Platypalpus atlasensis Zouhair & Grootaert, 2024

Zouhair, Laila, Grootaert, Patrick & Kettani, Kawtar, 2024, Twelve new species of Platypalpus Macquart (Diptera: Hybotidae) from Morocco, with additional new records, European Journal of Taxonomy 951 (1), pp. 1-53 : 20-22

Platypalpus atlasensis Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:98D626B9-1227-4E23-A9CA-BF1AECB3F45F

Figs 11–12

Diagnosis

A small blackish brown species (2.5 mm long) of the pallidiventris-cursitans group with one pair of long vertical bristles. Antennae with basal segments yellow. Thorax with mesoscutum yellowish dusted including postpronotal lobe and pleura yellowish dusted, leaving a large polished spot on katepisternum. Legs yellow with four hind coxae and trochanters, knees of hind and mid legs blackish, tarsi uniformly dark brown eXcept first segment darkened torwards tip. Mid tibia with a very short flattened spur. Wings hyaline with veins R 4+5 and M 1+2 convergent just before meeting wing margin.

Etymology

This new species is named after the Atlas Mountains, where the holotype was found.

Material examined

Holotype

MOROCCO – High Atlas • ♂; Oumnas ; 25 Mar. 2017; sweep net; K. Kettani leg.; LESCB.

Description

Male

LENGTH. Body: 2.5 mm; wing: 2.0 mm.

HEAD. Black in ground colour, occiput greyish pollinose, covered with short pale setae, with one pair of long black verticals. Gena densely greyish pollinose, with long pale setae. Ocellar tubercle greyish pollinose. Frons slightly narrower than pedicel, somewhat broader toward ocellar tubercle, yellowish dusted. Face narrower than pedicel, yellowish dusted. Clypeus short, subshining. Antenna with both basal segments yellow, postpedicel black, short, slightly longer than deep, arista black, about 2× as long as postpedicel. Proboscis blackish, strong, nearly as long as head is high. Palpus yellow, ovate, with scattered pale setulae and a long pale subapical seta.

THORAX. Blackish brown. Mesoscutum densely yellowish dusted including postpronotal lobe. Pleura densely yellowish dusted, leaving a large polished spot on katepisternum. Postpronotal lobe with one long black seta and several pale setulae. Mesoscutum with 1 long postalar and 4 scutellars (apical pair long); acrostichals biserial, dorsocentrals uniserial.

LEGS. Yellow, except posterior four coxae and trochanters brown, knees of mid and hind legs blackish and all tarsi uniformly brown, not annulated, except metatarsus darkened torwards tip. Coxae and trochanters with yellow setae. Fore femur moderately thickened with rows of anteroventral and posteroventral pale setae. Fore tibia very slightly thickened, clothed with ordinary setulae. Mid femur thicker than fore femur, with double row of black ventral spinules and a row of brown posteroventral setae. Mid tibia slender, as long as femur, covered with ordinary setulae, with very short, flattened apical spur. Hind femur slender, with short and pale anteroventral setae. Hind tibia slender, clothed with ordinary setulae.

WINGS. Hyaline, with pale brownish veins. Costa with very short brown setae and a long brown seta at base. Veins R 4+5 and M 1+2 convergent just before meeting wing margin. Crossveins m-cu and r-m contiguous, bm slightly longer and broader than br. Vein Cu 2 straight. Vein Cu reaching wing border, recurrent in apical part. Anal vein indistinct. Squama blackish. Haltere whitish.

ABDOMEN. With tergites blackish brown, subshining, covered with long pale setae; sternites blackish brown, with similar setation. Male terminalia ( Fig. 11 ) with cerci longer than epandrial lamellae. Right cercus a little longer than left cercus and much more slender ( Fig. 11B ). Tip of right cercus set with fine spinules. Left cercus ventrally (inside) eXcavated ( Fig. 11D–E ), eXcavation bordered with broad denticulate spinules, central area set with fine spine only ( Fig. 11E ). Right surstylus fused with right epandrial lamella, lacking usual setae at apex. Area at base of surstylus very wide ( Fig. 11A–B ) and set with a comb of long setae. Left epandrial lamella ( Fig. 11C ) with a broad apex, notched in middle, left border set with a few long setae, nearly as long as lamella is wide.

Female

Unknown.

Remarks

The key in Grootaert & Chvála (1992) leads to Platypalpus articulatus Macquart, 1827 (couplet 160). According to the description in Chvála (1975) and the diagnosis in Grootaert & Chvála (1992) of P. articulatus , the latter is very close to the new species; they differ only in the tarsi: the legs in both species are yellow with the posterior four coxae brown and the posterior four knees blackish, but in P. articulatus all tarsi are brownish annulated, while in the new species all tarsi are uniformly brown, not annulated, except for the metatarsus being darkened near the tip. The genitalia of both species are clearly different: in the new species the cerci are much longer and larger than in P. articulatus , and they are not enclosed in the periandrium as in P. articulatus . The right cercus of the new species bears numerous spinules at the apex, and the left cercus bears spinules on the inside which are absent in P. articulatus , while the right surstylus is fused with the right epandrial lamella, unlike in P. articulatus (compare Grootaert & Chvála 1992: figs 206–210 with Fig. 11 ).

Figures

Fig. 11. Platypalpus atlasensis Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., male terminalia (holotype, LESCB). A. Right epandrial lamella. B. Epandrium with cerci. C. Left epandrial lamella. D. Left cercus, lateral view. E. Left cercus, ventral view. Scale bar = 0.1 mm.

Fig. 12. Platypalpus atlasensis Zouhair & Grootaert sp. nov., ♂, habitus (holotype, LESCB).