Tomosvaryella sicula Motamedinia, Skevington & Foldvari 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Motamedinia, Behnam
name: Földvari, Mihaly
name: Skevington, Jeffrey H.
name: Kelso, Scott
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Pipunculidae
Tomosvaryella
Tomosvaryella sicula

description: Tomosvaryella sicula Motamedinia, Skevington & Földvari sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 7A568395-505B-4E39-BA2E-B1C11F6A3B79
Figs 90A–E, 140, 157F
Diagnosis: This species can be recognized by 15–20 dark bristles on the hind trochanter ventrally; fore and mid trochanters with 2–3 short dark bristles; hind femur with extra-long bristles; phallic guide with a distinct sheath; phallus with a dagger-like projection at the base of ejaculatory ducts in ventral view (Fig. 90B); small and triangle-shaped surstyli in dorsal view (Fig. 90A); both gonopods widened in ventral view (Fig. 90B).
Description: MALE: Body length: 2.6–2.8 mm. Head. Scape, pedicel and arista dark brown. Pedicel with 2–3 short upper bristles; flagellum brown, gray pollinose and tapering. Face silvery pollinose. Frons, upper part shining black; lower part distinctly silver pollinose; eyes touching for distance equal to 1.2 times the length of ocellar triangle. Occiput grey pollinose. Thorax. Postpronotum light yellow, with 1–2 light brown bristles in upper margin. Mesonotum (viewed obliquely from front) silvery-brown pollinose, anterior part grey; scutum with scattered dark bristles on anterior supra-alar area, extended to posterior. Postalar callus dark brown with 3–4 short light brown bristles in the middle. Scutellum silvery pollinose and with a few (3–6) short dark bristles along the distal edge. Halter, knob pale, stem light brown, base dark. Legs. Fore coxa with a short dark bristle; mid coxa with 3–4 dark bristles, 1–2 bristles longer than others. Coxae, trochanters, femora dark, hind femur shining ventrally, knees and basal 1/3 of tibiae yellow (tibiae otherwise dark brown), tarsomeres light brown (last tarsomere rather brown dorsally). Fore and mid trochanter with 2–3 short dark bristles; hind trochanter silvery pollinose covered by 15–20 dark bristles ventrally; two ventrobasal spines present on fore and absent on mid femur. Hind femur with two rows long bristles ventrally and extra long bristles posteroventrally. Hind tibia with two rows of short black bristles on anterior and posterior side. Hind tarsomeres not flattened, covered by short brown bristles dorsally and brown bristles ventrally, hind metatarsus as long as 2–4 combined; pulvilli shorter than last tarsal segment. Wing. Length: 2.6 mm. Upper side of basal costal cell with one dark brown bristle. Fourth costal section 1.5–2 times as long as third costal section. Cross-vein r-m at middle of discal cell. 2–3 short dark setulae on tegula. Abdomen. Tergites 1 silvery pollinose with 7–10 long brown lateral bristles; tergites 2–5 covered by scattered dark bristles. Syntergosternite 8 enlarged, dark brown and grey-brown pollinose. Membranous area long and broad in middle. Genitalia. Genital capsule in dorsal view: epandrium wider than long (MLE:MWE = 0.8). Surstyli small (somewhat rectangular-shaped), widened at base, flattened at apex; left surstylus slightly longer (Fig. 90A). Genital capsule in ventral view: both gonopods widened, right wider than left one (Fig. 90B); phallic guide broad, pointed at apex; subepandrial sclerite small and rounded in the middle (Fig. 90B); phallus with a dagger-like projection at the base of ejaculatory ducts (Fig. 90B); Genital capsule in lateral view: both surstyli widened, dorsal margin straight, ventral margin curved, right surstylus with a small triangle-shaped projection in ventrobasally, phallic guide with a distinct sheath as long as phallic guide (Fig. 90D–E); ejaculatory apodeme tube-like, bent, with a long bulb in its middle (Fig. 90C).
FEMALE: Body length: 2.6 mm.As male except for the following characters. Frons, eyes separated; completely silver-grey pollinose on lower 1/3, shiny black only around ocellar triangle, deep depression just before ocellar triangle. Enlarged ommatidia silvery shining; pulvilli and claws longer than last tarsal segment. Tergite 1 with 11 lateral bristles. Ovipositor. Straight in ventral view, long and straight in lateral view (piercer brown), reaching sternite 1; basal two thirds silvery brown pollinose. LP:LB = 3.5. LDP:LPP = 5.0. (Fig. 157F).
Etymology: The specific name is derived from the Latin word ‘sicula’, meaning dagger, referring to the dagger-like projection on the phallus.
Examined material: HOLOTYPE: AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Karijini National Park, Juna Downs Road, 22°42’S, 118°25’E, 789m, between drying pools in rocky Turee Creek, 19–25.IV.2003, C. Lambkin & T. Weir, Malaise trap, JSS16256 (1♂, WAM); PARATYPES: AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Karijini National Park, Juna Downs Road, 22°42’S, 118°25’E, 789m, between drying pools in rocky Turee Creek, 19–25.IV.2003, C. Lambkin & T. Weir, Malaise trap, JSS16165, JSS16169, JSS16173, JSS16259 (2♂, 2♀, ANIC); Karijini National Park, Weano Gorge Road, 22°23’S, 118°15’E, 711m, beside drying pool bank in grassland, 25.IV–15. V.2003, C. Lambkin & T. Weir, Malaise trap, JSS15978 (1♂, ANIC); Karijini National Park: Juna Downs Road (between drying pools in rocky Turee Creek), 22°42’S, 118°25’E, 789m, 25.IV–14. V.2003, C. Lambkin & T. Weir, Malaise trap, CNCD3826, CNCD3829, CNCD3851 (1♂, 2♀, QM); Queensland: Carnarvon National Park, Mount Moffatt section, near Kennifs Lookout (MM1 M), 24°55’S, 148°0’E, 859m, open Eucalyptus woodland, 13.XI–13. XII.2010, Reeves, Sternberg, Spinaze, Malaise trap, CNC592058 (1♂, CNC); 1 km E Mt. Molloy, 16°41’S, 145°20’E, 15.IV.1980, G.F. Hevel & J.A. Fortin, JSS10526 (1♂, USNM); 3.5 km SW by S Mount Baird, 15°10’S, 145°7’E, 5. V.1981, D.H. Colless, Malaise trap, JSS8573, JSS8575 (2♂, ANIC); Carnarvon, National Park, Marlong Plain, 24°57’S, 147°58’E, grassland, 13.X.2002, S. Boucher, sweep net, LEM _ 0016171 (1♂, LEM).
Distribution: Australia (Queensland, Western Australia) (Fig. 140).
Notes: Despite the disjunct populations, we could not find any variation in external morphological and terminalia characters, so we consider it to be one widespread species. We could not successfully DNA barcode the Queensland specimens so future work should focus on testing the species concept by barcoding material from the eastern part of the range. Intraspecific genetic distance ranges from 0.0% to 0.3%. This species is genetically closest to T. bulbosa sp. nov. (8.3–12.1% pairwise divergence) (Supplementary file 3).
description: Published as part of Motamedinia, Behnam, Földvari, Mihaly, Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Kelso, Scott, 2023, Revision of Australian Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera: Pipunculidae) with description of 100 new species, pp. 1-271 in Zootaxa 5599 (1) on pages 199-201, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5599.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14970961