Idiocera (Idiocera) falcistylus Starý 2020, sp. n.
Creators: name: Starý, Jaroslav
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Limoniidae
Idiocera
Idiocera falcistylus

description: Idiocera (Idiocera) falcistylus sp. n.   
(Figs 1, 3)  
 Diagnosis. Body colouration brownish grey, pruinose, patterned with pale yellow, especially on pleuron. Wing without pattern except for faint stigma. Male terminalia with four separate gonostyli. Wing length 4.5–5.4 mm.   
 Material examined: Type specimens 5 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀.   
 Holotype: ♂ (RMNH), Spain: Almeria: 6 km SW of Tabernas, Mini Hollywood, 400 m, 22.iv.1995 (H.W. van der Wolf leg.), labelled “ Spain, Almeria / 6 km SW Tabernas / 22 apr. 1995 / leg. HW VD Wolf” [printed, white label], “ Holotype / Idiocera (s. str.) / falcistylus sp. n. ♂ / J. Starý 2019 [printed, red label]. The specimen is micropinned on a stage of polyporus, all legs attached, apex of abdomen cut off, terminalia dissected and placed in a sealed plastic tube with glycerine, pinned with the specimen.   
 Paratypes: 4 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀, same data as for holotype (RMNH, JSOC). All specimens micro-pinned; terminalia, if dissected, placed as for holotype.   
 Description. Male. Head greyish brown dorsally, yellowed around eyes. Antenna brown, with scape yellow, 16-segmented, not reaching to base of wing. Flagellomeres ovoid to long-ovoid, with verticils about as long as respective segments.   
 Thorax with basic colouration brownish grey, pruinose. Pronotum brown, with lateral margins yellow. Prescutum and scutum brownish grey, with two brown longitudinal stripes continuing onto scutal lobes, and yellow markings laterally. Other parts of dorsum of much the same basic colouration as prescutum, posterior margin of scutellum paler and mediotergite yellowed anterolaterally. Pattern on pleuron pale yellow, with indications of two longitudinal stripes, one on dorsolateral membrane, lateral margins of prescutum and scutum, and paratergite, the other on katepisternum, katepimeron, and metakatepisternum. Wing (Fig. 1) slightly tinged greyish, without any pattern, except for faint, greyish stigma. Wing venation usual for subgenus, in general with vein deflections arcuated, and with following features of some taxonomic value:  Sc 1  ending at about one fourth length of Rs;  Sc 2  distinctly before origin of Rs;  R 3  subvertical, connected with  R 1  at wing margin;  R 3+4  only slightly shorter than  R 4 . Stem of halter whitish yellow, knob dark brown. Legs with coxae and trochanters yellow, femora yellow, darker distally, tibiae and tarsi darker, but not as dark as apices of femora.   
Abdomen brownish yellow. Male terminalia (Fig. 3): Tergite 9 conspicuously produced posteriorly in middle, with posterior margin of prolongation nearly straight. Gonocoxite elongate, with long dorsal lobe. Four separate gonostyli present. Outermost gonostylus simple, comparatively slender and long, moderately undulated, pointed at tip; second gonostylus longest and powerful, in general sickle-shaped; third gonostylus bifid distally, with both arms subequal in length and more or less broadly rounded apically; innermost gonostylus shortest, covered with few setae, tapered distally to subacute tip. Aedeagus rather long, slender, gradually becoming slightly broader distally, rounded at apex.  
 Female. Resembling male in general appearance. Female terminalia with cercus long and slender, subacute at tip, evenly and moderately upturned.   
 Etymology. The compound name of the new species, falcistylus (falx, -cis = sickle, stylus = (gono)stylus) refers to the peculiar shape of its second gonostylus. A noun in nominative singular.   
 Distribution. Spain.   
 Discussion. Despite of usual general appearance this is a somewhat peculiar species within the European Idiocera (Idiocera) in having four separate gonostyli of which the second one is rather stout and sickle-shaped. In contrast, I. (I.) alexanderiana and I. (I.) laterospina, the other two European species with four gonostyli, have the second gonostylus slender and delicate. The third gonostylus of the new species is bifid distally, with both arms broadly rounded apically (Fig. 3), whereas, in the other two species, it is dilated distally into a subcircular blade terminating in an acute spine, with darkly pigmented short projections at the base of the blade. A shape of the second gonostylus of the new species is unique within the Palaearctic Idiocera.
description: Published as part of Starý, Jaroslav, 2020, Two new Idiocera Dale from the Mediterranean (Diptera: Limoniidae), pp. 177-182 in Zootaxa 4803 (1) on pages 178-179, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4803.1.10, http://zenodo.org/record/3907955