Anastoechus xuthus Yao, Yang & Evenhuis, 2010, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yao, Gang
name: Yang, Ding
name: Evenhuis, Neal L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Bombyliidae
Anastoechus
Anastoechus xuthus

description: Anastoechus xuthus sp. nov.
(Figs. 9, 19, 67–72)
Diagnosis. Scutellum with six yellow bristles each side, wing pale brown at tip and dark brown at base. Dorsum of abdomen with dense long yellow hairs and posterior portion of tergites 3–7 with yellow bristles with dark brown tips. Epandrium irregularly formed in lateral view; epiphallus subtriangular, obtuse at tip in dorsal view.
Description. Male. Body length 9 mm, wing length 10 mm.
Head (Fig. 9) black with brown dust. Hairs on head black and white; frons narrowing directed distally, with long dense black and white erect hairs and short white scales, face with long dense white erect hairs; occiput with long sparse black erect hairs and white scales near edge of eyes. Antenna black except yellow at joint; scape elongate with long dense white and black hairs; first flagellomere elongate, with brown scales close to base, with a stylus at tip. Proboscis black, bare, nearly four times longer than head.
Thorax black with pale dust. Hairs on thorax mostly yellow; postpronotal lobe with long dense yellow hairs, mesonotum with long dense yellow hairs; thorax almost bare on back, anepisternum and katepisternum with long dense white hairs. Scutellum black, with six yellow bristles each side. Leg [mid and hind legs broken] brown except femur black. Hairs on legs mostly white, bristles yellow. Femur with dense white hairs and scales; tibia and tarsus with short yellow hairs and brown scales. Fore tibia with seven ad, eight pd, eight av, nine pv. Wing (Fig. 19) uniformly pale brown except base dark brown. Vein r-m close to tip of cell dm, cell r5 closed. Base of vein C with brush-like long black bristles and white scales and hairs. Halteres black.
Abdomen black. Hairs on abdomen mostly yellow; dorsum with long dense yellow hairs and posterior of tergites 3–7 with dark brown tip yellow bristles. Sternites black with white dust and long dense white hairs.
Male genitalia (Figs. 67–72). Epandrium trapezoidal, distinctly longer than high; cercus well exposed in lateral view; epandrium a little longer than wide, almost parallel two sides in dorsal view; gonocoxite with black bristle-like hairs apically, tumid near base and parallel two sides from middle to tip in ventral view; gonostylus elongate, its tip acute in lateral view; epiphallus subtriangular, obtuse at tip in dorsal view, epiphallus with a long and curved tip in lateral view.
Female. Unknown.
Type material. Holotype male, CHINA: Shaanxi, Ganquan, Qingquan Town (N 36° 16’ 12’’ E 109° 30’ 28’’), 22. IX. 1970 (CAU).
Distribution. China (Shaanxi).
Etymology. The species epithet derives from the Latin “ xuthus ” [=yellow]; referring to the yellow color of the bristles on the scutellum and the yellow hairs on the abdomen.
Remarks. The new species is similar to A. aurecrinitus Yang et Du, but it can be separated from the latter by the frons narrowing directed distally, halteres black, hairs on the abdomen mostly yellow, sternites black with the white dust and long dense white hairs, epiphallus subtriangular and obtuse at tip in dorsal view, epiphallus with a long and curved tip in lateral view. In A. aurecrinitus, the frons is parallel-sided, the halteres is yellowish, the abdomen is mostly with the golden yellow hairs on the dorsum, the sternites are covered with the long dense white and yellow erect hairs, the epiphallus is subtriangular with an acute tip in dorsal view, the epiphallus has a rather long and narrow tip in lateral view (Yang et Du, 1990).
description: Published as part of Yao, Gang, Yang, Ding & Evenhuis, Neal L., 2010, The genus Anastoechus Osten Sacken, 1877 (Diptera: Bombyliidae) from China, with descriptions of four new species, pp. 1-24 in Zootaxa 2453 on pages 10-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.195260