Nephochaetopteryx panamensis Hime

Carvalho-Filho, Fernando Da Silva, Esposito, Maria Cristina & Mello-Patiu, Cátia Antunes De, 2021, Revision of Nephochaetopteryx Townsend, 1934 (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), Zootaxa 4928 (1), pp. 1-83 : 57

Nephochaetopteryx panamensis Hime

(see Hime 1985, figs 1–9)

Nephochaetopteryx panamensis Hime, 1985: 627 (description of male). Type locality: Panama, Canal Zone, Barro Colorado Island. Other references: Pape (1996: 261; catalog).

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE ♁ ( MNRJ): Barro Colo Isld. / Canal Zone / II–18–1929 [printed and hand- written on rectangular white label] // Collector / C.H. Curran [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label] // TYPUS [printed on rectangular red label] // Nephochaetopte / ryx panamen / sis n.sp. ♁ [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label]. [Holotype in good condition, lacking left mid leg; left wing broken and abdomen without sternite 5 and rest of terminalia; a microvial pinned beneath the specimen contains only a wing.]

Redescription. Male. Length = 5.5 mm (n = 1).

Head. Fronto-orbital, parafacial plates, postocular strip, gena and postgena with silvery microtomentum. Frontal vitta black, with basal half reddish brown. Six frontal setae. Palpus brown.

Thorax. Chaetotaxy: dorsocentrals 3+4 (first two weak); intra-alars 2+2; supra-alars 2+3, notopleurals 2 subprimaries, anepisternals 5; merals 5. Ctenidium consisting of three spines. Wing hyaline, with dark spot beginning in the terminal portion of vein R 1, filling the distal third of cell r 1 and the upper half of the distal half of cell r 2+3; vein R 4+5 setulose dorsally to crossvein r-m.

Abdomen. Tergites brown with a band of golden microtomentum on anterior 4/5 of dorsal and lateral surfaces. Sternites 1 to 4 yellow with yellowish setulae and with marginal setae.

Terminalia [the description of terminalia is based on the illustrations provided by Hime (1985)]. Sternite 5 with a very deep cleft, nearly reaching middle of sternite; lobe rounded with pointed projection in the outer lateral margin; arms divergents and narrowed, with rounded apex. Cercus short (shorter than epandrium), with apex slightly curved dorsally and with a dorsal projection in lateral view. Cercal prongs with convergent tip in dorsal view. Surstylus elliptic. Pregonite longer than wide, with widened base and tapering distally. Postgonite triangular with a long seta on anterior margin. Basiphallus about half of the length distiphallus, with basal half curved dorsally. Distiphallus elongate and almost straight, with two pointed projections on ventral margin. Vesica strongly angled in lateral view. Lateral and median styli short.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL—Panama ( Panama).

Remarks. This species differs from the others in the genus in having ventral margin of distiphallus with two pointed projections. Nephochaetopteryx panamensis is similar to N. lamasi sp. nov. in the shape of sternite 5 and in having cercus with a prominent apical dorsal protuberance.

This species is known only from the holotype male, whose terminalia are missing.