Aristobatina rufithorax
Creators: name: Marshall, Stephen A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Micropezidae
Aristobatina
Aristobatina rufithorax

description: Aristobatina rufithorax (Enderlein)
Figs 12–14, 17, 18–20
Tanypoda rufithorax: Enderlein 1922: 198.
Aristobata rufithorax: Hennig 1935: 68.
Aristobatina rufithorax: Verbeke 1951: 59; Steyskal 1980: 579.
Redescription:
Length (head to wing tip): 14–16 mm.
Colour: Head orange, except for black palpus and swollen part of frontal vitta; notum and upper pleuron brick­red; foreleg black, except tarsus; tarsomeres 1–3 white, distal tarsomeres dark; mid femur black with orange apex, mid femur orange at base and apex; abdomen black, except for extreme base and white fasciae across pleuron on segments 2 and 3 (Fig. 18).
Head: Pedicel and scape with uniformly short setae only; frontal vitta dull, weakly differentiated from orbits, virtually parallel-sided throughout, slightly raised in front of ocelli, slightly depressed behind ocelli and on anterior ⅔; 2 pairs of fronto­orbital setae, 1 anterior to level of ocelli, 1 slightly posterior; postocellar and inner vertical setae well­developed, outer vertical setae absent.
Thorax: Cervical sclerite convex and dull, with small anterolateral vertical carina; proepisternum with ca 7 long, marginal ventral setae over entire length; katepisternum with double row of thin black setae, anterior row ½ as high as posterior row, mixed with additional long thin setulae, forming an extensive third row; scutellum with 1 pair of marginal setae and 2 small marginal setulae; 1 small setula between postalar and dorsocentral setae; fore tarsus 1.3× length of remaining tarsomeres combined.
Wing: CuA 2 meets anal vein at a distinct angle (about 50°) and almost at the same level as bm­cu; wing membrane lightly and evenly infuscated on distal ⅔, clear in basal ⅓; tegula and basicosta slightly darker than adjacent wing base.
Female abdomen: Oviscape black, pruinose, except at apex; spermathecae elongate, twice as long as wide, slightly swollen apically, with transverse striations, base very elongate and sinuate, especially in distal ⅓; with very prominent lateral processes (Fig. 17).
Male abdomen: Pleuron with large, dome­like differentiated area (pleural sac) covering entire ventral ½ of pleuron 4 (Fig. 20); hypandrium with elongate anterior plate and strong posterodorsal arms connected to phallic plate; basiphallus and left postgonite elongate, extending far beyond base of distiphallus; right postgonite unmodified (Fig. 13); distiphallus with tubular basal part bifurcating before transition into strongly recurved membranous distal part, apex with a finely spinulose glans (Fig. 14); ejaculatory apodeme enormous, several times as large as epandrium (Fig. 13); genital fork (sternite 5) with V-shaped gap at base, inner surfaces of arms densely spinose (Fig. 12).
Type material: Barraclough (1996) examined the types in ZMHB and designated a lectotype female from Tanzania. Although the type material is in very poor condition, the species described above fits the original description and Barraclough’s notes on the types.
Additional material examined: 1♀ TANZANIA: Morogoro Region, Udzungwa Mts Nat. Park, 07°50'35''S 36°49'49''E, 11–13.xi.2009, 1000 m, T. Pape & S. A. Marshall (ZMUC, DEBU); Uluguru Mountains: “Tanganyika, Ulguru Mts near Morogoro, 700 m, i.1962 ” (CNCI).
Comments: The large differentiated areas on pleuron 4 of the male look much like the differentiated, apparently thin­walled and inflatable areas (“pleural sacs”) often found on pleuron 2 or 2–3 of many other male Taeniapterinae. These structures do not occur on pleuron 4 in other genera of micropezids. Clearly homologous, although less conspicuous, swollen areas are found on pleuron 4 of A. morogoro sp. n. and A. metamelasma sp. n.
description: Published as part of Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A review of the Afrotropical genus Aristobatina Verbeke (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae), with descriptions of four new species from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, pp. 143 in African Invertebrates 55 (1) on pages 150-153, DOI: 10.5733/afin.055.0108, http://zenodo.org/record/7661736