Aciuroides gephyra ( Hering 1938 ) Hering, 1938

Kameneva, Elena P., 2012, Revision of Aciuroides Hendel and Neoacanthoneura Hendel (Diptera: Ulidiidae: Pterocallini), Zootaxa 3227, pp. 1-33 : 5-7

Aciuroides gephyra ( Hering 1938) , n. comb.

( Figs. 1 , 8, 9, 12–13, 16–18)

Idanophana gephyra Hering 1938: 195 (male);

Aciuroides fasciata Hering 1941 b: 199 (female), new synonym; Idanophana missionarius Steyskal 1971: 31 (male), new synonym.

Type material. Holotype ♂ Idanophana gephyra : BRAZIL, "Brasilien // Nova Teutonia // 27º11'B 52º23'L // Fritz Plaumann /// 11.08.1937 ", " ♂ ", "Type" [red paper label], " Idanophana g. n. // gephyra m. ♂ Type // det. M. Hering 1940" ( ZMHB) . Holotype ♀ Aciuroides fasciata : BRAZIL, "Brasilien // Nova Teutonia // 27º11'B 52º23'L // Fritz Plaumann // 17.9.1937 ", " ♀ ", "Type" [red paper label], " Aciuroides // insecta m. ♀ Type // det. M. Hering 1940" ( DEI) . Holotype ♂ Idanophana missionarius : ARGENTINA, "Mis.[iones,] Iguazu // 4-10 Oct. 1927 // RC & EM Shannon", " Holotype // Idanophana // missionarius //Steyskal" [Steyskal's handwriting on pink paper red-framed rectangle] ( USNM) . Paratypes A. fasciata : ♀, BRAZIL, "Brasilien // Nova Teutonia // 27º11'B 52º23'L // Fritz Plaumann // 15.X.1937 ", " ♀ ", " Aciuroides / fasciata m. // P. T. // det. M. Hering 1940" ( ZMHB) ; ♀, BRAZIL, "Brasilien // Nova Teutonia // 27º11'B 52º23'L // Fritz Plaumann // 10.9.1937 ", " ♀ ", " Aciuroides / fasciata m. // P. T. // det. M. Hering 1940" ( ZMHB) (one detached wing on slide in BMNH) .

Non-type material. BRAZIL: 2♂, Nova Teutonia , "27º11'B 52º23'L", 30.VIII.1937, 15.X.1937, F. Plaumann [with labels: “ Paratype [red paper]", " Idanophana gephyra m. P. T. det. M. Hering 1940" [h/w Hering]”] ( DEI) ; 4♂, same but 11.VI.1937, 15.X.1937, XII.1937 [“ ♂ ”, “ Idanophana gephyra m. P. T. det. M. Hering 1940”] ( ZMHB) ; 6♀, same but 11.III.1938, 6.VIII.1938 (1 female genitalia dissected and kept in genitalia vial), 23.IX.1938, 27.12.1938 ( BMNH) ; COSTA RICA: ♀ (head lost), Santo Domingo, Prov. Heredia ( INBio) Park , 1.VII.2001, V . A. Korneyev & E.P.Kameneva ( SIZK) ; PARAGUAY: ♂, Hohenau 250 m, 22.X.[19]07 ( MTD) .

Diagnosis. Aciuroides gephyra is similar to A. insecta Hendel , the type species of the genus Aciuroides . It readily differs from A. insecta in wing pattern, which is strongly sexually dimorphic, widely pale yellow in the male, with 2-3 brownish spots on the anterior margin (Fig. 8) or consisting of 3-4 brown crossbands in the female (Fig. 9).

