E ) with four spherical segments, relative lengths of segments 9-10-6-7, 3 rd and 4 th shorter than 1 st or 2 nd, apical one with a seta.

Thorax without striking features like scent or ornamental organs. Front legs with basal tarsus segment (t 1) about as long as segments t 2 +t 3 +t 4; t 2 to t 5 subequal in length. Wing ( Fig. 3F ) typical of Sycoracinae with subcosta (Sc) ending in costa (C) and with a crossvein (sc-r) to radius 1 (R 1), perpendicular end of Sc as long as crossvein sc-r. Radius with 4 branches; radial fork in a position where R 1 ends in C; medial fork slightly basal of radial fork. Cells bm and rm present and closed; vein CuA 1 long, reaching wing margin beyond level of media fork; CuA 2 short, reaching wing margin.

Abdomen ( Fig. 3G ) with 8 segments and terminalia; 8 th segment narrower and less sclerotized than the others. Terminalia not inverted.Epandrium is a roundish triangular shallow cup, cerci small rhomboid. Gonocoxite straight, tube-shaped, more than 2× longer than wide. Gonocoxal lobes 0.7× length of gonocoxites, positioned laterally between epandrium and gonocoxites; thinly sclerotized, outline elongate drop-shaped, tip not reaching the tip of the gonocoxite; in specimen TAD 877 a short dark seta is recognizable, a characteristic also in extant Sycorax species. Gonostylus longer than gonocoxite, bent upward, with an apical spine about half as long as gonostylus.

Female. Females are in general similar to male with the exception of the terminalia. Description based on specimen Tad 356 A.

Head with roundish eyes and sparse vertical setae. Antennae incomplete, right antenna with 5, left with 7 flagellomeres. Scape cylindrical; 0.6× length of spherical pedicel. Flagellomeres setose, first flagellomere cylindrical, 1.5× length of following one; ascoids not observed. Labrum elongate, triangular. Palpus 4- segmented, segment 3 with three setae originating from a sensory pit; terminal segment drop-shaped; relative length of palpus segments: 10-13-15-10.

Thorax and wing as in male, without distinctive features.

Abdomen with 8 segments and terminalia; cerci small, roughly triangular, covered with setae along apical margin.

Measurements. Male: Body length, 0.8 mm (Tad 64), 0.75 mm (Tad 876), 1.1 mm (Tad 877); wing length: 0.75 mm (Tad 64), 0.75 mm (Tad 876). Female: Body length: 0.95 mm (T356 A), 1.25 mm (Tad 880).

Remarks. This is the first species of the psychodid subfamily Sycoracinae from Indian amber. It is easily assigned to the subfamily based on the typical wing venation, male terminalia not rotated, and conspicuously large gonocoxal appendages.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Sycorax longistyla sp. nov. A, Specimen Tad 877. B, Specimen Tad 64. C, Head, Tad 879. D, antenna, Tad 879 with apical segments of Tad 877. E, Palpus, Tad 879. F, Wing; G, Abdomen and genitalia lateral aspect, Tad 877. Scale bars in C, D, F = 0.5 mm; in E = 0.25 mm; in G= 0.3 mm. (Short codes wing veins: Sc = subcosta, R1–R 5 = radius veins, M1–M4 = media veins, CuA1 = cubitus anterior vein. Short codes terminalia: epa = epandrium, c = cerci, gst = gonostyle, gx = gonocoxite, gxl = gonocoxal lobe)