Megaselia legrandi, Henry & Bøggild, 2019

Henry, R. & Bøggild, Esben, 2019, Fourteen new species of scuttle flies (Diptera, Phoridae) from Denmark, Zootaxa 4543 (1), pp. 63-89 : 72

Megaselia legrandi sp. n.

( Figs 72–78 )

Material examined. Holotype male, DENMARK, Dk SJ, Draved Skov, Højmose, 17.v–8.vi.2014, Esben Bøggild (UCMZ-8-184). Description. Male. Head as Fig. 72 , the frons having dense but very fine microtrichia. Cheek with 4 bristles and jowl with 2 that are longer and more robust. Postpedicels, which lack SPS vesicles, and palps as Fig. 73 . Thorax brown, with 3 notopleural bristles and no cleft in front of these. Mesopleuron with hairs and a bristle. Scutellum with an anterior pair of small hairs and a posterior pair of bristles. Abdominal tergites brown with moderate hairs only a little longer at rear of T6. Venter gray and with hairs on segments 3–6. Hypopygium as Figs 74–76 . Legs brown but not dark, the front pair being paler. Fore tarsus ( Fig. 77 ) with posterodorsal hair palisade on segments 1–5. Dorsal hair palisade of mid tibia extends about 0.7 times its length. Hind femur with hairs below basal half longer than those of the antero-ventral row of outer half. Hind tibia with a dozen moderately differentiated posterodorsal hairs, without anterodorsals, and spinules of apical combs simple. Wings ( Fig. 78 ) 1.60 mm long. Costal index 0.45. Costal ratios 3.56: 1.80: 1. Costal cilia (of section 3) 0.10 mm long. No hair at base of vein 3. With 2 unequal axillary bristles, the outermost being 0.13 mm long. Sc not reaching R1. Haltere brown.

Recognition. In the keys of Lundbeck (1922) it runs to Group II couplet 6 lead 1, but it differs from the somewhat similar M. rudis (Wood) by its darker legs and very pale wings. In the key to British species ( Disney, 1989) it runs to couplet 57 where the positions of the antial bristles on the left side directs one to couplet 58 lead 2 but those of the right side directs one to couplet 59 lead 2. In both cases the hypopygia are different. However, at couplet 59 lead 2 the hypopygium of M. spinata (Wood) is very similar apart from the hypandria, with the single lobe being on the right side in M. spinata but in the left side in M. legrandi . In addition the legs are paler in M. spinata with the hind femur being yellow with a brown tip. In the keys of Schmitz (1957) for Abteilung II it runs to couplet 13 lead 1 to M. rudis .

Etymology. Named after Edgar Allan Poe’s fabulous naturalist.

Figures

FIGURES 72–78. Megaselia legrandi sp. n. male. 72. head 73. proboscis and palp. 74–76. hypopygium. 77. front tarsus. 78. wing.