Sobarocephala lophacanthus Yang, Guo, Yin & Xi, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yang, Shuailai
name: Guo, Yida
name: Yin, Xinming
name: Xi, Yuqiang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Clusiidae
Sobarocephala
Sobarocephala lophacanthus

description: Sobarocephala lophacanthus sp. nov.
(Figs 7 –12,20)
Diagnosis. Head yellow; palpus yellow; face yellow; frons yellow; antenna yellowish with brown infuscation at base of arista, arista brown, densely plumose; thorax mainly yellow; pronotum yellow, mesonotum with pale brown stripes on both sides that extend onto otherwise yellow scutellum, notopleuron brown. Abdomen brown, tergites 1,2,5 and 6 yellow. Cerci small with some setae at the outer margin and 1 long seta at the apex. Surstylus longer, with some spines at apex. Hypandrium with 3 setae; pregonite slightly rod-shaped with 2 setae.
Description. Male. Body length 3.1–3.3 mm, Wing length 2.5–2.7 mm.
Body brown and yellow. Setae pale brown. Head (Fig. 7) yellow; face yellow; frons yellow, gena yellow and more than 1/3 height of eye; ocellar tubercle black. Antenna yellowish, arista brown, dense, first flagellomere with brown at the apex; palpus yellow. Ocellar seta tiny, postocellar seta broken off; 3 fronto-orbitals, interfrontal seta absent. Thorax (Fig. 20) mainly yellow; mesonotum with pale brown stripes on both sides extending onto sides of otherwise yellow scutellum. Postpronotal lobe yellow, anepisternum brown and yellow, katepisternum yellowish, metanotum brown with yellow mottling dominant on mediotergite and anatergite. 2 dorsocentral setae; 1 intra-alar seta, 1 postalar seta; 1 lateral scutellar seta, 1 apical scutellar seta; 1 anepisternal seta, 1 katepisternal seta. Legs yellow with fore tibia and tarsus brown, mid tibia without preapical anterior dorsal setae. Wing (Fig. 8) faintly clouded, slightly darker along veins R 2+3 and R 4+5 apically; the M 1 ratio: 2.7; halter milky white.
Abdomen brown; tergites 1, 2, 5 and 6 yellow, setae brown. Male genitalia (Figs 9–12): Epandrium yellow dorsally, brown ventrally, with height 1.9 times width. Cerci small, height of the epandrium is 0.8 times the width, with some setae at the outer margin and 1 long seta at the apex. Surstylus with some spines at the apex, long and slender, and 0.7 times length of epandrium, Hypandrium with 3 setae; pregonite slightly rod-shaped with 2 setae; postgonite with small setae; paraphallus fine, pointed, bald and glabrous; distiphallus longer.
Female. Unknown.
Type material. Holotype 1 ♂, China, Tibet, Motuo, Mt Dexing Bridge, 29°18’55”N, 95°18’35”E, 1630 m, 2018.VI.25 leg. Qicheng Yang. Paratypes 2 ♂♂, same data as holotype.
Distribution. China (Tibet).
Etymology. The specific name “ lophacanthus ”, refers to surstylus with clustered spines.
Remarks. The new species is similar to Sobarocephala plumicornis (Lamb), but can be separated by having brown scutal stripes that extending onto the scutellum, and by having abdomen tergites 1, 2, 5 and 6 yellow. In Sobarocephala plumicornis, the brown postsutural stripes do not reach the base of the scutum and the abdomen is brown (Lonsdale 2014).
description: Published as part of Yang, Shuailai, Guo, Yida, Yin, Xinming & Xi, Yuqiang, 2025, The genus Sobarocephala Czerny, 1903 (Diptera, Clusiidae) from China, with description of two new species, pp. 484-492 in Zootaxa 5621 (4) on pages 487-489, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5621.4.7, http://zenodo.org/record/15263079