Description. Head ( Fig. 1 ) yellow, sparsely whitish microtrichose, with creamy face, brown frons and black occiput; length: height: width ratio 1: 1.43: 1.6; compound eye 1.5 times as high as long and frons 1.35 times as long as wide; face saddle-like to almost straight, almost twice as high as antenna, with ventral margin very slightly produced anteriorly; lunule whitish, with 6–7 black setulae. Head setae black, ocellar, lateral vertical and posterior orbital setae very long, 0.7–0.8 times as long as medial vertical seta, anterior orbital seta ca. 0.6 times as long as medial vertical seta; postocellar seta 0.4 times as long as medial vertical seta; frontal setae not differentiated among frontal setulae, 0.25– 0.3 times as long as medial vertical seta; genal and postgenal setae black, as long as postocellar seta; gena 0.2 times as high as compound eye, with 6–7 long peristomal setulae 0.8–1.0 times as long as genal seta. Clypeus yellow, white microtrichose, 0.4 times as high as flagellomere 1 wide. Antenna yellow, scape with row of black setulae; pedicel with row of marginal setulae and long dorsal seta as long as genal seta; flagellomere 1 yellow or apically brownish, conspicuously white microtrichose, 1.5 times as long as wide; arista yellow basally, brown to black in apical 0.75 of its length, short pubescent, with rays shorter than diameter of arista base. Palpus yellow, with 8–9 short and 2–3 long black setulae, somewhat shorter than, and 0.7 times as wide as flagellomere 1.

Thorax brown (prothoracic sclerites including postpronotal lobes often yellow), moderately densely microtrichose (antepronotum shining; mediotergite sparsely microtrichose). Legs entirely yellow to mostly brown, fore femur with 2 posterodorsal and 1 posteroventral rows of setae; midtibial spur twice as long as width of tibia; hind femur with 2 dorsal preapical setae as long as width of femur, and one row of 5–6 thickened, short spinules on ventral surface; all tarsal setulae black.

Wing (Figs. 8–9, 12–13) moderately wide, 2.2–2.5 times as long as wide, with pterostigma moderately wide and 1.2 times as long as costal cell. Wing yellow in pterostigma, r1 and r2+3 cells; hyaline or pale yellow, with brown microtrichia in posterior half, and 3 hyaline, whitish microtrichose areas as on Figs. 8–9 and 11–12. Costal vein evenly arcuate, with thin, non-modified setulae, R1 vein setulose along entire length, subparallel to costa; vein R2+3 slightly undulate. Pterostigma at middle as wide as or slightly wider than costal cell, 1.05–1.2 times as long as costal cell. Vein M sections ratio m3: m2: m4 (distance along vein M between crossveins r-m and dm-cu / distance between crossveins r-m and bm-cu / distance between crossvein dm-cu and apex) = 1: 0.9–1: 0.9–1.1. Wing length 4.2 mm (the holotypes of I. gephyra and I. missionarius both reexamined; Hering's (1938) statement that wing length in I. gephyra is 6.0 mm, is erroneous).

Male abdomen brownish black, except tergite 1 and sternites yellow or brownish yellow; epandrium brown, surstyli long, finger-like, 1.2 times as long as epandrium, as figured for A. insecta . Abdomen not dissected; only pencil drafts of exposed genitalia of I. missionarius holotype available.

FIGURES 8–11. Aciuroides , wing: 8–9, A. gephyra : 8, 3; 9, Ƥ; 10–11, A. insecta : 10, 3; 11, Ƥ. Abbreviations: A1—anal vein, A1+CuA2—fused anal and cubital vein 2, bc—basicostal cell, bcu—basicubital (posterior cubital) cell, bm—basal medial cell, br—basal radial cell, c—costal cell, CuA1—cubital vein 1, dm—discal medial cell, dm-cu—discal medial-cubital crossvein, h—humeral crossvein, ptst—prerostigma (widened apical portion of subcostal cell), M—medial vein, m—medial cell, R1— radial vein 1; r1—radial cell 1; R2+3—radial vein 2+3; r2+3—radial cell 2+3; R4+5—radial vein 4+5; r4+5—radial cell 4+5; cell, r-m—radial-medial crossvein, Sc—subcostal vein.

