Limonia messaurea subsp. messaurea Mendl 1971
Creators: name: Podenas, Sigitas
name: Podeniene, Virginija
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Limoniidae
Limonia
Limonia messaurea
Limonia messaurea messaurea mendl, 1971

description: Limonia messaurea messaurea Mendl, 1971
(Figs. 37–40)
Limonia messaurea Mendl, 1971: 267;
Liminia messaurea boreoorientalis Savchenko, 1987: 78.
Examined material: 1 male (pinned), North Korea, Seren Mts., 3500 ft., VI–30, 1938, Yankovsky (USNM); 1 male (pinned), North Korea, Kankyo Nando, Puksu Pyaksan, alt. 6000 ft., VII–31, 1939, A. Yankovsky (USNM). Body dark brown, semi-polished (Fig. 37). Male body length 6.5–8.0 mm, wing length 9.7–11.1 mm. Wing extends distinctly beyond tip of abdomen.
Head. Blackish brown sparsely dusted with brownish gray. Male antenna 2.3 mm long, 14-segmented. Antenna dark brown except yellowish base of basal flagellomere. Scape elongate, slightly widening distally, pedicel short, oval. Flagellomeres elongate, nearly cylindrical, eigth basal flagellomeres wider than distal, apical flagellomere more than twice as long as preceding segment with small button on apex. Longest verticils three times as long as respective segments. Flagellomeres covered with short whitish pubescence. Rostrum and palpus dark brown.
Thorax. Cervical sclerite dark brown. Pronotum rusty brown dorsally, dark brown laterally. Mesonotal prescutum nearly entirely dark brown, midstripe very wide and nearly confluent with short lateral stripe, which is surrounded by indistinct rusty brown area. Pseudosutural fovea surrounded by rusty brown. Scutum dark brown with yellowish brown postero-lateral angle. Area between scutal lobes pale yellow. Scutellum dark brown with somewhat lighter line along middle. Mediotergite dark brown. Pleuron dark brown with somewhat lighter areas below wing base and above coxae. Wing (Fig. 38) brownish. Stigma grayish, surrounded by brown margin. Whole cells with cloudy brownish spots, but without distinct dark spots at frontal margin. Veins brown. Venation: Sc1 long, nearly reaching branching point of Rs, Sc2 slightly before tip of Sc1. Rs medium-long, slightly arcuate. Basal deflection of CuA1 before branching point of M. Halter 1.5–1.8 mm long in male, brownish yellow, knob slightly infuscated. Frontal coxa entirely dark brown, middle and posterior coxae dark brown dorsally, light brown ventrally. Trochanters brownish yellow. Femur yellow with distinct dark brown apical ring preceded by yellow ring. Area beyond middle indistinctly darkened. Tibia brownish yellow with indistinctly darkened apex. Tarsus dark brown except yellowish base of basal tarsomere. Claw with two long spines. Male femur I: 5.9–6.0 mm, II: 6.8 mm, III: 5.8–7.2 mm; tibia I: 7.9 mm, II: 7.1 mm, III: 6.6–7.2 mm; tarsus I: 7.1 mm, II: 6.1–6.2 mm, III: 4.6– 6.7 mm long.
Abdomen. Dark brown turning to black towards apex. Basal sternites somewhat lighter. Male genitalia (Figs. 39, 40) blackish. Ninth tergum with deep invagination at posterior margin, margins of which extended into two long processes. Gonocoxite with wide but low setose ventromesal lobe. Gonostylus strongly widened at base, distal part distinctly narrower and arched. Paramere with low blackened acute mesal angle. Penis comparatively long, bifid at tip.
Female unknown.
Elevation range in Korea. The two specimens examined in this study were collected at altitudes from above 1000 m to more than 1800 m.
Period of activity. Adults are active and on the wing from end of June through end of July.
Habitat. Information for the habitat of this species in Korea is unavailable. Holotype of L. messaurea was collected at light in pine forest near small stream and wet swampy place in Sweden (Mendl, 1971). This species was collected in old grown forest in Finland (Salmela, 2012). Type specimens of L. messaurea boreoorientalis were found in upland moor in Kamchatka (Far East of Russia) (Savchenko, 1987).
General distribution. Currently known from Sweden, Central Finland, Kamchatka (Far East of Russia) and recorded here from the Korean Peninsula for the first time.
Discussion. We had no opportunity to study type specimens of L. messaurea and L. messaurea boreoorientalis, but based on the description of L. messaurea boreoorientalis, its status is not well supported as distinct from the nominal subspecies. Both forms have identical male genitalia. L. messaurea was described from a single specimen preserved in ethanol, which affects color of specimens. Description L. messaurea boreoorientalis was based only on a few slight color differences, but body coloration of a single species of Limonia even at the same locality can be somewhat variable. The original description of L. messaurea says that its antenna is yellowish brown (specimen in ethanol), L. messaurea boreoorientalis has black antennae (dry specimen). Korean specimens have dark brown antennae with yellowish base of basal flagellomere, but Korean specimens were collected nearly 80 years ago. Prescutum of L. messaurea has “very indistinct darker midstripe”, L. messaurea boreoorientalis has no darker midstripe. The original description of L. messaurea “Behind the prescutum a yellowish midstripe” means a yellowish area between scutal lobes, but not a yellow medial stripe along scutal lobe as was understood by Savchenko and used as one of separating features between subspecies. North Korean specimens have no distinct differences, at least morphologically, from the description of the type of L. messaurea despite a huge distance separating their localities.
description: Published as part of Podenas, Sigitas & Podeniene, Virginija, 2017, Limonia crane flies (Diptera: Limoniidae) of Korea, pp. 1-37 in Zootaxa 4231 (1) on pages 20-22, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4231.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/293646