Female ( Figs. 12–13 ) similar to male; wing (Fig. 9) 2.3–2.4 times as long as wide; with pattern of 4 brownishyellow and brown crossbands: wide and oblique subbasal crossband between distal half of costal cell and middle of cua1 cell, cuneiform discal cell between distal half of pterostigma and r-m crossvein, either separate or fused to subbasal crossband in dm cell; often both subbasal and discal crossband yellow (between costal vein and R2+3) and brown bordered; preapical crossband conspicuously widened posteriorly to dm-cu and separated from both discal and sickle-like apical crossband; pterostigma 1.0–1.2 times as long as costal cell, but narrower than in male; vein M sections ratio m3: m2: m4 = 1: 1.15–1.6: 1.5. Wing length 4.0– 5.5 mm. Abdomen subshining black, with black setulae and setae; oviscape black, as long as 4 posteriormost tergites combined; eversible membrane dorsally and ventrally with blunt triangular anteromedial lobes of oviscape; dorsal surface with 2 short black taeniae and posteriorly widened vitta covered with dark scales; ventral surface also with 2 short black taeniae, but with wide area posterior of them covered with dark scales; aculeus 1.15 mm long, 5.0 times as long as wide, with flat, oval, apically pointed cercal unit with pointed apex and 4 short laterally directed setulae. Ovipositor. Eversible membrane as on Fig. 16 . Aculeus ( Fig. 17 ) flattened, wide, 6 times as long as wide, with oval, apically slightly pointed and not entirely fused cercal unit 0.37 times as wide as basal portion of aculeus and 2.5 times as log as wide, bearing 3 pairs of moderately short mediolateral and 1 pair of ventrobasal setulae. 3 spherical spermathecae ( Fig. 18 ).

Remarks. Taking into account the strong sexual dimorphism of Aciuroides in particular (see this paper) and Pterocallini in general (see Kameneva 2004 a, 2004 b; Kameneva & Korneyev 2011), I consider the male holotype of A. gephyra and the female specimens described as A. fasciata to be conspecific: they show no differences in all essential characters except dimorphic wing pattern and genital structures; the position of the hyaline spots on the male wing being in the same position as in females. I therefore synonymize these names here.

Hering (1941 b) not only described A. fasciata based on the opposite sex of Idanophana gephyra , but also designated additional " paratypes " of the latter species in that work. Although they are topotypic specimens, because they were not originally included in the type series, they have no type status.

Examination of the Idanophana missionarius Steyskal holotype shows that differences in wing pattern does not exceed the observed variability in the Brazilian series of ♂. G. C. Steyskal was apparently misled by some obscure parts in Hering's non-illustrated description and the erroneous statement that the wing length of A. gephyra is 6.0 mm. It is actually only 4.2 mm, of the same length as in the I. missionarius holotype.

The female from Costa Rica ( Fig. 13 : head glued on a carton bar and photographed separately) shows no differences from South American females of A. gephyra , except very minor details of the wing pattern; the exposed aculeus tip has the same or similar structure.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. Heads, left (1 – 6) and head and mesonotum, dorsally (7 )): 1, Aciuroides gephyra; 2, A. insecta; 3, Neoacanthoneura trypetina; 4, N. magnipennis; 5, N. euphrantina; 6, N. geomyzina; 7, N. euphrantina. Abbreviations: dc—dorsocentral seta, fr—frontal seta, oc—ocellar seta, or—orbital seta.

FIGURES 12 – 15. Aciuroides, habitus, laterally: 12 – 13, A. gephyra: 12, Ƥ (Brazil: Nova Teutonia (BMNH )); 13, Ƥ (Costa Rica: Santo Domingo (SIZK )); 14 – 15, A. insecta: 14, 3; 15, Ƥ (Brazil: Nova Teutonia (BMNH )).

FIGURES 16 – 18. Aciuroides gephyra, Ƥ (Brazil: Nova Teutonia (BMNH )): 16, female eversible membrane, ventrally; 17, aculeus, ventrally; 18, spermathecae. Abbreviations: ta—taenia.